60 Second Relationship Boosts

Read this today and LOVED it! Great ideas for all the relationships in our lives.

It's not a secret, it's science: good relationships are a major source of happiness in our lives. As healthy adults, we have relationships with friends, parents, spouses, partners, children and ourselves, to name a few. But like anything important, all of them sometimes require work and tune-ups. If you want to quickly warm up your connection with the people closest to you, or spark a better relationship with others, these little boosts can provide BIG results, in 60-seconds or less.

Here are a few examples:

-          Partner. Think of your partner's favorite drink, snack or dessert, and stop at the store to grab it today. People love when you 'know' them, and it's truly the little things that mean a lot.

-          Friends. For a friendship that you'd like to resuscitate, send a short, thoughtful email or text. Something as simple as, "I heard 'NSYNC' on the radio today and it made me think of you. Miss you and would love to talk soon!”

-          Kids. During dinner, fill their emotional buckets with a compliment. Tell your kids something specific that you love about them or what they bring to your family. They will treasure that and remind them of that again when they're going to bed.

-          Coworkers. Buy a treat for the members of your team — could be something small like picking up a dozen donuts at the drive through on the way to work. Only takes a minute with a little pre-planning, and will make the office a sweeter place that day.

-          Yourself. Make a list of seven things that make you happy when you do them, and commit to doing at least one per day this week.

Day 22: Season Your Speech with Grace

(From www.ReviveOurHearts.com 31 Days of Encouraging Your Husband)

"Let your speech always be gracious." ~ Colossians 4:6

Do you talk positively about your husband to others...or do you complain and criticize? Here's a way to find out - ask yourself: If all my family and friends knew about my husband came from a filter of what I've said about him, what would they think of him?

Your speech should reflect 1 Corinthians 13 love. Your words should be kind and should never "rejoice in wrongdoing" (v. 6). Refrain from listing your husband's faults to others. Satan likes to trick us in this area. Be wary of sharing barbed "prayer requests." Some of what you say may come back to him - and you want your words to be sweet, building him up and never tearing him down. Don't forget, you are always criticizing-or encouraging-before an audience. God hears your conversations when you are alone with your husband in your own home. May your speech be always seasoned with grace. Focus today on how you represent your husband in your home. your church, and your community.

Action Step: Give a good word about him to others. Remember, "love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pet. 4:8). Present your husband before others today in a strong, positive manner. Slip in a good word for your spouse. Resist the urge to correct or belittle him in front of others.

A Wife's Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me for being quick to slip in a jab about my husband to others. This reveals sin in my heart even as I try to reveal his. Teach me how to praise his strengths; help to cover over his sin by refusing to betray his weaknesses to others, even as I trust You to deal with him in those areas.

Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Genesis 18:14

This is God's loving challenge to you and me each day. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, and worthiest desires and longings of our hearts. He wants us to think of those things that perhaps were desires for ourselves or someone dear to us, yet have gone unfulfilled for so long that we now see them as simply lost desires. And God urges us to think of even the one thing that we once saw as possible but have given up all hope of seeing fulfilled in this life.

That very thing, as long as it aligns with what we know to be His expressed will - as a son was to Abraham and Sarah - God intends to do for us. Yes, if we will let Him, God will do that very thing, even if we know if is such an utter impossibility that we would simply laugh at the absurdity of anyone ever suggesting it could come to pass.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" No, nothing is too diffiult when we believe in Him enough to go forward, doing His will and leting Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.

The only thing "too hard for the Lord" is our deliberate and continual disbelief in His love and power, and our ultimate rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is impossible for Jehovah to do for those who trust Him. ~ Streams in the Desert

*See Mark 6:5 and Matthew 13:56

Holding On To Hope

My husband recently interviewed Nancy Guthrie for his show and I got to meet her at her Trusting God conference I attended. Her book called What Grieving People Wish You Knew: What Really Helps and What Really Hurts had such an impact on me. It's one of those books I'll need to read a few times and full of so much wisdom as only one who has walked through suffering can write. Today, I just started reading Holding On To Hope: a pathway through suffering to the heart of God by Nancy Guthrie. Her story of deep loss and the strength of her faith as she wrestled through those bleak times has me riveted. Here are some quotes that have stood out to me so far as I'm reading:

"Where some...see defeat, Nancy finds triumph." ~ Time magazine

"Nancy Guthrie - having experienced deep pain and loss herself - challenges the brokenhearted to move beyond the question "Why?" Don't let your pain be wasted, she urges. Whether you're struggling with the death of a loved one or the death of a dream, embrace your sorrow - and discover its hidden gifts."

From her chapter on worship:

"Surely our worship in the midst of pain and sorrow is particularly precious to God - because it costs us so much. Worship is not made easier, but it becomes all the more meaningful when offered from a heart that is hurting.

The truth is, worship during these times can be some of the most meaningful worship we ever experience. Perhaps we are more fully equipped to worship than ever before because we are acutely aware of our desperate need for God and our own incapacitating weakness. We have our helplessness and inadequacy in proper perspective to God's power and sufficiency.

Do you want to find the heart of God in the darkness of your suffering? In the brokenness of overwhelming grief, would you set aside your feelings of disappointment and confusion - and even anger - and begin to worship God?

When you can't find your own words, would you open to the Psalms and use the words of David in praise and confession and lament?

Would you determine to worship God's worthiness and trust in his faithfulness even when the confusion and disappointment do not immediately disappear?"

From her chapter on suffering: "...God uses painful, difficult experiences of life for our ultimate good!...Early on in my journey, I said to God, "Okay, if I have to go through this, then give me everything. Teach me everything you want to teach me through this. Don't let this incredible pain be wasted in my life!...So I can actually embrace my pain. Would you believe I can thank God for this bitter but rich experience? I can, because I know God is good - that he allows good and bad into our lives and that we can trust him with both...Rather than running from your suffering or trying to pray it away, would you embrace it and look for God in it? Would you allow suffering to be your teacher so that you can learn something from it you never could have learned from comfort and ease? "

"...In our discouragement, we can be tempted to give up on God and stop praying, wondering, What good is it anyway? Sometimes what God has allowed into our lives is so bitter that we're hurt and angry and don't even want to talk to him about it.But where does that leave us? On our own. No resources, no truth to dispel the despair, no hope. The truth is, there is no comfort to be found away from God; at least, there is no lasting, deep, satisfying comfort. Revenge, ritual, retreat - they don't bring any lasting relief from the pain. Only the truth of God's Word, the tenderness of his welcome, the touch of his healing presence bring the kind of comfort we crave. Only his promises of purpose in this life and perfection in the life to come offer us any kind of real hope to hold on to."

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-churchleaders-podcast/id988990685?mt=2&i=377418040

Holding On to Hope: A Pathway through Suffering to the Heart of God https://www.amazon.com/dp/1414312962/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jbJiyb975KZ98

Husband Encouragement Challenge

https://www.reviveourhearts.com/articles/30-day-husband-encouragement-challenge/  (Click link for a printable PDF file)

I LOVE this 30 Days of Encouraging Your Husband Challenge by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth! Andrew and I discovered early in our dating days that we have the same love languages, which are words of affirmation and quality time. Loving him in these ways comes so naturally to me and I'm very thankful for that, but this challenge is helping me to be intentional about encouraging him in a variety of ways. Join me! :)