Marriage & God Archives
Summer has now officially come and gone. I hope the "Dog Days" treated you well. This summer we went on a vacation with family. I had never been to Destin, FL, so it was a personal treat. It was also a time of talking to God in a special way. There is something about getting yourself in a location where you cannot grasp it all as you encounter God. The ocean does that for me. You simply cannot completely understand or "solve" or get your hands around the ocean. ... or the mountains, ... or the Grand Canyon, ... or a problem you've got in your marriage. It's right where He wants us to be. In a place where we...
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As you look at 2008, what do you see? Can’t see it very clearly because you aren’t a “future-sayer”? Me neither. What I mainly see is unknown. Except for the Lord, who knows what’s coming down the pike at us? It’s not unlike my ministry/profession. I do most of the pastoral counseling on our church staff. Talk about unknown!?! There are times when the most unlikely scenarios are presented to me. Weekly there are heart-breaking sessions with both men and women. Occasionally my opinion is sought on theological issues. (I can hear my seminary professors laughing now.) As I consider what my day of counseling before me looks like, I come to a similar conclusion as that of pondering the...
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If we get past the fears and circumstances God uses to shape our character, what’s next. Real Love! That’s right, a love that carries us through the best life can offer. If you want that kind of love, you must do the following: Live Beyond Yourself…You must move from your world to a struggling world to a spiritual world. The incredible part of this journey is that once God opens your heart and moves you beyond your world and your selfishness, you can never go back. This is a difficult step for each of us as human beings. However, each morning we have the awesome choice to get up and instead of life being about “me”, it can be about...
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Friendship… what does that mean? Do you have a friendship with your spouse? Many times there are things that happen in our marriage that cause us to withdraw from each other or back away from intimacy with each other. We put walls up to protect our heart, and if we live in “protection” mode, we are missing out on true friendships, both with those around us and with our spouse. Let’s take FRIENDSHIP and define what it really means… F means that a true friend is FOR YOU. They are for you when everyone else walks away, especially when the hard times come. It is the spouse that is FOR YOU when you lose your job, there is a death...
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With daylight savings time upon us and the summer rapidly approaching, what a great time to begin thinking about quality time spent as a family. The world has a tendency to keep us so busy and if we are not careful, our spouse and children tend to get our leftovers. Time passes so quickly and it is impossible to get back the yesterdays. As we look back at our own children, the thing they valued most from us was not what we gave them but rather the time spent together laughing and playing as a family. Life requires that we have vision if we are ever able to achieve anything great. As couples, we also need to have a vision...
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How do we spend so many years together and then lose our love for the Lord and each other so quickly? According to the divorce rate, it seems that is the curse tearing marriages apart today. Isn’t it strange that the very things that have made us “one”, that have united us toward a common cause, can sometimes be the very thing that separates us? Maybe it’s the death of a child, the busyness of life or a season of hard times, but if we can stop and go back to the place where we started, maybe it isn’t as hard as we thought to recapture the place where we felt love for a lifetime, a willingness to commit to...
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The last several days I have given much thought to how little I take advantage of the Sabbath. I seriously am trying to remember the last time I had a good 'ol fashion "remember the Sabbath". It's frustrating... When was the last time I rested completely to regain a healthy perspective on life? It doesn't take much to figure out that I have an extremely difficult time choosing to rest. I guess I've been oblivious to the warning signs of falling asleep on the couch when I get home from work in less than 5 minutes every day. It's definitely time to re-examine the idea of the Sabbath principle designed by God. This is what I've studied and processed so...
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FIRMLY FOCUS Have you ever begun a project, only to get distracted by a million different things? One morning I decided to clean the garage. While cleaning the garage, I decided the grass needed mowing so I left the garage and began mowing. While mowing the grass, I noticed that a tree limb was down so I grabbed the chain saw and began cutting. Three hours went by and Deb came home, only to say, "I thought you were going to clean the garage." This is a great visual of how we start our day off with good intentions of accomplishing something, only to let people, circumstances and distractions get us off task. Let's talk about 5 distractions that we...
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"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing." ~ Zephaniah 3:17 We recently had our first grandbaby, Morgan Lily. What a joy!!! The first time I saw her, I was amazed at how instantly we had such a deep love for her. I found myself looking at all the details of her little face, her hands and her feet. It's crazy how you can hold and love on other people's babies and it be such a fun experience, but to hold this baby was nothing I have ever experienced before. I could not get enough...
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The Balcony View Steve and I just returned from speaking at F.O.M. at Ridgecrest, North Carolina. I sit in amazement and almost feel guilty that I'm amazed at God's overwhelming outpour of himself on us. Steve and I spent a year in prayer over this weekend but could have never imagined the anointing he would have placed on us, as well as, his personal touch on every couple there. In order to give you a perspective on the weekend, we have asked our daughter who joined us to give you her vantage point. "I have sat in many marriage conferences listening to my parents speak on marriage and family. Each time I do, I am proud and awestruck at God's...
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