1/2 Marathon... day 1 :)

So I am am going to try to do a half marathon... but not running!  On my blog.  Christian Marriage Bloggers Association is putting out a challenge to post everyday for 13 consecutive days.  And well I am going to give it my best! 

I have a huge fear of talking in front of others.  Even if it is just one on one I am scared.  I will replay the conversation, analyze it, critic what I said, what you meant, and so on.  It is so bad it happens even with my own husband sometimes  This is a place where God is working in my life. 

A few months back I offered to help with a baby shower.  For some crazy reason I even offered to pray aloud with a group for a little girl!  {Me! PRAY! ALOUD!!! with others there!  This was not me!}  And you know what it was fine. 

Then we became members at our church... We were asked to give a testimony on Be Hope.  Just the thought of it had me itching, hot, tears welling up... Our pastor was shocked I think!  So, Greg talked and I stood next to him with tears in my eyes, hands firmly on my son, and face as hot as could be. 

I really felt God was telling me I needed to let go and let Him change me. 

So... yesterday was our turn to teach children's church.  {Even this makes me nervous and scared!}  As I was reading the story (Luke 2) I noticed how calm I felt. I even changed my tone when reading to emphasize parts!  :)  Then the unheard of happened... the kids were getting wild and it was time for songs...  {I was not given a singing voice!} And I sang in front of these kids!  I felt great!  Maybe didn't sound great, but there was no nerves, no tears, no hot face! 

Leaving church I felt great!  Bragged myself up to my husband... it was a big deal to me! 

Then this morning...  reading my Mornings With Jesus devotional...

"Let the one who boasts, boast of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:31

"But I'm singing my own praises, am I not?  Priding myself on a job well done?  That's a slippery slope, I know.  Pretty soon I'll forget that the Lord had a hand in this and begin to think it's all about me." 

later in the devotional Judy Baer continues: "But it's not true, is it?  None of this happened because of me.  Without Christ, there's nothing good that I can do.  It's all ashes.  Only with Him can I really succeed.  There is no one to brag about but Jesus.  I must never mess with the Father's glory r intrude or lay claim to the holy works of God."

I know that me reading and singing to these kids was all God.  He gave me a peace and the words and everything to be able to teach these kids His story.  To bring Him glory!  But on that drive home I didn't give glory to God.  I sang my own praises.  And today, He reminded me that it wasn't possible without Him. 

How great is God that He grows me and then when I fail to recognize what He has done, He gives me that little reminder to focus on Him and give Him praises! 

Our memory verse from yesterday was

"SHOUT FOR JOY, TO THE LORD ALL THE EARTH." Psalm 100:1

I need to remember to shout for joy to the Lord, not sing my own praises!  Sing His praises and give all the glory to Him!

Romance Blooms with Showers of Confidence~ Guest Post

Another amazing post from Beautiful Womanhood!

Romance Blooms with Showers of Confidence

                                    
Men are highly sensitive to signals of doubt because doubt plagues them.
If you continually give off signals of doubt, you will confirm the fear of inadequacy that lurks deep within your husband.

If a man believes he doesn’t have what it takes to please you, there’s not much chance he’ll attempt romance.

 “A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands” (Proverbs 14:1).

Doubting your husband and his abilities tears away at a man; conferring confidence builds him up.
A confident man is grateful to the one who believes in him.

Do you have confidence in your husband, or do you find yourself regularly second-guessing him?

Do you struggle with doubt when it comes to his abilities?
He needs to be supported by your confidence in him

• at home
• in the workplace
• and in his dream for the future.

 At home, I wanted Tom involved with the discipline of our children but was rarely pleased with his methods. I thought he was too strict and should be more understanding. Instead of communicating clearly with Tom about my concerns, I undermined his authority by smoothing things over with the kids behind his back.

                      My actions conveyed a lack of confidence in my husband.

I sabotaged our parenting and our marriage.

·         Our kids learned their parents weren’t always on the same team, so if they worked on the more lenient parent, they might get their way.

·         Tom felt hurt and angry.

Doubting my husband didn’t open any doors to romance!

The media constantly broadcast fear and doubt concerning the future. Against this tidal wave of doom and gloom,

it’s difficult for a man to confidently believe that God has planned a hopeful future for him.

When my husband was going through a job transition a couple of years ago, it became apparent he was struggling with doubt over his ability to succeed in a new venture. He was really down one day when he commented, “Most men don’t make a job change at fifty.”

I asked,

“Who says?”
 He rewarded me with a smile from ear to ear.

Tom’s words weren’t so much a statement of fact as they were a question—he was asking me if I believed he could successfully make a job change at fifty.

A wise wife counteracts the media’s message of fear with a daily dose of confidence.

Inspiring confidence in your husband is like pouring water on dry, thirsty ground.

What seeds of potential lie dormant within your husband, waiting for the showers of your confidence?

What does your husband dream of doing?

Let your husband know that you believe in him. 

If you don’t, who will?

Breathe words of confidence into your husband today and watch as he stands taller with every word spoken.

That said, pray about which ones to encourage. If your husband’s dreams take him in a direction that worries you, consider your concerns.
Are they rooted in selfishness or fear?

Turn to God and give Him your worries.
Conferring confidence invites your husband to romance.

Could your love-life benefit from showers of confidence? 

Growing Marriage Guest Post

The following is a guest post from Beautiful Womanhood!  Enjoy!

Want a Growing Marriage?

 

My husband and I were reading a financial book about how to make your money grow when one of the principles jumped off the page at me:

What you focus on grows. 

Because it’s such a simple principle, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and began applying it to all areas of life, especially relationships.

Most women have the desire to grow a more intimate relationship with their husband

yet  few  focus  their  desire  long  enough  to  do  anything  about  it. 
Thus, nothing changes.  

• Ignorance, 
• Distractions, and/or
• hopelessness are often to blame.

I should know. Just 19 when I said, “I do”, I was ignorant about how to grow my marriage.  Our pre-marriage counseling consisted of one two-hour meeting with my pastor and that wasn’t enough to prepare me for the emotional, spiritual, and verbal abuse my husband doled out on a regular basis.   The abuse produced pain and grief.
I could think of little else than surviving. 

Hope for our future crumbled.

Over time, I began sharing my pain with a few trusted, godly women.  Venting my pain and hearing their honest feed-back helped me see that the abuse I was suffering wasn’t my fault. 

I  began seeing a Christian counselor who gave me tools that helped restore me to a place of strength and dignity. 

The best choice I made was to dig into God’s word and find out what He wanted to say to me about my marriage.  In the Bible I found the following verses which applied to my situation:

·          “…Your godly lives will speak to them [husbands] better than any words.  They will be won over by watching your pure godly behavior.” (I Peter 3:1,2)  In place of preaching to my husband, I began entrusting my difficult situation to God through prayer—listening for His instruction.

·          “Instead, we will hold to the truth in love…” (Ephesians 4:15) I began to exchange preaching for speaking the truth in love—in as few words as possible.

·         “See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good…” (I Thessalonians 5:15) On my new path, I chose to respond in kindness and enforce healthy boundaries in place of angry retaliation.

When I dug into the word, I learned that my husband wasn’t the only one sinning.  My responses to Tom were often sinful and my response was the only thing I was responsible for. 
(What I wanted was to change my husband but I couldn’t find a biblical reference to support my desire and neither will you)!    

Focused on God and His Word, I was able to reverse negative behavioral patterns in my life which had long plagued me. 

When I did what I could do—keeping my focus on God, HE DID WHAT I COULD NOT!

He healed me and ultimately my marriage—to the praise of His glorious grace!

What you focus on grows. 

Are you focused on growing your marriage? 

Missions...

My husband has felt he is called to missions.  So, we packed up the family moved to Washington and are preparing... (that is our llllloooooonnnnngggggg story short!) 

We are taking the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course through our new church to prepare for this missions thing.  Boy is it exhausting!  But it is AMAZING!  We are only on week 4 in class, and week 2 for the homework (OK Greg and I are a little behind) but it is so encouraging to what God had intended for missions. 

Did you know that we are all called to missions?  So I have been thinking when we tell people we moved across the nation to pursue missions because we were called, we sound pretty silly!  We are all called to share the Gospel with "all the nations".  This class basically breaks down where missions comes from (all the way back to God's promise to Abram!) and what we are to do with it!

So, my exciting revelation that I have had recently is helping me with the fact that I honestly haven't felt that calling to go out and reach another nation or anything like that.  (Which at one point had me really worried!)  See, I have always been a very local minded person.  Why go help people around the world when there are people down the street that are going through the same thing?  It just never made sense to me.  I have really never gone on a mission trip and honestly don't feel the need to!  There is so much to do right here in my own town not to mention even our street!  Don't get me wrong, I think it is amazing the people that go around the world, give up hot water, running water for that case, fresh food, houses, the list goes on, but I don't feel that need for me to do that! 

You can imagine when Greg had a little chat with God about missions, and I am left in the dust, it was a little scary!  And then to top it off, Greg has a heart for the Native Americans/First Tribes~ and the only ones he has come in contact with are way up in northern Canada!  Even more scary.  But my revelation the other day is that we can both fulfil what God has placed on our hearts.  It just happens we live about 10 miles for a Reservation of a very lost people!  Talk about local and reaching our neighbors!  This is a group that I visited as a kid, delivered food to, etc. 

Oh and did I mention our new church is starting to form some that want to start up a ministry for these people?  :)  God's timing is GREAT!  We just need to have our eyes open to see where He is working then join Him! (From the Experiencing God study)

The point of this is to let you know that God isn't going to call only 1/2 of a marriage.  You are 1 in God's eyes, and He isn't going to call 1 person and not the other.  It just may be that His calling comes across different for each person, but He will still have you go together.  For me it is a local outreach, these are people I grew up with.  For Greg it is reaching out to the unknown.  God calls us each to what He has crafted us for, and we are all unique. His calling will be to both, but He just may use a land line for one spouse and a cell phone for the other, but in His eyes He is calling the same number. 



{Links for 2/9/12}
Enter to win a copy of Mornings with Jesus 2012

The Generous Wife ~ One of my favorite sites!

The Generous Husband ~Companion site!

BookSneeze ~Book review site

My favorite Marriage resources

Today I thought I would share some marriage resources with you all!!!

The best advice I ever recieved on having a successful marriage was from my Mother In Law... (I know right?)  She told us to work on the problems before we had them!  Didn't quite make sense to me, but hey we started with a marraige study (ok, God threw away all other options for us, and we were stuck with this one with only about 1 yr of marriage under our belt, we thought it was silly!)  But you know what, it has helped down the road.

Our favorite marriage book has got to be Love and Respect By Emmerson Eggerich.  Basically breaks down that a man needs respect (and wouldn't you guess, God commands the wife to respect her husband?) and the wife needs love (and guess what?  husbands are commanded to love their wife!) and it is all based on Ephesians 5:33  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Some of the websites that I love are:

http://www.the-generous-wife.com/ (great daily tips on being a generous wife)

http://www.the-generous-husband.com/ (her husband's blog on being a generous husband!)

http://site.themarriagebed.com/front-page

http://31daystopray.com/31dbbs-challenge/

Of course there is Proverbs 31... It helps with being a godly woman!
^{10 [b]}A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

That is it for now, just wanted to share a few with you.  Browse and please share your favorites with me! I am always wanting to find new ones.  And remember to work on your marriage before their are problems... I believe the marriage is such a threat against satan that he will use anything he can to drive a wedge between a man and wife.  Who else do you have such an intimate relationship with? 

My word for 2012

I have noticed a lot of people picking a word for the new year.  A word that will describe how they want to live and do things differently... I started to think about it, how can I pick just one word?  There are so many things I want to change or do this year.  And just ONE word?  That is tough!

But...

I did it.  I was reading through comments on another blog, and all the different words people were picking and thinking Oh, thats a good one, so is that... But only one kept popping into my head.  It goes with my verse of the year too. 

Immerse.  It means to involve oneself deeply into something.

I want to immerse myself into God's Word.

I want to immerse myself into worship and service.

I want to immerse myself into my marriage.

I want to immerse myself into my friendships.

I want to immerse myself into my kids.

I want to immerse myself into our new church.

I want to immerse myself into this amazing world God has given us.

I don't want to hold back this year, I want to give my all to whatever I am doing at the moment... I don't want to do something only part way, or give myself part way to someone. 

Do you have a word that describes 2012 and what you want it to be?  Or how you want to live?  Please share!