Marriage

The Cost of Neglect In Marriage

Weeds!  It’s amazing what just a little time away will do to a summer yard!

Proverbs 10:4 reminds us ~

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand:
but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

I remember a time when my hand had been idle, while on away on vacation, but when the temperatures had cooled off some and the humidity was in breathing range, I donned my garden gloves and headed out to give this poor Dianthus some badly needed attention.  My hand was diligent to take care of the neglected landscape.

While I was tugging and pulling at the stubborn intruders, the Lord brought to my mind a simple truth: neglect in any area of our lives spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e!  You name it – if you neglect your health, your work, or your spiritual walk, it’s an invitation to disaster.

Let’s think about another area in which neglect is deadly…a marriage.  It’s so easy to “take a little vacation” from really connecting with our spouse.

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Marriage · Speech

Entice Your Husband with Fair Speech

You can this listen to this post – which is last week’s episode on Refresh Her podcast.

When I was in elementary school, I had a fascination with matches and fire. That led me to doing a very foolish act one day. I struck the match that I had been forbidden to touch and lit one strand of a pom pom that I had in my bedroom, thinking it would slowly burn up that strand of crepe paper!

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communication · Marriage

The Bold, Religious Looks of a Woman

You can listen to this post (last week’s podcast) here.

They say that we spend 1/5 of our life talking! How many of those words are spoken carelessly or in haste? How many are sincere and uplifting to our mate? Since our speech fills many hours of our life, God gives us wise instruction about what to say and how to say it. Surprisingly, we can act like the “strange woman” in Proverbs 7 by these three actions that follow.

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Family life · Marriage

People Are More Important than Things

After a two-day trip away, my husband returned home.  It was a snowy, wet night, and because the garage was full with two cars inside –  mine and our daughter’s, he parked in the slushy driveway and stepped inside.  His shoes dripped with the remains of the winter weather, so he stepped across the hardwood floor onto the dining room rug…the “pretty” rug meant for covering the floor, but not necessarily for wiping wet feet.  I inwardly cringed, then asked,

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Christmas · Dates · Marriage

Gifts For Your Husband Who Has Everything

The Christmas season passes so quickly, doesn’t it? Many years ago my husband and I realized that we weren’t taking the time to really enjoy the season as a couple. Christmas would come and go and we hadn’t really taken time to enjoy our own decorations or spend time with one another. It was then that we began exchanging gifts for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Here’s how we did it – we would purchase small gifts for one another and beginning on December 12th, we would sit near the tree and exchange one gift each night. Sometimes we’d enjoy a Christmas treat as well. We lingered. We listened to music. We talked and laughed. It seemed to stretch out the holidays for us and it was wonderful.

We considered picking up that idea again for this year, but as I thought and thought AND thought about what I could get him, I got frustrated before I even started shopping. Then I came up with another idea that was even better than the original plan!

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