Throwback Memories of My Weekend in the UP

March 16, 2017March 16, 2017 RefreshHer1 Comment

Yikes! I haven’t stopped to share about my weekend in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan almost two weeks ago! Let’s fix that today! I’ll share some of the highlights of that great time with some really special ladies!

I went to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to speak for their “Ladies Day.” Traveling and speaking is never anything I ever sought out to do. The Lord has put this privilege before me, and I have loved it so much. I always learn far more than anyone I speak to! For that reason alone, I am so thankful to my God! But I would never/ could never travel if I didn’t have the support, encouragement and prayers of my husband. He cheers me on every step of the way. The picture below was on our way to the airport when we stopped to have lunch before he dropped me off. What a man I am blessed with!

Michigan 1.jpg — It’s all about the People!

My friend, Kellie traveled with me and she was such a blessing. It’s lots more fun navigating a trip with a friend at your side!

Th next picture of the pretty blonde is the sweet young woman who invited me to her church. Lisa was a member here at our church until she got married and her husband moved them waaaaay up north! It was a joy beyond compare to be with her for the weekend, to see her church, her home and her heart for God!

I met lots of precious women. I won’t post them all here, but they were welcoming, open to God’s Word, and very friendly to this Tennessean!

The ladies used the white birch around them to help decorate the platform for their theme “Deeply Rooted.” They had verses about being rooted in God’s Word all over – on the bulletin boards, in frames – everywhere. They did a wonderful job carrying the theme throughout the whole church!

Part of the blessing of a weekend like this was fellowship with other ladies. Aside from our main sessions and workshops, we had times of sharing a meal, a dessert, and a game. That’s when you really get to know others! We had lots of fun together! We played a game using our purses. You know, it’s amazing what some people carry in theirs (that would be me!)

There was plenty of snow all weekend! They had a few flurries while I was there, but the piles have been there since December. As we say in the south – Bless their hearts! It sure was beautiful – but then I got to leave it after a weekend and come home to green grass!

There’s nothing better than serving God! Look where He takes me! Look who allows me to meet! Look at what He teaches me in His Word! I never would have dreamed that I’d be so blessed, but isn’t that just like our God? He surprises us over and over and over!

FBC ladies, thank you for having me. Thank you for being such a blessing to me. I am the richer for it!

Lovingly,

Denise Signature 150 px

Family life · Gifts · Husband

Valentine’s Day On a Low Budget

February 10, 2017February 13, 2024 RefreshHer1 Comment

Valentine’s Day is coming up and you have little money to celebrate! What do you do?

All is not lost! There are a ton of ideas to make the day special for you and your spouse! Let me give you a few affordable suggestions:

Get a pad of sticky notes at the Dollar Tree. On separate pages, write
- attributes you love about your spouse
- a memory of special events/happenings in your relationship over the years
- clues to find a hidden gift (more on the gift below)
Put the notes
- All over the inside of his car!
- All over the house
- Inside the shower
- In his daily path –
  - inside his Bible
  - on the bathroom mirror
  - on his coffee cup
  - in his closet
  - in his shoes
  - on the computer screen
Give a loving gift
- Fill a box with little things he loves
  - His favorite candy bar
  - A favorite pen
  - $5 gift card to favorite fast food or coffee place
  - A favorite movie dvd (even checked out from the library!)
  - A favorite Bible verse printed out from the computer
  - The favorite cookie or brownie you make
  - A favorite picture of the two of you in an inexpensive frame
- Get him a small journal where you can record your dates and what you do in the next year!
- Go to a used book store and find a great book he’d love.
Dress up for an evening at home.
If you have children, make dinneritme a time for the family. Set the table with red and white. Add conversation hearts scattered on the tablecloth (yes, add a tablecloth), burn some candles or votives. Serve salad first, then clear the dishes and serve the main course. Dessert idea below.
Give the children little heart boxes of their own chocolates – if Whitman’s is too expensive, they have cute boxes at the Dollar Tree!
To make a heart shaped cake, mix up a box of cake mix and pour half in a round pan and half in a square pan. After baking and cooling, cut the round cake in half. Put the square cake on a platter so it looks like a diamond shape. Put half of the round on the top right and the other on the top left – voila! It’s a heart! Cover with pink or white icing.
Give the children their dessert after supper. Save yours and your husband’s for later.
After the kids are in bed, serve dessert by candlelight in your bedroom. Serve it on your good dishes. If you need to bring in a small table, do so. Make it special! Light candles in the room. Turn on some soft music.
If you need a chocolate dessert idea, here’s a favorite of mine!

So, is there an idea here you think you could use? I hope so! I also hope you take these ideas and implement them into every day of your marriage! Valentine’s Day isn’t the day to get caught up or to make up for what you should’ve been doing. Make the day special, then keep it going all year!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

home · Husband · Marriage · Refreshment in marriage · tongue · Women's roles

Family Friday – Be Kind!

January 27, 2017January 25, 2017 RefreshHer15 Comments

sea-of-galilee-1

Sometimes all it takes is a simple request to repeat what I just said to my husband that will do it. I make a statement, he doesn’t hear and he says,

“What did you say?”

So, out it comes again, only this time it has a razor-sharp edge to it that would make Floyd the barber flinch!

Do I think he purposefully cannot hear me? Do I really believe his diagnosis of hearing loss was an intentional plan just to get under my skin?

How ridiculous, yet, sadly, that’s occasionally how I respond!

Why is it often easier to be really kind to people we barely even know than to our spouse? He’s the one to whom we pledged to love until death, yet we kill him with our sarcastic responses, glaring looks and deathly silences.

There are kinder, nice ways of saying something and there are words or tones of voice that I could use that would upset someone. Your husband is a person, too. There are kinder, nicer ways of communicating with him and there are ways of setting him off, just by your choice of words or tone of voice.

Today’s encouragement for your family, your marriage, is just this –

Be Kind.

There are two ways to say something. Choose the kinder way.
Show him even greater kindness than you would a friend who you love dearly.
Smile at him.
Forgive him.
Listen.
Look in his eyes when he speaks.
Lend him a hand.
Do a favor.
Oh, and repeat yourself with the softest tone when he cannot hear you (said Denise to herself!)

Do you find yourself being kinder to others than you are your spouse? What will you do today to fix that?

Denise Signature 150 px

Family life · home · Husband · Marriage · Winter

Family Friday

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 RefreshHer4 Comments

country-road-family-friday

Welcome to a new feature on my blog – Family Friday. I’m beginning this weekly post because one great passion that I have is for the HOME. Home isn’t the structure in which you live, it’s the people – your family that makes it a home. But the truth is, there are lots of hard things in every family.

Strained marriages
Financial woes
Parenting stresses
Busy schedules
Miscommunication
In-laws
Rebellion
Sin

How do we keep home a happy place? Is it even possible? Home will never be a perfect place, but yes, a happy home is possible. I know that it is, based on God’s Word.

So, I’m dedicating Friday’s to Family issues. From fun date ideas to parenting issues, I am going to strive to give you some encouragement. It’s not because my home is perfect – as I said earlier, none are! But based on the fact that home is God’s gift, and His Word is our manual, we can learn what He says about creating a happy home. Let’s open God’s Word each Friday and get some practical helps that we can apply to our families.

There’s no better time than the present, so let’s start with an idea that will encourage your marriage.

winter-date-night

Fireplace Date – Cold winter nights need a fire.

Find somewhere where you can sit by a fireplace – Home, Starbucks, Panera – anywhere there’s a fireplace!
Fix/Buy a hot beverage and a baked good to share
Have some fun with one of these activities:
- Take a game with you to play -Dice for Farkle, Card game, Scrabble tiles for Bananagrams, etc. Some Starbucks have board games available for you to use in their store.
- Before the date night, write up a list of questions on 3×5 cards. Flip one over at a time and ask your spouse to answer. Here are 25 to get you started! I found these great questions on the Internet – one place was Intoxicated on Life. 1. What are some books you’ve really enjoyed?
  2.       What books would you like to read sometime?
  
  3.       What are your favorite foods?
  
  4.       What did you want to be when you grew up?
  
  5.       What are some of your favorite memories from your childhood?
  
  6.       What are some of the more difficult memories from your childhood?
  
  7.       What are your favorite hobbies?
  
  8.       What did your parents teach you that you appreciate now?
  
  9.       What did your parents say or do that you found difficult?
  
  10. Who is someone that inspires you?
  
  11. What do you like us doing together?
  
  12. What would you like to do together in future, just the two of us?
  
  13. What would you like to do together in future, all of us with the kids too?
  
  14. What is your favorite passage of Scripture?
  
  15. What is your favorite memory verse?
  
  16. What are your greatest strengths?
  
  17. What are your greatest weaknesses?
  
  18. What overwhelms you?
  
  19. What is concerning you?
  
  20. What are you fearful of?
  
  21. What is the best marriage you’ve ever seen modeled?
  
  22. When did you first know you loved me?
  
  23. Who are the heroes you look up to?
  
  24. What is your earliest childhood memory?
  
  25. What is your greatest regret?
- Make a list of things to do on future date nights
Dress in a way that will show you care. Add a little makeup. Fix your hair.
Hold hands, snuggle up and create a little fire of your own!

I’m open to topics for future Family Friday posts! Do you have a suggestion or request? I’d love to hear your ideas, or if this was helpful today.

Keep your marriage refreshed by having a date night!

Denise Signature 150 px

Husband · Marriage

Keeping Your Marriage From Being a Statistic

September 29, 2016September 28, 2016 RefreshHerLeave a comment

fireworks-1

Connecting with friends from long ago happens frequently, thanks to Facebook. Sometimes the re-connection brings pieces of good news – of family blessings or a life making a difference for Christ.

Recently someone very dear to us reached out to my husband. The messages went back and forth filling in the empty pieces of all the years that have spanned our last visit. It was with great sadness that we learned of their recent divorce after more than 30 years. It was like a low blow – we didn’t see it coming and it hurt! We hurt for all the pain it has brought. We hurt for the child involved in the separation. We hurt for the picture of oneness that has been broken. We hurt for the tears and sleepless nights that this family has endured.

We also hurt for marriages in general. Why? Because marriage is under attack. Satan loves to get a foothold in the hearts and lives of one or both partners. He hates marriage because it is one of God’s plans that pictures the Gospel – oneness, forgiveness and grace. Here are some of his tactics he may throw at a married couple:

A rift that makes the relationship become distant.
Then there seems to the couple they have nothing in common anymore.
They begin to live as roommates, or maybe even two strangers in same house.
It progresses to then seeing the spouse as an enemy, out to hurt and destroy.
The “logical” option is to end the marriage.

I’ve posted here about my recent Instagram pictures on Mondays, entitled, “Marriage Matters.” I’ve challenged myself to post a picture of something each Monday that shows an effort to enhance my marriage because Marriage Matters! I’ve invited you to join me, and several have! Thank you!

I personally need the weekly reminder that unless we are proactive in keeping the fires in our marriages burning significantly, rather than just a little smoldering puff of smoke ready to go out, we are allowing our marriage to become another statistic. Worse than that, the testimony of Christ will have gotten another blot.

What can you do today to keep your marriage from being another statistic?

Pray for your marriage.
1. Ask God to give you a heart for your husband.
2. Ask God to give your husband a love for you.
3. Ask God to protect your home against all evil.
4. Ask the Lord for wisdom about what you could do today to show that your marriage matters. There are some days that I feel like I’m at a total loss about how I could serve my husband or do something loving for him – my mind is just blank! That’s when I pray and ask the Lord what I could do. He made that guy! He knows his needs and He will reveal to me what I can do for him today!
Stop and plan something you and your husband could do together as a date within this next week. Make the plans, then tell him you have something fun scheduled just for the two of you! Here are some lists or ideas I found. Some might be silly, but don’t be a stick in the mud! Keep looking until you find an idea suitable for you both.
Be the most pleasant person your husband has seen or talked to all day.
1. Look at him when he talks.
2. Speak sweetly.
3. Don’t be his mom, be his wife! That means don’t criticize or belittle him.
4. Smile at him.
5. Smile with your voice when you speak on the phone.
6. Dress for him. Look sharp for him and wear what he likes to see you wear.
Provide for his needs – physically, spiritually, and practically.
1. Don’t let him leave home “thirsty.”
2. Make home his haven.
3. Provide good meals that will make him anticipate suppertime!

I realize that not every marriage will be “fixed” by these simple four additives, but if your marriage is just stale and lacking, these simple ideas can revitalize your relationship and add the spark to get it back on track!

Keep your marriage refreshed,