husbands and wives

The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.

- 1 Peter 3:7 (MSG)

I’m going to get mushy today  . . .  happy birthday to my wonderful, amazing husband – I love you.

Everyone has heard at some point in time that women should strive to be a Proverbs 31 wife.

(Proverbs 31:10-31 is listed as “the Wife of noble character”)

I am very fortunate, my husband makes it easy to be a Proverbs 31 wife, he is an amazing man and I am SO blessed.

We are a team, when someone asks me to do something and I say I will talk to my husband, I am not asking permission, I am respecting him and any plans he may have.

It is a two way street, he respects me in the same way.

The last few months he has been my rock, going above and beyond expectations to care for me while I have been a mess.

I don’t know why God put us together, but I am very thankful that He did.

  

work hard

Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

- 2 Timothy 2:15 (NLT)

Food for thought –

According to SocialSecurity.gov, retirement age in the US is now 65-67, depending on your birth year, but the longer you work, you get more from Social Security.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most people work over 9.4 hours per day and over 50 hours per week. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

Ok, bear with me while I math . . .

24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week = 168 hours per week.

Minus the 50 hours that we work = 118

If we get 7 hours of sleep each night, that is 49 hours per week, if we get 9 hours then it is 63 hours.

That leaves us 55 hours per week, to eat, be with our families and spend time with God.

If you live your life for God at all times, you don’t have to separate out the time for Him, because you are always working for Him.

I am not ashamed of the truth!

troubles

Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give me delight.

- Psalm 119:143

Happy Friday, ya’all!

We made it through another week 😊

I don’t know about you, but for me the last few months have been kind of crazy and rough.

Trouble and distress have definitely invaded my life. . .

Over the next few weeks we prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas, that is a lot of stress for some folks.

Stop.

Breathe.

Listen.

God is there, His commands include things like don’t worry, don’t fear, pray without ceasing and love one another.

If we do those things, and above all love Him with all our heart, well, the trouble, distress, and general freaking outness, they just don’t seem so big.

One of my favorite things to remember (and I need to remember it more) is “don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big God is.”

God is pretty big – and He will take care of us if we let Him.

are you a bully?

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

- Psalm 34:18

Even as adults, we still experience bullying.

Sometimes it is harder to discern that we are being bullied as adults.

This is not OK.

Bullying can break a person’s spirit, and some people are not strong enough to withstand that kind of evil.

Some people don’t even realize that they are being bullies when they say things.

I am thankful for a God that protects my heart, even when my spirit is crushed by evil.

who are you?

Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;

- Matthew 23:5

I had to research the word “phylacteries”.  It means boxes containing Scripture verses, worn on forehead and arm.

In Matthew 23, Jesus is warning us against hypocrisy.

He tells us that some of the teachers do not practice what they preach, that they burden others with terrible things, yet will not lift a finger to help others.

I know people like this.

People that criticize others over miniscule things – things that should not matter – yet in the same breath they do the same to others that they have criticized on one.

We always tell our children to “do as I say, not as I do”, but what is the lesson there?

We need to be sure that we are living our lives for Jesus 100% of the time.

Our actions, the things that people see, they need to come from your heart, from a place of devotion to God, and not because we need someone else to see us and praise us for our good deeds.

If you are serving God for the praise and admiration of others, you are serving the wrong God.

apples to apples

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

- Matthew 18:7

I looked up at my fruit basket the other day and saw that one of my apples had turned pretty icky.

As I moved the apples around to throw away the smooshy one, I see that more than one of the apples had turned bad.

I remember the old saying about one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel, and I see that it is true, that one bad apple has spread it’s influence and now others are bad.

Do you see the correlation between the icky apples and people?

People spread their influence and often lead others to sin.

People are just like lemmings sometimes, and simply follow the crowd without thinking,

Don’t be the bad apple – think about how you influence people around you.

Lead them toward God, not away from Him.

continued prayers

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.

- Colossians 1:9-13

It is good to be back.

For those that don’t follow me on Facebook, I had some very scary adventures over the last few weeks.

The thing that kept me going was the prayers of my friends and family.

It will take me a bit to get back in sync with everything, including my daily updates, but know that I am doing my best, and I continue to pray for all of you too.