I enjoy decorating our home each month with different items for the seasons. February is all about the color red, hearts and yes remembering our loved ones. (It's also the day my husband proposed marriage to me, 23 years ago!) We didn't want our son to just think that St. Valentine's Day was about romance and candy. We like to add purpose to everything we do. So, we have been reading about the history of the holiday as well as making Valentine's day treats with a Bible verse to share with others and we've been having fun this month learning
about how God shows love. Here are fourteen
ways that we wanted to share with you in honor of Valentine's day being on the fourteenth!
God’s love is Forgiving Numbers 14:18
God’s love is Steadfast Psalm 90:14
God’s love Rejoices Zeph.
3:17
God’s love is Faithful Deut.
7:9
God’s love is Good Psalm
100:5
God’s love is Inseparable Romans
8:39
God’s love is Everlasting Jeremiah
31:3
God’s love is a Gift Romans
5:8
God’s love is Kind Psalm
145:17
God’s love is Patient 2
Peter 3:9
God’s love is for Everyone John 3:16
God’s love is Perfect 1
John 4:18
God’s love is Unchanging Numbers
23:19 God's love is Merciful Eph. 2:4-5
Will there be treats and romance this week? Absolutely! It's one tangible way that I can show love to my family members. If you are married, make sure to do something sweet for your spouse, even if it's just a little note or a word of encouragement to the one that God has given you!
Whew! We just came off of a very busy summer and it just flew by way too fast. As I reflect on what this summer was about for us, I realize that it was about family and as much as family is important, the more important thing for us in life is our relationship with God and honestly, I didn't get to spend the amount of time I should have or would have liked to have spent with my Lord. I had such goals for the summer with growing closer to the Lord through study and it just didn't happen. For me, it was much more about just talking and praying to Him as I went through activities during my day.
Here's what we did do:
-Welcomed our oldest son home from the mission field and shared a car with him all summer long. This was quite a challenge on some days and we are thankful for the co-worker who started picking him up in the mornings. What a joy it was to have him home and to sit and talk to him about his life, his faith and his goals.
-Helped our daughter move into her own apartment. Our daughter has had a goal for some time to move out on her own and so after accomplishing a list of things we required she received our blessing to do so. She also took her Golden Retriever with her, so it's not just her that we are missing. Our relationship dynamics have changed somewhat and it's a joy to visit with her during the week and hear about what's going on in her life. She says her favorite thing about living on her own is not being told what to do. I love her honesty.
-Prepared our house for sale. This was a lot of work, however, it paid off! We sold our house in 20 days and we can finally say, "We're completely debt free".
-Found a new place to live and moved. This is exhausting, between having sales to get rid of stuff, donating stuff, throwing things away, packing, moving, unpacking. This is crazy. There were times that I wanted to cry from pure exhaustion. There were times that we needed to grab fast food because we couldn't or hadn't stopped working in time to make food. There were times that our eight year old was given permission to "watch one more movie" just so that I could keep him busy long enough to be able to keep packing or unpacking.
-Enjoyed a couple of days at Symphony on the Prairie, Six-Flags, Holiday World, the zoo and a MLB game between the Brewers and the Reds. I'm so glad that most of these things were done before the house went on the market and that we were able to really enjoy our time with each other when doing these activities.
-Celebrated our youngest turning another year older. It's always fun to celebrate a birthday, however, it's especially fun to celebrate with children who are still excited about having birthdays. Such a joy for all of us!
-And lastly, we sent our oldest son off to Israel for a year. We're excited for him and even a little bit jealous. We can't wait to see what God is going to do in this young man's life. We miss him so much!
Now that we have settled a little bit more into a routine, we've started school again, started up our activities again and have been able to sit down and spend time with the Lord again in Bible study. It's interesting how God never walks away or leaves us as people on this earth do. He's patient, unlike so many of us. He's just waiting for us to come to him and spend time with us and I'm so glad to be able to do that again.
One goal for the fall is to lead a marriage study for six weeks and make our relationship with God our priority. That sounds pretty simple and easy doesn't it? The distractions of this world though are all around us ready to distract us from what's important. Please pray along with us that married couples would take just six Tuesday's out of their schedule and make this a priority. Check this out if you can't join us:
Consider attending one of these weekend or small group studies in your area. If you live in our area, contact us for more information and join us in making God a priority in your life and the life of your marriage.
February is here. The month most people think about Groundhog Day and St. Valentine's Day.
I must admit, I decorate my house with hearts and red and anything pretty during February. It takes my mind off of the cold, dreary winter days. I've heard nurses say that October is a very busy month for babies being born because of February 14th. Why do we need a day set aside every year to say "I love you" to our sweethearts? Shouldn't we be expressing that love to them everyday of the year?
I've heard many a man complain about the "made up" holiday and they don't like to spend money on a silly holiday. Don't go into debt for Valentine's Day. If you haven't set aside some extra money to buy something or to go out to eat, then find something FREE to do.
Write a hand-written love letter to your beloved. When I'm alone on those weekends that my husband is working for the military or when he was deployed last year to Afghanistan, it was his hand-written letters and cards that he has given to me over the last 21 years that I pulled out to read. Those are more precious to me than anything money could buy.
Pick up a movie from the library and snuggle up together under a blanket.
Play a board game or a card game together and laugh.
Spend some time asking each other questions about your dreams and goals for the year or the next ten years.
Pray together. Thank God for the spouse that He has given you and ask God to bless your marriage and protect the two of you from taking each other for granted.
Try something new this year. Why not sit down with your beloved and read through the Song of Solomon together. There's just eight chapters. Start on February 7th and read one chapter a night before you go to bed with each other. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Solomon+1&version=ESV
There are many other marriage conferences that are available, we just can't offer you a discount to any of them. So, if you don't like the Weekend to Remember, look for something else and make your marriage a priority.
If you didn't see the first Part of this blog, go back to it and take a look at the video posted there. It breaks my heart to think that so many babies have died unnecessarily.
I know there are many families that would adopt a baby that parents didn't think they could take care of. I know that if we could afford adoption, we would have been one of those families who had done that. Our youngest son is eight years old. We've prayed for and have tried to add to our family, and that just hasn't been God's plan for us. Just this morning, our son said, "mom, I want a baby brother, one that I can play with".
If you know someone who is pregnant and is considering abortion, please urge them to give the baby up for adoption if they don't think they can parent the baby. So many parents would be blessed by their gift of life.
On Tuesday, 40 years will have gone by since the Roe vs Wade case that changed America. It's a very sad day. Please take the time to view these links that I have posted:
“Be
thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to
Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Happy Thanksgiving!
If you are like our family you realize
that you are very blessed and sometimes like our family you forget to rejoice
and thank God for those blessings.
Our family has known that we are a blessed
family and yet going through a deployment can heighten that awareness. Now that
Keith is back and we’re all getting back into a “normal” routine, it’s easy to
forget again.
I don’t want to forget. I want to remember
that while Keith was gone, God provided for our family in many ways. I want to
remember that Keith did find out what it was like to be in a war zone and how
God did protect him while he was there. I want to remember that some spouses
don’t come home alive or they come home as disabled veterans.
When our focus changes from complaining
about our circumstances to being thankful for our circumstances then we can see
how we’ve been blessed and we can thank the one that those blessings come from.
Before the rush of Christmas creeps into
your life, take a little time this Thanksgiving to remember how blessed your
family is and give thanks for those blessings.
Why
celebrate Veteran’s Day? One important reason to me is that in God’s Word, the
Bible, He says we should give “…respect
to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” Romans 13:7b What does
the word respect and honor mean here?It means thatGod demands that we show sincere respect
and an attitude of genuine high esteem for all public officials. (MacArthur
commentary)
In November 1919, President Wilson
proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the
following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will
be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s
service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from
which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to
show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"
Do
you need more reasons to celebrate Veteran’s Day? How about that these folks
make all kinds of sacrifices to serve in America’s volunteer military force.
They sacrifice time away from their families, they sacrifice financial gain,
they sacrifice freedom to come and go as they please. How about the sacrifices
that their families make? Have you thought about these sacrifices? I thought I
had, I thought I knew exactly how hard it was for military families until my
husband was deployed and away from our family for eight and a half months. Now
I know. I also know that there is a difference if you are a Guard family and
not active duty.
We
are all busy and there is always something that will call for our attention. We
had to make that choice for this upcoming weekend. Derby race is normally the
first weekend of the month. Anything scheduled on the first weekend of the
month means that my husband can’t participate because it’s a Guard weekend.
This year though the Derby race was scheduled for the second weekend of the
month and we thought, “Yea, daddy can actually go this year.” However, we found
out that the Veteran’s Day Parade in our area is going to be on the same day.
We talked about it and we’ve decided to choose to honor Veteran’s and go to the
parade. One of the reasons we chose that is because we sense that younger
families no longer understand just the simple etiquette that we are to show
people in authority. This past summer during a Fourth of July parade, I was sad
to see that most families did not stand up when the Flag was carried by or when
Veteran’s walked by. I think that the younger people don’t have the same
respect for people who have sacrificed like older people do. We are determined
to make sure our kids understand what sacrifices have been made for us all.
Now
for our family the most important sacrifice that has been made for us all comes
from the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Jesus was crucified on the cross and
took the punishment that should have been ours. “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
him.” John 3:16-17
Take
a look at this video, we think it shares the sacrifice that Jesus made clearly.
So,
the sacrifice that Jesus made is much more important than the sacrifices that
American military people have made and yet, we still believe that it’s
important to honor Veteran’s.
Here are some suggestions of how you may be able
to do that before next Sunday, November 11, 2012:
*Send
a note of encouragement to someone who has served.
*Thank
someone verbally; a simple “Thank you for your sacrifice or service to America”
is very encouraging to someone.
*Participate
in Veteran’s Day parades or ceremonies.
*Do
you have a neighbor that is currently serving or has served? How about inviting
them for a meal or making a dessert for them with a note saying how much you
appreciate them.
*Find
a USO or a VA hospital and volunteer to help at those locations.
*Adopt
a military member and write letters and send packages to them.
*Pray
for military members.
I
love this picture because it’s just hours after my husband came home and our
youngest son just couldn’t believe that his daddy was finally home.
