I wouldn’t advise my children to try this, but…so far…it’s worked for my grandparents. This week marks 70 years of marriage for them…and they only had 3 dates prior to being engaged. They knew each other a grand total of 10 days.
Read More
I realize when I give this advice some immediately rebel against it, because they fear their marriage will be pushed over the edge if they address the problem. When there is a severe crippling problem in a marriage that goes unchallenged, however, one spouse will suffer in more areas of life than just the marriage. (If this is your situation, you already know that to be true.) The problems in the marriage will affect the person’s health, job performance, and entire well-being, not to mention the marriage will never be all God intends it to be.
Have you ever had something in your life that you just couldn’t figure out? I know I have. There have been some situations, which have occurred to me personally or people I love that left me asking God “why”. I have witnessed friends go through trials that seemed at the time beyond God’s repair (they really weren’t) and I kept wondering how God could possibly “work all things for good”.
The people Joshua was supposed to be leading were not going in the direction he was supposed to be taking them. The Israelites had fallen to the ways of the world, following other gods, and choosing to reject their commitments made to God and to Joshua.
When you worth is in held captive by an imperfect person, you will find yourself facing unmet expectations many times. While I believe strongly that each spouse has a responsibility to develop him or herself personally, the fact remains that your spouse will never totally meet all your needs.
Today I have a fun dream stretch. I am curious what some of these dreams will be. At my church, Grace Community Church, we are seeing God do amazing things. This post is a result of that activity of Go
Stop for just a minute and think of one couple whose marriage you would love your marriage to look like. Ask them if you can hang out with them, exchange emails with them, or if they will make themselves available to your marriage. Let their iron sharpen your iron.
If you follow my blog regularly, then you know that I’m trying to spur people to dream bigger dreams. Not only do I believe dreaming is a healthy practice, but I believe we need your dreams. Obviously we cannot life in dream world all the time, and I spend far more energy writing about accomplishing dreams than dreaming dreams, but I believe the world needs some more dreamers. I believe God encourages this process. If you don’t believe me, read my first post on this issue HERE.
In my opinion, if a person is concentrating more on the discipline and his or her ability to keep a rule then he or she is still living under the law system. If, however, one is concentrating on the focus of Christ then he or she is truly living by grace. That should always be encouraged.
That’s one reason I was motivated to promote a new ministry venture I recently learned about. My blogger friend Kent Shaffer’s wife, Evie has assembled a creative initiative to allow artists to use their talent to help other charities. A Beautiful Idea (ABI) allows artists to showcase and sell their unique product, with 100% of the sale of that item going to charity. This can be ongoing, or a one-time deal.