A Good Marriage - Love Languages

Marriage is about the union of two people - two families of people. It brings them together in a legally binding relationship which God intends to last a lifetime.

Life happens, though; the death of a spouse, or of the marriage, sidetracks our best intentions. Our negative emotions influence whether or not we can forgive each other, or if we harbor anger and resentment.

It is best to investigate right away whenever we feel anger toward our spouse. We cannot allow hurt, anger or bitterness to accumulate in our heart and erect walls between us and those who love us.

These negative emotions prevent unconditional love, appreciation and respect from growing in our marriage. Emotional stress added to the stresses of daily living will encourage the desire in us to escape from our marriage.

Satan will certainly, gladly provide us with the opportunity to destroy what God has joined together. Do not be surprised when controversy, disagreements and arguments erupt in your marriage.

These do not indicate a problem in the relationship; but merely a normal adjustment between two very different people. God puts opposites together so that we can stretch, grow, and learn from one another.

God desires that we appreciate one another's individual strengths, and that we allow them to overcome the weaknesses in each other. No one spouse has all the answers.

It is only as we really listen to one another, consider each other's opinions, feelings and needs - and then compromise our desires that we can find equitable solutions to the issues that will most certainly arise.

Our goal in any argument is never to run each other down, wound with critical words, bring up the past in a hurtful manner or stoop to abusive verbal or physical behavior.

We simply hash out our disagreements in an honest and harmonious manner, striving to find common ground, giving in on matters that are not really important to us, and standing firm about the things which mean the most to us.

Prayer:

Father God, You gave each of us a unique personality, made from genetics, upbringing, personality and learned qualities. Remind us that we all need to receive love in different ways: words of affirmation, physical or emotional attention, acts of service, romantic gifts and gestures, or a conglomeration of these. This special language is all our own and allows us to feel loved and nurtured by our spouse.

Help us to understand that if we withhold these gifts of affection from one another, we are undermining our relationship and sabotaging our marriage - setting our self up for a cold and distant existence. Yet if we shower each other with love, we are ensuring that our marriage will go the distance and last a lifetime.

Thought for the Day:

Everyone has their own unique love language that fulfills them and allows them to feel understood, appreciated and cherished; make it a point to ask your mate what his/her love language is and then give him/her expressions of that love some time during  every single day.

Visit:

http://www.5lovelanguages.com

Forgiving Our Mistakes

The Bible makes a monumental case out of the fact that forgiveness is a fundamental exercise in our Christian walk. Jesus, Paul and many of the other authors note various aspect of forgiving our self and others (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13).

Forgiveness is one of the hardest concepts to grasp and to obey God's directive. We want to hold grudges, thinking we are punishing the offending party; but we are actually only harming our self and our physical and spiritual health.

While balancing my checkbook at the end of the month, I clicked in two small numbers into the calculator and came out with an enormous number as the result.

Shocked, I sat there in disbelief. Then, I remembered that I forgot to clear the information, which I entered into the calculator earlier and this resulted in the confusion and misinformation.

This reminded me that we often carry with us, into our new life in Christ, the condemnation that accompanies our sinful lifestyle of the past. Yet, God forgot all of our sins when we repented and believed in Jesus as our Savior.

There is no longer any condemnation for them, because He cast our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He remembers them no more (Hebrews 8:12).

Once we realize that God forgives us, it is easier for us to forgive our self, as well as those who offend us. We can delete the balance of our sins from our mind and heart.

God no longer remember them, so why should we? He freely gives us His forgiveness and unconditional love, which accompanies us for the rest of our life.

Prayer:

Father God, nothing takes You by surprise, because You know the end of time from the beginning. Every moment is present before You, because You are not hindered by time, space or matter. You live outside of the realm of earthly hindrances and restrictions. You are immortal and there are no limits to Your knowledge, power or goodness.

Thank You for loving us so completely, for coming to earth as Emanuel and for saving us from our self. You set our feet to dancing (Psalm 30:11), and You give us feet like a goat's feet to traverse the rocky heights of danger in this world (Psalm 18:33). We look forward to spending eternity with You when Your Kingdoms comes to the earth (Matthew 6:10). 

Thought for the Day:

God remembers our sins no more.

My Life Was a Wreck - Part 2

The complete dependence on God, which I learned during my first car wreck, helped me to survive the devastation of divorce and to settle into a new life back in my home town.

About a year later, I drove home from work on my usual route, but my mind played a trick on me. Confusing the traffic light at the next street with the light in front of me, I ran a red light.

A large, commercial van t-boned my car, pushing the driver’s-side door twelve inches into the space where I was seat-belted behind the wheel.

Needless to say, my bones started breaking, one of them punctured my lung, and my head ricocheted back into the window. This impact shattered glass into my face, gave me a concussion and knocked me out.

Waking up in the hospital, I learned that my little finger had a compound fracture and 11 of my ribs broke in the impact. I had bruises and lacerations all over the left side of my body.

After getting shuffled around through excruciating x-rays and tests, I told the doctor I was through being tortured, and I wanted to go home. 

Smiling to himself, he promised to send me home when my punctured lung healed. He informed me that most people with only a few broken ribs find it hard to breath, so I should be under an oxygen tent for a few days. 

I declined His offer and slept in the chair overnight, because the only time I experienced pain was reclining or sitting up from a prone position.

From that same chair, I greeted a surprised doctor the next morning when he made his rounds. He had to keep his promise to send me home. Not only did I have no pain, I also had plenty of oxygen in my body and a healed lung.

At my follow-up appointment the next week, my astonished doctor admitted that prayer and God’s grace were the only reasons I was not still in a hospital bed and under an oxygen tent. He released me to go back to work as a bookkeeper for my brother’s business.

God used this experience to bless my life in so many ways. The most important was God's mercy to save my life once again.

The second benefit was that my fiancé’s love for me never diminished, even though I could have won the prize in a Frankenstein’s sister’s “look alike” contest.

Kevin, my parents and my three brothers did everything they could to make my life as easy as possible. Together, we witnessed God's amazing healing power.

Though I slept in a recliner for three months until my ribs mended enough to lay down in a bed, I never had to take even one pain pill (Psalm 107:2).

Prayer:

Father God, the tiny piece of glass still lodged under the skin of my face is a constant memorial of Your glory and grace. The few ribs, which healed at angles, still poke my muscles to remind me that You hold the power of life and death in Your hands (Deuteronomy 32:39).

Although Satan tried again to snuff out my life, You had plans for me, which are always for my good and for Your glory (Psalm 147:3; Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 29:11). Without eternity, I would never have enough time to praise You for Your constant care for me (1 Peter 5:7).

Thought for the Day:

The unwavering love of the Lord never ceases and His mercy and grace never come to an end; in fact, they are new every single morning due to His great faithfulness. – Lamentations 3:22-23