Spirit-Guided Relationships: Wives and Husbands

21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.t 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”t 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Now let me know what you think by answering this week’s poll. Also, please leave any comments you might have. I always love a good discussion!

This issue of happiness comes up so often that we were finally forced into developing a theory on happiness. We’re not the first to do this, of course, but we do like on the firm statement we landed on. Are you ready for it?

You can never find happiness, you have to BE happy.

What do you think of this quote? Is happiness something you can discover with someone or something? Or is happiness something you need to choose? Is happiness a circumstance or a decision? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this idea, so and let us have it whether you’re for or against the idea!

Leave a comment and let me know (and others) how humility has blessed you through your life.

I got excited and starting thinking about what I get each day from the so called “bad” things happening:

• I get BLESSED by God when I rejoice in my trials.  Matthew 5:10,11
• I get more of God’s love and power (His Kingdom) I Thess. 5:16-18
• I get more good because I love Him (Rom. 8:28)
• The good things keep bringing me more good things, and not only to me, but to my loved ones as well!

At 70 years of age, I am realizing that the good things happening to me each day are typically good for about a day, but my trials keep the good coming to me for a life time. So what are your trials? What trials have taught you the greatest lessons and given you, ultimately, the biggest blessing? Let me know by clicking here and sharing your stories with me!

9 For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. 10 Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. 11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”

Here’s how easy it is to be saved by God, and please feel free to debate this with me on our site if you want.  It’s very simple. Romans 10: 9 – 10 summarizes it best: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” There’s only three critical things to understand about God’s salvation: 1. Accept that Christ is my boss.  2. Believe that God sent Christ to die for me on the cross.  3. Believe God raised Christ from death by His power. If I choose to believe in these three basic things, I am saved!

I hope you pass this post along to a friend or relative who needs to hear the message of Christ!

So what has you stressed out?

David did it in Psalm 1:

Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.

2 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.

3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.

4 But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.

5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.

6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

When I place the bit in my mouth, I agree with God that His ways are higher than mine and His ways lead to the best life possible.  So I obey Him when He “pulls the reigns to the left or right!  

God becomes my Boss, Lord, Master, and so on.   As I put the bit in my mouth, He infuses me with His power because I “humbly” admit that His ways are better than my ways.   He then gives me his power and He gives me His words to memorize and dwell on them day and night!  

So, I get His power and love as I remain under His control and I move in the direction that He wants me to….. that is… I love Him and others and “cheer” when things appear to go “bad”.

Always remember, God only gives his Grace to the humble, or the ones willing to be lead!

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Check out Gary’s newest resource, Guarding Your Child’s Heart.

1. Acts of service
2. Quality time
3. Gifts
4. Physical touch
5. Words of affirmation

I’m curious about which is your top love language.  So take the poll and let me know which of the 5 love languages is most important to you.

Our expectations were to hit Branson at around 6pm, barbecue with my family, and then have a couple of days in Branson to play before going to Kamp. These plans were instantly changed as we sat in a parking lot trying to get a hold of a transmission repair guy. Now I want (need) to be honest at this point, so with full disclosure, my attitude stunk big time! I snapped at my wife, my children, and some poor woman driving in front of me completely clueless to why I was honking at her to get moving through the light before the van died again.

The question is, why did I get upset and snap at my family and a random female driver? Because reality and my expectations were too far a part. Is it bad to have expectations? No, not necessarily. But how are we to handle ourselves when our expectations are not met? That is the key to a healthy relationship.

It is unrealistic to think our expectations are always going to be met, because they will not. Instead of blowing up at my family and a random female driver, I could have done the following:

* Taken a time-out
This is easily the best thing we can do when our expectations are not met. We need time to gather ourselves and to begin the process of choosing the best reaction possible. If you do not take the time to think about your reactions, your reactions will most likely be hurtful and immature (i.e. honking at a random female driver). A time-out gives you perspective and also gives time for the Holy Spirit to give you guidance in how you could respond.

* Adjusted my expectations on the fly
The moment I realized that my expectations were not going to be met, I could have begun the process of adjusting my expectations. I could have realized that getting to Branson on Friday was no longer possible, so how could I make the best out of the current situation. Asking yourself the question, “How can I make the best out of this situation?” is a great way to adjust expectations.

* Prayed
I know, prayer always seems to be the answer, but guess what, it always is the answer! I think the evil one wants us to feel like mentioning prayer is trivial, but it is not, and should always be utilized when things get out-of-hand. I could have cried out to God in my moment of need and let the Holy Spirit do the job the Holy Spirit does, to influence and guide me through the fog of unmet expectations.

The best thing we can do is focus on what we need to change. Even if we do not feel like our spouse is responding, we still have to do the right thing when it comes to our own behaviors and attitudes!

So leave us a comment on what you wish you could change about yourself below.

April 15, 2010 — Despite saving us time, fast food may make us impatient and more likely to seek instant gratification, new research finds.

University of Toronto researchers Chen-Bo Zhong, PhD, and Sanford E. DeVoe, PhD, conducted a trio of experiments before coming to that conclusion in a report published in Psychological Science.

The first experiment found that exposure to fast-food symbols increases reading speed even when there’s no pressure to read fast. In the experiment, they randomly assigned 57 college students to look at the center of a computer screen but ignore the corners. Those in the fast-food group were exposed to fast-food logos, flashed in the corners too quickly for the conscious mind to register the images. Those in the comparison group looked at blank squares in the corners. Next, when they all read a passage, those exposed to the logos had a faster reading speed.

You can read the whole article here.

Jody Schoger felt utterly alone, “curled up like a turtle” in her hospital bed, where she was fighting a life-threatening infection after breast cancer surgery.

read the rest here…

http://smalley.cc/help-your-marriage/special-free-downloads

These are my top verses that I have memorized and meditate on daily! You can also find a lot of other really cool things to download there as well…so make sure and check it out.