Find refreshment for your heart, home and life
Spite the fact that it’s hard for me to do, yesterday I posted some recent outfits that I’d worn. I hate putting myself out there. I’d rather stay behind the camera. So why do I do that? To help inspire other women. In a world that says we should just be comfy in our leggings and long t-shirts, I think it’s important that we “bump it up a notch.” I think this Continue reading “Family Friday ~ Dressing For Him”
What a blessing it is to stand alongside, before and behind my husband as he serves God. Last weekend I had the blessing of encouraging him as he ministered to many different people.
At a couple’s retreat he challenged couples in biblical marriage principles. I sat in front of him, prayed for him and smiled at him when he looked my way.
After the retreat when we had the fun of enjoying an Amish bakery, I laughed with him as he enjoyed his ice cream-filled donut! I also enjoyed two bites!
When he preached all day on the Sunday of that busy weekend, I devoured his message, nodded encouragement, and told him what a blessing it was to watch him encourage that flock of people.
When we got to stop at an old home place where we lived many years ago, we reminisced over memories made there – some good, some bitter sweet. We held hands and wept, and also thanked God for His blessings.
When he got to encourage a group of young believers, I rejoiced in my heart for his love for people. He has a shepherd’s heart that longs for Christians to stay close to the Good Shepherd,drink from His cool waters and feed on the grass of God’s pasture.
Ministry can be hard some days…some months even, but how grateful I am for the times when we can serve together and I can do my first calling – support this man that God has given as my life’s mate. I’m so proud to call him my husband. He has told me
As long as you’re behind me, I can withstand anything.
What has God called your husband to do? Stand behind him and encourage him in whatever that calling is. You and I will never do it perfectly, but the important thing is that we keep on encouraging. It’s what our husbands desperately need from us!
Family Time.
Mother-Daughter Time
Mother-Son Time
Date night
Conversation time
We all want to spend time with our family, but we’re so busy with everything else going on in our world, how do we do it?
How do we respond when so many others need/want our moments, hours and days, yet we long for more time with our husband? More time pouring into our children? Here are some points to ponder when you consider how yo will spend your days:
Now, how will you spend TIME with your family this weekend? Perhaps you should start by asking yourself these four questions, then make decisions about what you will/should do!
Your family opportunities won’t be there forever! Grab them while you can!
Refresh your family time,
The phone rang and she answered it. The change in her tone was blatantly obvious to everyone in the room. This wife went from bubbly/friendly to irritated/annoyed. “Who was on the other end of the phone?” we wondered. Then she said his name and we learned that it was her husband.
This scenario happened in the public setting of a business. My heart sank when I realized that when this lady heard her husband’s voice, instead of being glad to hear from him, she was irritated. His call interrupted her. His questions annoyed her. And his needs overwhelmed her. She was only too happy to hang up and move on with the people around her and the business at hand.
But I cannot point a finger at her because the rest of my hand is pointing back at me. It’s easy to get a call from Dale and answer casually instead of enthusiastically. Do you ever get caught up in the day-to-day routine as I do and forget the special bond you share with your spouse? Consider the difference between answering the phone with,
“Yeah, whatcha’ need?”
Or
Hi Sweetheart! I’m glad to hear from you!
What about when he asks you a question and you answer him for the second or third time? Does each answer get louder and more aggravated? Remember how you loved his name when you were dating? Do you say it with as much tenderness now?
Last week my brother-in-law was working his job inspecting roofs, as he has done for many years now. The early morning dew was still on the back half of the house, making the surface slippery. His work would be quick and he planned to climb down in just a minute, but just as that thought was flying through his mind, his foot slipped and he could feel himself falling. He grabbed the gutter of the house, helping to break his fall, but only a little. He was taken by ambulance to the Medical Center in the area where he was treated in the Emergency Room for his many broken bones. Praise the Lord for sparing his life!
As my sister and I walked the hospital halls together, we discussed the abruptness of any calamity. No one plans for it. No one puts, “Visit husband in trauma unit” in their planner, but life as we know it can be changed in a moment. We all know that, but we move on each day as though we are ignorant of that truth, and we blurt out unkind phrases and words like an umpire at a ballgame.
Remember the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this post? The one who changed her disposition when her husband called? Sadly, I learned the news of her husband’s death and I wondered if she ever wished she could talk to him again, with a completely different frame of mind? Did she ever wish he would interrupt her busy day by calling her?
If you knew that this was your last day with our spouse, would you use a different tone when we answered his call? Would you use kinder words when responding to his questions? Would your repeated answer be more patient? Even if we knew we had 50 more years together, wouldn’t we want our relationship to epitomize tenderness, kindness and sacrificial love? These are all words of grace – what we receive from the Lord every day. It’s what might not be deserved, but we give it, because that is how we are loved and spoken to by our Savior.
I know I need to make some changes in order to fill my husband’s ears with words of grace. How about you? Excuse me while I answer my phone…
Hi Sweetheart! I’m glad to hear from you!
If we asked others what they hear when we speak to our spouse, what would they say? What would our husband say? It’s all about grace.
A wonderful book is a treasure. I love to read, and I’m always on the search for a new author or title to check out. While there have been years when I was busy with homeschool that I didn’t get to read as much as I wanted, I pretty much always have a “book going.”
It only seems fair to share my treasures with you! So today I’m sharing three books that are sitting on my coffee tables that I’m currently reading and LOVING! They’re different enough that I can read all three at the same time.
Adorned – This is one of those books that every woman needs to read – and then reread at least every other year. Titus 2 is the backdrop for all the teaching and instruction found here. It’s practical, convicting, helpful and challenging. She addresses both the older and younger women and ends each chapter with a list of questions for each. My copy is covered in yellow highlights to help me remember these essential truths for my life as a woman who loves and desires to live for God.
For my girls’ birthdays this year, I gave them each two copies – one for themselves, and one to give to an older woman they could ask to go through it with them. This book is best when shared with at least one friend. Do your spiritual life and your female side a favor and read this!
The Most Important Place on Earth – This book about the home was written by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s husband years before they were ever married. His first wife died of cancer, and he and Nancy married nearly two years ago. Robert is an excellent, compelling writer. I have laughed out loud as he shared many tales from his own home life. He wisely shares the ingredients needed to make our homes the most important place on the earth.
I got my copy from Amazon for less than a dollar. There are updated versions that have a cover that’s current to today, but the message is one that will be relevant for all time. I highly recommend this book, and am thankful that my sis recommended it to me! Thanks, Dianne!
The Cave, The Cabin and The Tattoo Man – This book also came from my sister, who has met the author, Tim Callahan, from Kentucky. To read the title you might be surprised that I’m reading it, but the story is precious. It’s a fiction book based on the author’s growing up years, which happen to be the same era in which I grew up. Hence, the illustrations and pictures he paints take me back to my own childhood days.
This is the story of a little boy who stays with his grandparents during the summer months. He helps them with the little grocery store they owned. He fishes in their pond so well that he is the envy of all the grown men, and he gets himself into precarious situations during his free hours.
When I need a book to just take me away on a little vacation, this is the one I’m reading…for the second time. This is a series, too, which is fun. I love knowing there is one to follow!
I hope you’ll check into reading at least one of these suggestions. They’re all worthy of your time, and in my opinion, much better value than anything television has to offer! Autumn is nearly upon us, and aren’t fall and winter the best times to snuggle in somewhere comfy with a cup of coffee and read a compelling book?!
Do you have a treasured book you’re reading? Please share in the comments! I’ll need some new titles soon!
Jokes about mothers-in-law…there are many. I remember hearing one about a Greyhound bus going over the side of a cliff, but there was no worry, because the only passenger was the man’s MIL. Ouch. Where do those punches come from? Maybe from people who have gotten fed up with that female in-law who crossed the relational boundaries. But it’s so easy to do, isn’t it? We may reason that
The reasons for mother-in-laws interfering are many, but for the most part, they may be very unwelcomed from our birth children and our in-laws. It can do far more damage than it does help when it’s unsolicited.
What is a mother-in-law to do if she desires to have a good relationship with a son or daughter-in-law? Here are a few things I’ve learned (and am still learning!).
Remember the story of Ruth and Naomi? Ruth was said to have been kind to her mother-in-law. We may cry out – “My daughter-in-law needs to take a lesson from her! My son-in-law needs to learn to be kind to me!” But what made Ruth and Orpah want to go back to Bethlehem with Naomi? She had been gracious to them! Someone has said,
Maybe if we were more like Naomi,
there would be more Ruth’s.
If you’re guilty of something in this post, be humble and ask the Lord to help you. You might even need to ask your children and in-laws to forgive you for the way you’ve treated them. A humble spirit of repentance could be the very thing that will turn those difficult relationships around.
Let’s be more like Naomi today.
Someone has said…
Marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings or eating with chopsticks. It looks easy until you try it.
A huge part of the difficulty that can come to a marriage is dealing with the In-laws. You see, when a girl says, “I do,” to a man she loves, she is also saying “I do” to receiving his family. She takes them on as her own family, and of course, he takes hers as well. But that isn’t always the easiest job in the world. There are so many variables as to why that’s the case, but I’d like to address what to do in order to make those relationships better.
I’ve been both a daughter-in-law and am now a mother-in-law, so I can speak a little to the female side of these relationships. Tomorrow I’m going to speak to the mothers-in-law. But we’ll look today at being a daughter-in-law that would honor the Lord and also be a blessing to the other side of her family.
It would be hard not to love a daughter-in-law who responds with those kind of actions. I didn’t always do that. I struggled, especially in our early years. But I thank the Lord for the good relationship he gave me with my in-law’s over time. Ladies, sometimes the hardship in the in-law relations can make them look like outlaw’s, but if we make the effort, we could very easily turn things around for God’s glory and we daughters-in-law could be remembered as favorably as Ruth was.
What’s your best tip for responding as a daughter-in-law? Who has a great daughter-in-law that you’d like to brag about?
Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for tips for the Mothers-in-law!
