Last week I made the mistake of telling Kim that for a moment I was feeling selfish and was wanting some "Me" time. Today, she had taken the girls shopping and told me that I had to stay home. I had some things I wanted to do like cutting up a tree that fell during the storms last summer so on the surface this seemed like a good idea. But yesterday, as my "Me" time grew closer, I wasn't liking the idea. We woke up today to rain so I can't do what I had planned on doing. OK, I decided to clean the garage. Well, that hasn't panned out either because I miss Kim so much that I have found myself mopping hoping it will please her.
Men, what do you do with your free time? Is it spent being selfish, glad to have some "time away from her"? I'm no saint and I'm certainly not a perfect husband or father but over the last year I have made God truly #1 in my life. By doing this, I have found a new-found love for Kim. I find myself thinking about her more and more every day. How do you think about your wife? Is she a nag to you? Do you dread time alone with her? Do you find yourself working over at work not so much for the money but just to be away?
It is time that Christian men stand up for what is right in their family and start loving their wives like Christ loves the church (Eph 5:25). Jesus didn't take a day off. If He ever had "Me" time it was to get away and pray for the church (John 17:6-26). How often do you get away just to pray for your wife?
Men, I encourage you today to take a long look at your relationship with your wife. Do you argue with her? Do you stop at nothing to please her? Do you admit you're wrong and say you're sorry even if you know you're right? Men, your marriage goes as you go. If you want a Godly marriage you must be Godly yourself. If you want your children to be Godly, you must be Godly yourself. I'm not saying you have to be perfect, God knows that I am far from it. It is just so important for your wife to see that you are trying to be.
My wife is awesome! She takes care of me better than anyone else could. But in the last year, since she has saw a change in me, I have saw a change in her. She doesn't let me lift a finger around the house anymore. Laundry has been my chore the entire time we have been married. In the last 6 months, I have washed no more than 6 loads because she wants to take care of me. Is that a big deal to me? You bet it is. Kim has always been an awesome wife doing everything imaginable to take care of me. Laundry is the one thing that I did that she didn't do. So it's the one thing that she could take off me.
If you change will you see changes like this? Yes! Your wife will love you so much better when she sees you trying your best to love God and her the best way you know how. And if you don't know how to love her better, ask her. Ask her sincerely what you can do to show your love to her more. 1) If you truly are loving her more, it will come to you and 2) if it doesn't come to you, she will be happy to tell you once she sees you being a better man
I'm not trying to brag or make myself out to be an expert because I'm not. I am only giving you my testimony and my personal experiences. It's up to you whether you want to take my advice. I dare you to ask God his opinion.
God loves you and I do too! and Kim, if you read this, please hurry home :)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Go son, Go!!!
When I was praying this morning, I was just talking to God like he was in front of me. I was commiting the day to Him and I told Him that I want to do something that pleases Him. I told Him that I hoped I could do something that made Him say "that's my boy!". Then my mind immediately took me back to when I was a kid.
When I was a kid I loved making my parents proud, especially my dad. I liked making my mom proud but she always showed me that she was proud. With every A, every time I picked up after myself, or even every time I got along with my brother, my mom told me she was proud. Dad was a little different. He noticed when we didn't make an A or didn't pick up after ourselves or didn't get along and he was quick to let us know. My dad was/is a good man and he was a loving father but he just didn't always show it. But the times when he told me that he was proud made me feel so important. They made me feel special and like I had done something great. My dad's friends have always told me "if you grow up to be half the man your dad is, you'll be a good man" so when dad was proud of me, I knew that I had done something special.
I have a very poor memory, but I have one memory that I will NEVER forget as long as I live. When I was in 8th grade the Monday after a football game, our team was watching the game film. This was after the first game of the season so our coach forgot to turn down the sound on the TV. I was a running back and I had a very good game. We lived in the country where everyone knew everyone so the game announcer knew my family. There was one particular play when I broke through the line, broke three or four tackles, and ran for about 70 yards. During the run I could hear my dad on the tape yell "go son, go!". The announcer (Mr. Campbell, the one with one leg shorter than the other for those of you that knew me at Porter Middle School) said to my dad, and you could hear it on tape, "hey big John, what are you feeding that boy"? You could hear my dad say "beans and taters". And then Mr. Cambell says "that boy runs like a corn-fed mule". You could hear my dad laugh and I could tell he was soooo proud. But all I could hear was "go son, go".
That's the acknowledgement that I seek from God. I pray every day that I can do something that will make Him chear "go son, go!". Just like my dad, I don't seek God's acknowledgement for the sake of acknowledgment. I seek it because I love Him so much, all I want to do is make Him proud. Maybe this is a father/son thing, I don't know. All I know is that at age 40 (yikes!) I still enjoy making my dad proud. I also know that I enjoy making my heavenly dad proud too. I love them both.
I encourage you today and tomorrow to do something that will make God cheer for you.
God loves you and I do too!
When I was a kid I loved making my parents proud, especially my dad. I liked making my mom proud but she always showed me that she was proud. With every A, every time I picked up after myself, or even every time I got along with my brother, my mom told me she was proud. Dad was a little different. He noticed when we didn't make an A or didn't pick up after ourselves or didn't get along and he was quick to let us know. My dad was/is a good man and he was a loving father but he just didn't always show it. But the times when he told me that he was proud made me feel so important. They made me feel special and like I had done something great. My dad's friends have always told me "if you grow up to be half the man your dad is, you'll be a good man" so when dad was proud of me, I knew that I had done something special.
I have a very poor memory, but I have one memory that I will NEVER forget as long as I live. When I was in 8th grade the Monday after a football game, our team was watching the game film. This was after the first game of the season so our coach forgot to turn down the sound on the TV. I was a running back and I had a very good game. We lived in the country where everyone knew everyone so the game announcer knew my family. There was one particular play when I broke through the line, broke three or four tackles, and ran for about 70 yards. During the run I could hear my dad on the tape yell "go son, go!". The announcer (Mr. Campbell, the one with one leg shorter than the other for those of you that knew me at Porter Middle School) said to my dad, and you could hear it on tape, "hey big John, what are you feeding that boy"? You could hear my dad say "beans and taters". And then Mr. Cambell says "that boy runs like a corn-fed mule". You could hear my dad laugh and I could tell he was soooo proud. But all I could hear was "go son, go".
That's the acknowledgement that I seek from God. I pray every day that I can do something that will make Him chear "go son, go!". Just like my dad, I don't seek God's acknowledgement for the sake of acknowledgment. I seek it because I love Him so much, all I want to do is make Him proud. Maybe this is a father/son thing, I don't know. All I know is that at age 40 (yikes!) I still enjoy making my dad proud. I also know that I enjoy making my heavenly dad proud too. I love them both.
I encourage you today and tomorrow to do something that will make God cheer for you.
God loves you and I do too!
Monday, January 16, 2012
The battle is in your mind!
God laid something on Kim's heart that I just had to share with you. After reading this, I told her she should start her own blog. She listens to God's voice soooo well.
Strongholds defined...What if every negative, bitter, angry, unforgiving thought gave the devil power in your life? Would that make a difference in how you thought?
Imagine you begin each day with 1,000 coins. My mental image of these coins are much like the coins the Super Mario Brothers are trying to collect. These coins are used to buy GLORY, but we are not allowed to buy glory for ourselves. We must choose who we want to be glorified by our thoughts. With every thought you must pay one coin. If your thought is a noble, loving, good, or admirable one (Phillipians 4:8) then you give that coin to God to glorify Him. Does God need your coins (thoughts)? Absolutely not, but we all need to give them to Him (Ezekial 11:5). Because if our thought is an unmerciful, bitter, wicked, angry, jealous, unforgiving, or hateful thought then we must give that coin (thought) to the devil.
The devil wishes to have all of our coins because as long as we are giving our thoughts to him we give him power in our lives (Strongholds, Ephesians 6:12) and we do not glorify God. Wait a minute! Did you just say that I'm giving power to the devil? In MY life??? Does that mean that my thoughts can effect my everyday living, my families lives and all my relationships? Absolutely! (Prov 23:7, Rom 8:5-8) The devil came to kill, steal and destroy our lives (John 10:10). The devil wants us to be bitter, angry, wicked, jealous, unforgiving and merciless people so that he may own us one day (C.S. Lewis says the same thing in the Screw Tape Letters). So please understand that every thought you give the devil, YOU give him MORE power and incentive to wreck your life and to destroy your relationship with God. He feeds off your unGodly thoughts and will reproduce more unGodly thoughts once you give him the chance. Yes, we control our mind(2 Cor 10:3-6). Take responsibility of your own thoughts. We have the authority to choose to think of Godly thoughts or to dwell on the wicked(Phil 4:4-8).
Why do you think so many hurt people have said that their battle is in their mind? It's because one angry thought turns into 10 wicked thoughts. I don't know about you but when someone has hurt me I have spent a lot of time dwelling on the subject. The most innocent thought can remind me of a time when I have been hurt by someone. That one thought if left in my mind to dwell, will snowball and eventually cause an avalanche that will ruin the next few hours or even longer time of my life. All of the sudden I remember more reasons I should be hurt. Now I am not only hurt, I am angry. Jealousy, Rage and Revenge soon come busting in my mind and now I have all the elements for one wicked party. Truly, a wicked party taking place in my mind. Suddenly, I begin to rationalize how I need to hurt this person back....make them feel what I felt. God's grace and mercy are no where to be found because I didn't allow them to enter my mind.
How many times have you heard, "well, I can forgive but I will never forget". They might as well empty their coin bag into the devils purse because this person is giving the devil power in their life. The devil wants the battle to be in your mind. He wants you to never forget the hurt people have caused you. This gives not only power, but more opportunities to take your coins. With the coins, satan purchases strongholds in your life. He uses these strongholds to keep you right where he wants you until he is able to push you further and further away from your first love, God. We think, "well I just thought it, I didn't say it" will make us a better person. It may keep you out of an argument with your spouse or friend but thinking like that makes you a targeted person of Satan and his strongholds.
If we choose to take the thought of anger, hatred, bitterness, lust or hurtfulness and immediately change it into a merciful, loving, forgiving, obedient and thankful thought based on God's grace, we glorify God! Through God's power we are able to grow closer to Him and be restored.
Do not take lightly the thoughts of your mind. Just because they are not audible to others does not mean that they are not destructive. Pray that God will help you hold your thoughts captive. Talk to God every hour(1 Thessalonians 5:17), do not eat the bread of idleness when it comes to your prayer life. Think of prayer as your line of defense against Satan. If you want to be angry about something~be angry that the devil is looking to cash in on your thoughts. Take back your coins and give them to God...the One who wants you to not only live, but to live life abundantly (John 10:10).
God loves you and Kim and I do too!
Strongholds defined...What if every negative, bitter, angry, unforgiving thought gave the devil power in your life? Would that make a difference in how you thought?
Imagine you begin each day with 1,000 coins. My mental image of these coins are much like the coins the Super Mario Brothers are trying to collect. These coins are used to buy GLORY, but we are not allowed to buy glory for ourselves. We must choose who we want to be glorified by our thoughts. With every thought you must pay one coin. If your thought is a noble, loving, good, or admirable one (Phillipians 4:8) then you give that coin to God to glorify Him. Does God need your coins (thoughts)? Absolutely not, but we all need to give them to Him (Ezekial 11:5). Because if our thought is an unmerciful, bitter, wicked, angry, jealous, unforgiving, or hateful thought then we must give that coin (thought) to the devil.
The devil wishes to have all of our coins because as long as we are giving our thoughts to him we give him power in our lives (Strongholds, Ephesians 6:12) and we do not glorify God. Wait a minute! Did you just say that I'm giving power to the devil? In MY life??? Does that mean that my thoughts can effect my everyday living, my families lives and all my relationships? Absolutely! (Prov 23:7, Rom 8:5-8) The devil came to kill, steal and destroy our lives (John 10:10). The devil wants us to be bitter, angry, wicked, jealous, unforgiving and merciless people so that he may own us one day (C.S. Lewis says the same thing in the Screw Tape Letters). So please understand that every thought you give the devil, YOU give him MORE power and incentive to wreck your life and to destroy your relationship with God. He feeds off your unGodly thoughts and will reproduce more unGodly thoughts once you give him the chance. Yes, we control our mind(2 Cor 10:3-6). Take responsibility of your own thoughts. We have the authority to choose to think of Godly thoughts or to dwell on the wicked(Phil 4:4-8).
Why do you think so many hurt people have said that their battle is in their mind? It's because one angry thought turns into 10 wicked thoughts. I don't know about you but when someone has hurt me I have spent a lot of time dwelling on the subject. The most innocent thought can remind me of a time when I have been hurt by someone. That one thought if left in my mind to dwell, will snowball and eventually cause an avalanche that will ruin the next few hours or even longer time of my life. All of the sudden I remember more reasons I should be hurt. Now I am not only hurt, I am angry. Jealousy, Rage and Revenge soon come busting in my mind and now I have all the elements for one wicked party. Truly, a wicked party taking place in my mind. Suddenly, I begin to rationalize how I need to hurt this person back....make them feel what I felt. God's grace and mercy are no where to be found because I didn't allow them to enter my mind.
How many times have you heard, "well, I can forgive but I will never forget". They might as well empty their coin bag into the devils purse because this person is giving the devil power in their life. The devil wants the battle to be in your mind. He wants you to never forget the hurt people have caused you. This gives not only power, but more opportunities to take your coins. With the coins, satan purchases strongholds in your life. He uses these strongholds to keep you right where he wants you until he is able to push you further and further away from your first love, God. We think, "well I just thought it, I didn't say it" will make us a better person. It may keep you out of an argument with your spouse or friend but thinking like that makes you a targeted person of Satan and his strongholds.
If we choose to take the thought of anger, hatred, bitterness, lust or hurtfulness and immediately change it into a merciful, loving, forgiving, obedient and thankful thought based on God's grace, we glorify God! Through God's power we are able to grow closer to Him and be restored.
Do not take lightly the thoughts of your mind. Just because they are not audible to others does not mean that they are not destructive. Pray that God will help you hold your thoughts captive. Talk to God every hour(1 Thessalonians 5:17), do not eat the bread of idleness when it comes to your prayer life. Think of prayer as your line of defense against Satan. If you want to be angry about something~be angry that the devil is looking to cash in on your thoughts. Take back your coins and give them to God...the One who wants you to not only live, but to live life abundantly (John 10:10).
God loves you and Kim and I do too!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Have you drifted, Part 2
In church today my Pastor (Brad Bryant) asked a great question and used a great analogy. He asked "has there ever been a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are right now"? So I ask you the same question, has there ever been a time in YOUR life when you have been closer to God than you are right now? If there has been then you have drifted.
The analogy that Brad used was drifting at the beach. Have you ever been playing in the ocean and just get caught up in either having fun or just watching your kids that you didn't realize it but before you know it your beach umbrella is about 1/2 mile up the beach? The ocean's current is a slow pull and as long as you aren't trying to go against it, you don't even notice that it is pulling you away from home. That's the way life is. As long as we just go along with it, we don't notice that it is pulling us away from home, away from our first love. But just like trying to swim against the current, it is hard to go against the flow to get back to God.
Drifting from God happens so easily when you aren't carefull. It's so easy to get caught up in our day to day life and lose sight of what's really important, our relationship with God. For some it's our kids while for others it may be a job. For some it could be your marriage. The best way to get back to your beach umbrella is to get out of the ocean and walk back. The same holds true with God. The best way to get back to Him is to get out of the life that is pulling you from Him, get away from what has pulled you down the beach.
I don't know about you but being married is fun for Kim and me. We have a great relationship and love each other completely. We enjoy each others company so much that, before this year, we had put too much focus on each other and not enough focus on God.
It was this time last year when God called us out on it. He showed us if we put our focus on Him and work on our individual relationships with God then our marriage would be stronger and our relationship with each other would be better. He was so right. We have put God first in our lives and now we are so close to God and each other. Thats how we got out of the ocean to get back to our umbrella, we made a change in our marriage to put God first and spouse second.
When I asked if there was a time in your life that you were closer to God than you are today, how did you answer? Is your relationship with God important enough to you to get out of the ocean and get back to the umbrella, back to Him? I hope so.
God loves you and I do too!
The analogy that Brad used was drifting at the beach. Have you ever been playing in the ocean and just get caught up in either having fun or just watching your kids that you didn't realize it but before you know it your beach umbrella is about 1/2 mile up the beach? The ocean's current is a slow pull and as long as you aren't trying to go against it, you don't even notice that it is pulling you away from home. That's the way life is. As long as we just go along with it, we don't notice that it is pulling us away from home, away from our first love. But just like trying to swim against the current, it is hard to go against the flow to get back to God.
Drifting from God happens so easily when you aren't carefull. It's so easy to get caught up in our day to day life and lose sight of what's really important, our relationship with God. For some it's our kids while for others it may be a job. For some it could be your marriage. The best way to get back to your beach umbrella is to get out of the ocean and walk back. The same holds true with God. The best way to get back to Him is to get out of the life that is pulling you from Him, get away from what has pulled you down the beach.
I don't know about you but being married is fun for Kim and me. We have a great relationship and love each other completely. We enjoy each others company so much that, before this year, we had put too much focus on each other and not enough focus on God.
It was this time last year when God called us out on it. He showed us if we put our focus on Him and work on our individual relationships with God then our marriage would be stronger and our relationship with each other would be better. He was so right. We have put God first in our lives and now we are so close to God and each other. Thats how we got out of the ocean to get back to our umbrella, we made a change in our marriage to put God first and spouse second.
When I asked if there was a time in your life that you were closer to God than you are today, how did you answer? Is your relationship with God important enough to you to get out of the ocean and get back to the umbrella, back to Him? I hope so.
God loves you and I do too!
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