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

Let Your Insides Out

Who are you behind the masks you wear? Do you wear your feelings on your shoulder for other people to see who you really are? Do you try to act one way when you really feel another?

Or have you learned that it does not matter what other people think about you? Are you free from the tyranny of their opinions? Do you let your insides out?

Our fears and insecurities define who we really are inside. Due to our spirit and soul, we may have a strong spirit, but a very wounded soul. We appear strong, yet most of us are really weak.

When people reject us for our weaknesses, we feel worthless and damaged, which increases our fears and insecurities. We feel too vulnerable and build walls around our heart.

My former husband disdained the inner me. My adult children tolerate the inner me. My current husband dwells with the inner me with patience and understanding.

The good news is that Jesus died for the inner me and His Spirit is transforming the inner me into a new creation from one glorious stage to another (2 Corinthians 3:18, 5:17).

He slowly peels away the bandages, which I applied to the wounds of the inner me. He exposes the raw emotion and anxiety and puts the salve of God's unconditional love on each one of them.

He teaches us that the only opinion of us which really matters is God's, which frees us from having to hide behind masks. He continually encourages us to let our insides out.

Prayer:

Father God, we can love and live with a person, but only You completely love, live with and accept us just as we are. Sometimes we have idols in our life, but they are not really perfect. Jesus is the only one who belongs on the throne of our life. Only You completely and unconditionally love the inner us.

We will leave the significant others in our life when we die, but we will live with You for eternity. Your love is ours now and forever and ever. As we keep You as our best friend and the lover of our soul, we will have Your blessings in our life and Your love will flow over us like a waterfall every day of our life now and always (Matthew 16:26).

Thought for the Day:

No person can completely understand or accept us for who we really are inside; Jesus lives inside of us and He knows and loves us better than we can even know and love our self.

God's Unfailing Love

From the pit of depression, we call on the Lord to hear our prayers. We trust Him and know that without Him, we would surely die. We ask Him to reveal His lovingkindness with each new morning and to show us what to do and how to live through this latest trial that we are experiencing.

The key to survival in this world is to give our self completely to the Lord. We run to Him and hide our self in Him. When we do, He rescues us from our enemies. We trust Him with each moment of our life.

We know that we are not guaranteed a future. We only have this one moment of time in which to live. Do we really want to waste it in remorse over the past or fear of the future?

Do we really want to spend this one moment of time in any mindset other than singing the high praises of God? We may not live one more moment. We may be in heaven with our very next breath. O glorious day!

God teaches us to do His will and His gracious Spirit leads us on solid ground as we trust in Him. He preserves our life for His glory and for His name's sake.

Through His faithfulness, He brings us through the darkest trial into His glorious light. He silences all of our enemies and destroys everyone who comes against us because we love Him with our whole heart and soul (Psalm 143:7-12).

We serve God with our life and make Him our only priority. We work in the vocation to which He calls us and serve Him in the church to which He leads us. God's unfailing love delivers, encourages and nurtures us.

  

As we totally surrender to His will for our life, He empowers us to overcome our depression, addictions and shortcomings and to accomplish all that He planned for us to do before we were even born (Ephesians 2:10).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your restoration and healing, which allows us to break down the walls we erect in our life. We forge better relationships with people and enter a more intimate union with You than we ever thought possible. 

Life's trials are not challenges; they are great adventures with You at the helm of our life. Even if we experience future wounds, loneliness and dark valleys, we are assured that You are traversing them with us and working them all our for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28). 

Thought for the Day:
When we choose to give God the obedience, preference, attention, love and praise to which He is due, He makes victories possible for us and triumphs and successes the normal order for our life.