It's so cool to be able to blog about the sermon on Valentine's Day when the sermon was about doing marriage God's way. God is such a God of timing, only one of the reasons I love Him so.
What an awesome sermon!! It reminded me of how important it is to not only do marriage God's way but life His way. I'm thankful for the reminder of how dangerous it is to listen to the wrong voices. Why do we look to celebrities and listen to those secular voices when it's one failure after another and yet somehow think that's how we will find joy and happiness? God's way has proven to work and His voice is the only one we should be listening to. If our homes are built on anything but the foundation of Jesus Christ, we are in serious trouble.
I'm so thankful on this Valentine's Day to be able to thank my man for being the Christian husband/father God has called him to be. It hasn't been a perfect walk because we are imperfect people but we have served a perfect God who has brought good when we messed up and picked us up when fell down and every day has shown both of us what perfect love looks like. It's a sacrificial agape love that never gives up on us and always seeks the best for us and loves no matter what. That's how we are called to love and it cannot be done apart from Christ. May we all seek to love our spouse that way every day, not just a day that the world has set aside for us to love.
I was also reminded this morning how grateful I am to have dated my man in the days of letter writing. I have a box full of letters he wrote me in our dating years. Sad to say it's been a while since I sat down and wrote him a letter. I know the techno world is wonderful and aids in quick communication but there's nothing like that hand written letter!! Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet man and to all!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
God flipped my day around
I had so many different things planned for today but things took a turn. Poor Eddie got so sick last night, started feeling yucky right before dinner and it gradually got worse and worse. Needless to say it was a long night most especially for him. Anyway, plans changed and I stayed put with my sick man at home. Days like that used to bother me much more than now. I've come to learn that it's all within His plan and His timing so I try to go along with His flow.
So happened after my quiet time I tuned in to The Today Show and it kinda got my blood pumping or rather boiling. They were doing a segment on butt lifts and the whys and hows and what fors. That may not be a new thing but I guess this morning it just seemed to wash over me in a way that I sat there and thought "just what lengths are we going to go to to get that perfect self we so want". They had celebrity butts that they wanted theirs to look like, unbelieveable!! What in the world!!! I listened to those women explaining themselves and my mind raced to all the things God has taught me lately that is the exact opposite of everything that was before me at that moment.
Back up to yesterday...I was listening to a message about how obsessed we are with celebrities and getting attention on ourselves at all cost, even if it's bad attention, at least it's attention. And how so many people may not necessarily want to be a celebrity, although many do, but they want to be all around it because somehow that makes them feel good about themselves and they begin to believe that somehow they relate. My poor hubby came home for lunch about that time and I pulled him right into that and we both thought "how interesting, explains a lot".
After The Today Show God sent me scurrying back to some other studies I had done and digging through some stuff. He led me to some things about how obsessed women are with gaining attention from men whether it's their husband or any man even men they don't know, just have to feel that somehow they can catch his eye. We are just desperate to feel good about ourselves it's just odd that we look in all the wrong places and go about it in all the wrong ways. And I don't just mean teen girls, I mean women. This show was about grown women wanting in my words "fake bodies created by some doctor to look like some celebrity that they are infatuated with".
I also thought about a young girl brought to my attention by someone that is just obsessed with guys. The funny thing is it seems that any guy will do, actually not too funny. One boy even made the comment that "she doesn't even have a type, like she likes all of them and they all look different and are very different, she just has to have someone".
And we think we women have made progress, I'm not so sure. The thing that tears at my heart the most is that this isn't just lost women, it's women who will tell you they have a relationship with Jesus yet it's so opposite from what He teaches us and tells us. He created us the way He wants us to look and He loves us no matter what and He's longing to give us the attention we so desire if we will just give Him the time it takes to do that.
I'm pretty thankful He flipped my day around. He used it to teach me and reteach me, now may I apply it in my own life.
So happened after my quiet time I tuned in to The Today Show and it kinda got my blood pumping or rather boiling. They were doing a segment on butt lifts and the whys and hows and what fors. That may not be a new thing but I guess this morning it just seemed to wash over me in a way that I sat there and thought "just what lengths are we going to go to to get that perfect self we so want". They had celebrity butts that they wanted theirs to look like, unbelieveable!! What in the world!!! I listened to those women explaining themselves and my mind raced to all the things God has taught me lately that is the exact opposite of everything that was before me at that moment.
Back up to yesterday...I was listening to a message about how obsessed we are with celebrities and getting attention on ourselves at all cost, even if it's bad attention, at least it's attention. And how so many people may not necessarily want to be a celebrity, although many do, but they want to be all around it because somehow that makes them feel good about themselves and they begin to believe that somehow they relate. My poor hubby came home for lunch about that time and I pulled him right into that and we both thought "how interesting, explains a lot".
After The Today Show God sent me scurrying back to some other studies I had done and digging through some stuff. He led me to some things about how obsessed women are with gaining attention from men whether it's their husband or any man even men they don't know, just have to feel that somehow they can catch his eye. We are just desperate to feel good about ourselves it's just odd that we look in all the wrong places and go about it in all the wrong ways. And I don't just mean teen girls, I mean women. This show was about grown women wanting in my words "fake bodies created by some doctor to look like some celebrity that they are infatuated with".
I also thought about a young girl brought to my attention by someone that is just obsessed with guys. The funny thing is it seems that any guy will do, actually not too funny. One boy even made the comment that "she doesn't even have a type, like she likes all of them and they all look different and are very different, she just has to have someone".
And we think we women have made progress, I'm not so sure. The thing that tears at my heart the most is that this isn't just lost women, it's women who will tell you they have a relationship with Jesus yet it's so opposite from what He teaches us and tells us. He created us the way He wants us to look and He loves us no matter what and He's longing to give us the attention we so desire if we will just give Him the time it takes to do that.
I'm pretty thankful He flipped my day around. He used it to teach me and reteach me, now may I apply it in my own life.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday Morning Perspective
Prayer...that was our focus. I do love acrostics and that's what Eddie used to walk us through a fabulous message on prayer...Adoration,Confession,Thanksgiving,Supplication.
Eddie said right out of the gate that of all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they asked Him to teach them to pray. I think that's so interesting compared to what I usually ask Jesus for. However, the disciples knew that if they learned to pray and connect with God through prayer, that would be the key to everything else. Prayer is definitely the power source. My fave part was the statement...suppose our blessings of tomorrow depended on our thanksgiving today. I love that because so often I'm guilty of having a prayer answered and my feelings are that of thanksgiving but I so often don't stop and speak thanksgiving to Him. I need to stop in my tracks more and really SAY thank you.
The past 14 days Eddie and I have been doing the Daniel fast together. It has been harder than I thought it would be. One of the things it pointed out to me was the fact that so often I don't really care to have something until I'm told I can't have it. I wanted so many foods that I never focus on wanting until it was all of a sudden on my don't list. How often are we like that in other things? We don't want a certain guy until another girl gets him then we want him or vice-versa. We don't want a material object til someone else gets it then it's all we want. We may not want to be friends with someone until someone else is or all of a sudden they don't care to be ours. Why is our flesh that way???
I did get some major prayer requests answered on this fast. I am VERY THANKFUL for those. There have been some of those things on the very top of my prayer list that God chose to answer in a way that gave much needed peace. He answered a few in a way that I wouldn't have chosen but now I'm just praying for the grace to receive and accept that answer and be good with it. Fasting is one of the disciplines that I've practiced very little but I'm hoping to incorporate it more often.
Eddie said right out of the gate that of all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they asked Him to teach them to pray. I think that's so interesting compared to what I usually ask Jesus for. However, the disciples knew that if they learned to pray and connect with God through prayer, that would be the key to everything else. Prayer is definitely the power source. My fave part was the statement...suppose our blessings of tomorrow depended on our thanksgiving today. I love that because so often I'm guilty of having a prayer answered and my feelings are that of thanksgiving but I so often don't stop and speak thanksgiving to Him. I need to stop in my tracks more and really SAY thank you.
The past 14 days Eddie and I have been doing the Daniel fast together. It has been harder than I thought it would be. One of the things it pointed out to me was the fact that so often I don't really care to have something until I'm told I can't have it. I wanted so many foods that I never focus on wanting until it was all of a sudden on my don't list. How often are we like that in other things? We don't want a certain guy until another girl gets him then we want him or vice-versa. We don't want a material object til someone else gets it then it's all we want. We may not want to be friends with someone until someone else is or all of a sudden they don't care to be ours. Why is our flesh that way???
I did get some major prayer requests answered on this fast. I am VERY THANKFUL for those. There have been some of those things on the very top of my prayer list that God chose to answer in a way that gave much needed peace. He answered a few in a way that I wouldn't have chosen but now I'm just praying for the grace to receive and accept that answer and be good with it. Fasting is one of the disciplines that I've practiced very little but I'm hoping to incorporate it more often.
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