My Resting Rock

'If you cannot be settled within yourself when you are alone, you may seek out a wrong relationship that will increasingly unsettle you.' 

A friend on Facebook shared this quote. It made me think about when I met my husband and of the relationships since we have been together that have come and gone. Not just in our immediate circle of friends, family, and church community but in the world as a whole. Marriage just doesn't seem sacred anymore. Not as God intended it to be. In my life, it was not until I spoke with God and said I was at peace with being alone with him and desired him alone, it was not until then did God give me Chris. It is not always easy, marriage, but when it is Christ-centered, He will see you through if you give it all to him. He is jealous for us; He wants us alone but he also wants to bless his children. He desires for our marriages to last and our children to grow up with their mother and father. For all my life and my marriage, I will rest in my God and seek him out in my times of need and in my times great joy and peace. When I am settled with Him alone, I can be settled in my relationships even if the relationships are not settled. 

Psalm 62: 5-8

"5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." 

Television Wisdom Wednesday: Honoring

As a refresher, here is why I do Television Wisdom Wednesday. : )
'There are some that say there is nothing good that comes from television. Some others think it is just a mind numbing escape from reality. Well, I want to provide tid-bits of wisdom picked up from all my no good, mind numbing t.v. watching just to prove there is a little wisdom to be learned from it all.'


From the show 
Duck Dynasty: 

Phil Robertson - "Don't touch her below the neck until you sign the dotted line."


In honor of their season premiere tonight, I thought it appropriate to have a quote from one of the Robertson's today. And speaking of honor, where has honoring others gone to? Especially when speaking about honoring your loved one. As a refresher (for myself and for y'all), here is the definition and synonyms of honor. 

Honor: high respect for; esteem. Purity; chastity; - a term applied mostly to women, but becoming uncommon in usage. Synonyms: blamelessness, irreproachability, nobility, reputability, respectability, reverence, veneration, virtue. Reverence is a feeling of deep respect and devotion. Veneration is both the feeling and the reverential expression of respect, love, and awe. So, how can we be a more honoring society? By honoring those God put in our lives as God desires us to honor them. And, I believe, that's what Phil is ultimately saying here when he was saying this to his granddaughter's boyfriend. Have a relationship before marriage that is honoring to each other and to God's design for relationships and marriage. Be pure with each other, blameless before man and God in your actions, have that deep reverence for your loved one that their virtue is irreproachable.

Where this woman's heart and mind are at at this moment......

sad                            depressed                     joyless         

      

heart-aching                  lonely                    hurting               

unmotivated 

  

angry                 overwhelmed                  tired

         

I want to cry                I want to yell                    

I want to curl up into a ball with a blanket and movie and not be bothered                          

I want to scream out my every thought about every thing on my mind with no care what other people think

                          

I want to do nothing                    

I want to actually enjoy something                     

I want peace                            I want to feel joy                                      

I want to feel beautiful                                 

I want to feel needed                             I want to feel appreciated          

 I want to be respected                       I want my soul to be on fire               

I want to accomplish every thing I dream about doing and enjoy it                          

I want to be a good mommy                       

I don't want to screw up my kids                                                      

I want to be 'that' good wife                                   

I want to not feel all of this at the same time, all the time, every day                                       

I want to stop complaining about my great life and be able to truly appreciate what I have                                      

I want to be joyful                   I want to be happy 

I want to unabashedly love and be unabashedly loved back

Leprechaun's Gold or Real Treasures

Luke 16: 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

As people celebrate St. Patrick's Day with corned beef and cabbage and images of leprechauns with pots of gold, I am thinking on what Jesus said about being faithful with what we are giving in this life. He said we can not serve two masters. Not God and Money or God and whatever else you think of as 'important' in your life. If we are faithful and serve the one, true God and give Him our life, He will be faithful and take care of us in this life. I challenge you to take a moment today and this next week to search your heart honestly and see if there is anything you are putting first in your life instead of God. 

Your job

Your marriage

Your kids

Your friends

Your screen time

Your abusive substances

Your lustful desires

Your money

Your ...........

Marriage - as God designed it

Male and Female. 

There is no question they are different. Physically and emotional, God has made each sex uniquely opposites. Your gender has been given to you by God and, I believe, by no accident but for a divine purpose on this earth. And in our humanness, we can become upset by the opposite-ness of the opposite sex. It can drive us crazy trying to figure out just why exactly they (the opposite sex) do what they do. But we were made opposites so that we may become ONE when we are married. This is how God designed it.  And still, we fight against the maleness and femaleness that God has given to us. 

Women - Stop! 

Stop trying to do everyone's job. Do you think you will lose your independence and voice if you become a submissive wife as God said to be? Do you desire to follow the plan God made for your marriage? We need to let go of the reigns and give them to our husbands so they can lead the family, as God designed them to. We are not doing the job as the wife and mother that God gave us to do if we are trying to control the reigns which God did not give us to control. This doesn't mean that you lose your independence, opinion or voice and it doesn't mean you are to be walked all over or abused either. To be the head of the house and the family, they (husbands, fathers) are ultimately responsible to God for all God gave them. That is as God designed it for them. God called on Adam, not Eve, when they were in the garden and had eaten the fruit they were told not to. Adam was responsible for what his family did.

Men - Step up! 

God made you to be the head of your family and the example of Christs love to them. Take the reigns but be humble enough to ask for help from your wife, your helper. 

The man God gave to me and I, his helper in this life.

God, 

I pray that we would reflect you and your love by being what you designed us to be and not fighting it or being scared of it. I pray that we would be able to speak openly to our spouse about where we could improve in our own roles in our marriages. I pray we would listen intently and react with truth AND grace. I lift up all marriages to you and pray that you would heal the wounded and broken ones and that they might all be centered on you and bring you glory. In Jesus' name, Amen!