This Isn't the Time

So much I'd love to post, but my friends, this is not the time! Of all the priorities in my life as I seek to serve the Lord and my family during this Christmas season, the blog's got to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to follow up on more posts about what the Lord's been teaching me regarding marriage in the new year. Maybe over the next week I'll have a chance to post some updates about the kids...you know-posts that take little time and can just be plopped up here. We'll see!

A couple Tali quotes from today:

To Owen as he stood up on his own: "Oh, duhd, dob, bruh-duh! I'm powd of you!"

To Owen when he got up from his nap: "Oh, hi bruh-duh! Hi, baby bruh-duh! How wuz yuh nap, Owey? It wuz duhd? Whud you do up dare in yuh trib?"

To her baby and blankie, "Oh baby...oh bane-kee...I dust love you sooo muts!"

"Oh Lord...oh Lord...you an-suh my pay-uh!"

And my favorite quote from Owey today. He was signing it and saying it while looking out the window at the beautiful white snow falling down: "N-OH!!!!! N-OH!!!!!" (snow)

I look forward to updating about his chattyness sometime...this boy is following in the footsteps of his sissy and talking up a storm!

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The Privilege of a Wife: Mirroring God's Character

I started reading the book that Jodi had suggested and was immediately challenged by the questions the author posed. Here are just a few:

Why did God give Adam a wife?

If an outsider observed your daily routine, would he say that befriending your husband is important to you? How would he be able to tell?

How does God's covenant with you impact your relationship with your husband?

Maybe these answers come easily to you, but to me that wasn't quite the case. As I read, I realized that my ideas and beliefs about marriage weren't very thought out. I wasn't quite sure how I would answer the questions above. Prior to marriage I had been really excited about the idea of marriage, couldn't wait to get married, and wanted to honor God in marriage. I had been taught well by various books, premarital counseling, messages at our church, meetings at the Pastor's College, etc. about what God teaches regarding marriage. But, in my heart I didn't really buy into the whole purpose of being a wife. I was mostly just excited about being in love with Josh and loving my husband is basically what fueled my behavior towards him-not scripture.

Through the first chapter that I read, entitled, "In His Image," the Lord opened my eyes afresh to the amazing opportunity given to me to mirror His character in my marriage. I hadn't done much thinking about that before. What a beautiful privilege! I can mirror God's character in my marriage. But how do I do that?

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The Privilege of a Wife: Orienting My Life, pt.2

(Since it's 29 degrees here today, I thought a little warm photo might cheer me up!)

It's been a while. But...back in this post, I talked about how the Lord started showing me that I wasn't seeking to be the wife that He's called me to be. I was living for myself and my plans and my agenda. My life was oriented around myself.

As I was thinking about posting more on this, I realized that I was skipping the Gospel. Before talking about ordering priorities to prioritize our husbands, we need to first remember the Gospel. Whether you're married or single, a woman or a man, our lives should be centered on the Gospel. I'm so grateful that our church reiterates this again and again; we never move on from the Gospel. We don't become Christians and then "move on" to other things like prayer, evangelism, bible study, etc. and forget the cross. The cross is the whole point of our lives! Without the cross, we would still be left in our sin! Without the cross, we would have no hope in this life. Without the cross, we would have no power to change. As CJ puts it, we need to "keep the main thing the main thing." Are you keeping the main thing the main thing?

As we start to consider how we, as wives, are called to orient our lives, let's remember that the Gospel always comes first. But, what comes second? For this lady, what came next was none other than...me, myself, and I. :) (Not quite what the Lord had in mind.)

I'm so grateful for the wonderful ladies in my small group who so helpfully shared thoughts with me about growing in loving my husband. One of those ladies, Jodi, pointed me to a book by Elyse Fitzpatrick that she said had really helped her in this area. Jodi is a wife who puts Christ first and then faithfully puts her husband second. She exemplifies in her marriage Philippians 2:3-4: "in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." She has been such a wonderful example to me of a wife who orients her life around her husband and I've seen the beautiful fruit of it in her marriage. I was eager to check out a book that had helped her. Let's just say, I didn't know quite what I was getting myself into...

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