Ruth Bell Graham advises wives to “tell your mate the positive, and tell God the negative.” Take your concerns to God. Faithfully lift up your husband in prayer every day, and you will likely notice a transformation not only in him, but in yourself, as well. Of course, we needn’t wait until there is some problem or disagreement before beginning… Read more »
Sometimes showing grace to others is easy. The person in need of grace is someone we like, someone who is naturally sweet, someone who’s normally very easy to get along with. Sometimes, though, extending grace is a challenge. Some folks are difficult, demanding, and inconsiderate. Some take advantage of others. Some are disagreeable. Some cut us off in traffic. Some… Read more »
What follows is the sixth (and next-to-last) installment in the series “7 Life Lessons I’ve Learned from my Husband.” This concept is key to understanding the Christian walk. I grew up believing I should put God first in everything: He wants the first part of my week, so I should attend church every Sunday. He wants the first part of… Read more »
What follows is the fifth (and long overdue) installment in a series I started late last summer called “7 Life Lessons I’ve Learned from my Husband.” It’s an important one, so take notes! My husband and I entered marriage with very disparate attitudes toward tipping. I had always calculated my tips according to exact (minimum recommended) percentages, with a little… Read more »
My father was a general contractor. He was also a perfectionist — not a perfectionist about everything, mind you, but certainly a perfectionist about his work. When Daddy did a job, he did it right. When he built something, he built it to last. If you hired my father to do a project, he’d deliver beautiful results… but it would… Read more »
Last January, I wrote about the different approach I was trying for my 2012 New Year’s resolutions. I purposed to work on one new habit at a time and allow it to become firmly established before moving on to another. Although I never got around to blogging about my progress as planned, it’s not because the experiment didn’t work. It… Read more »
I’m all for making lists of specific goals, but sometimes general reminders are in order, as well. Try posting these objectives on a bulletin board and reviewing them daily until they become automatic responses. (For a free printable copy, click here.) 1. Smile More 2. Spend Less 3. Stay Active 4. Don’t Worry 5. Eat Smarter 6. Pray Harder 7…. Read more »
When I first got married, I possessed an utter lack of coordination in the area of gross motor skills. I couldn’t catch (or hit) anything to save my life. No matter what was tossed to me — baseballs, car keys, ballpoint pens — I’d fumble and let it fall to the floor. My father had given up years earlier trying… Read more »
Our lives are busy. Our time and resources are limited. Our responsibilities pile up to such a degree that we cannot possibly accomplish them all on our own. Yet we try. Too often, we live crisis to crisis, with a vague sense of guilt that we can’t stay more on top of all the demands placed upon us. No sooner… Read more »