Encouragers Need Encouragment...

More than likely, as you are reading this post, you may be experiencing brain overload. You have things to do and not even hours in a day to get them all done.
Yes, it only takes about 2 minutes to read every post that I have ever written, scripture included.
That's on purpose.
I know that you have a zillion other things that need to be done and that you could be doing, so I have made it my life's ambition to give you everything that you need from me in under 90 seconds.
It's not an assumption; go ahead and time me.
Anyhoo, seeing as how this is the season of giving and Thanksgiving is a mere three days away, Your laundry list may be even longer than usual. And if it's anything like mine, it doesn't even have laundry on it. There's a turkey to defrost and cakes to frost and carpets to vacuum and tablecloths to iron...
Do people really do that?
I just want to slow you down for a minute to tell you thank you...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"Always be joyful.

Never stop praying.

Be thankful in all circumstances,

For this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."

 

 

I am grateful for the awesome wife that you are to your husband. I know how it feels to be underappreciated, and I never want you to think that I don't notice the click and the views of this little blog. I love that you are constantly trying to become a better woman and a better wife. I thank you for clicking on my links every Monday, or whenever you decide to see what we're up to.

I say thank you to all of you that have downloaded my book, purchased a t shirt, or even shared/like our status updates on Facebook. I appreciate everyone that participated in our WifeStyle giveaway last month and helped to make our anniversary a success.

Thank you to everyone who has chuckled with us, shed tears with us and given us a kind thought. All of the comments, emails and inboxes have not gone unnoticed.

I pray that your holidays are great, the turkey isn't dry, and the tablecloth be wrinkle free.

No really, do people really iron tablecloths???

Thank you for the awesome wife that you are.
And while you are in the mood to thank, why not thank your husband too? *wink wink*



Start Where We Agree...

"Start with what we agree on"...
I heard someone use this phrase while talking about running a productive business. The speaker was talking about how he built, expanded and an a multi-million dollar conglomerate for 10+ years without ever being in the red. Since I am endeavoring to advance the Insane Wives brand myself, this conversation perked up my ears.
Without going into too much detail, the speaker was talking about his board of directors and how they got along and made successful decisions. Realizing that everyone will not agree on everything all of the time, this man, as the President and CEO, decided that, instead of wasting time arguing over the things that they did not and could not seem to agree on, they focused on advancing the things that they did agree on.
And, since I am a firm believer that marriage is partially a business arrangement, this caused me to think about us and the things that we can do to improve the state of our marriages.

Amos 3:3

"Can two people walk together

without agreeing on the direction?"

 

No business will ever produce a good product or service if those on the board do not agree on how to produce or market the product. In the same way, no marriage will ever become long-lasting and full of love if you and your husband are in disagreement about everything. There is no reason to try and build a life with someone who has a totally different perspective on everything than you do. I don't care how handsome they are, or how rich they are, or how good their sex might be. But, seeing as how you may already be a wife, you can't just divorce your husband because you don't like the way he loads the dishwasher.
No, you really can't.
So let's bypass the things that we disagree with on for a moment and build up the things that we do actually agree on. We aren't going to ignore them, per se, but there's nothing wrong with a little back-burner action for a minute. Focusing on the things that can be productive first will actually keep you from wasting time arguing and being upset with one another. And let's face it, your husband is a problem solver. Start making long, drawn out speeches to plead your side of the case will not help the situation at all. Agree on it, start doing it, and move on.
Where do you and your husband work best together? Child-rearing? Finances? Dinner menus? Date nights? I don't believe that they topic of conversation really matters. But build from what works. Once you are able to better handle the good things, they might produce insight on how to rectify the bad ones...

Why Did I Get Married?

Have you ever asked yourself this question?
Or, if you aren't married, why are you in the relationship you are in, just change the words a little bit to why do you want to get married?
I'm asking because some people make choices and don't really know why they made them. So, if things start to go wrong, the whole relationship falls apart quickly because the initial foundation wasn't strong enough.
Think about a house made of cards. It might be extremely impressive, but one wrong blow of exasperation and the whole shebang is destroyed. All that time spent, all those plans made and all that effort goes down the drain because it was made with flimsy material.
The reason does matter.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that God causes everything to work together

 for the good of those who love God

and are called according to his purpose for them."



Not too long ago, my husband told me that he married me because I was pregnant. He did love me and he did eventually want to marry me, but he wasn't ready, and it was evident in his attitude toward our relationship. Of course, this hurt me a lot. I felt like our entire marriage was a lie. I married him because I was on love with him and wanted to be his wife. To know that his reasons were the total opposite made me rethink our entire relationship. I felt as though I had been deceived. Our marriage was built on the wrong foundation, and after that, the foundation continued to crumble and so did the marriage. But God knew what He was doing. He had to break the whole thing down so that the foundation could be set correctly.
Please understand, that issues will arise, but God knows the issue before it even presents itself. He know when it will start, what will happen and how it will end. It may start off bad and seem even worse for a while, but God will work it all our for your good and for His glory.
Don't think that things magically got better either. We had to build this sucker back up brick by brick. But now the foundation is solid. It won't fall over when a breeze comes through, and it stand up pretty well against the storms we had so far.
Why did you get married? Has your foundation stood the tests of time?

Ugh... Resistance Training...

I am not a fan of exercise.
Don't worry. My dislike/hate relationship with exercise is no secret to anyone. Sometimes I go through these phases where I will work out consistently for a few weeks then fall off.
But please believe that those few weeks I do exercise I give it everything I've got.
Anyway, there are so many exercises for a person to choose from: running, swimming, kickboxing, biking. The list is seemingly endless. However, of all of the exercise that I love to hate, resistance training is perhaps the most tolerable for me.
Whether using weight from an outside source of working with your own weight, resistance training is a way to develop and strengthen your muscles. Either pushing or pulling another object with a controlled movement, works the muscles in your body in order to get stronger as well as possibly burn excess fat.
So, what about the resistance we come up against in life? In marriage? Much like the exercise type, marriage resistance builds muscle as well.
Oh how I wish that it burned actual fat, but I'll take what I can get.
Every obstacle that we come up against is resistance. The more we come up against it, work against it, and overcome it, the stronger our marriage will get. The key to the strength is that you and your husband don't push in different directions. The key is to push together.

Ephesians 4:16

"...from whom the whole body, joined and

held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly,

makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

 

Your marriage is like a body. You and your husband operate different parts of the body at different times. However, in order for the body to work successfully, the different parts of the body have to work together. If the left leg wants to go right, and the right leg wants to go left, no one is going to get anywhere. One accord it the key.

So how does this work into the resistance training? Right here. If an obstacle arises, and you want to handle it one way while your husband wants to handle it another, chaos will soon present itself. Yes, the end result is a solution to the problem, but if both of you tackle the resistance in different ways, you will soon begin to resist each other. That leads to arguments, which leads to space, which can lead to places that both of you don't want to go.

Working together against the resistance is important so that you and your man will grow strong together.

Work together, grow together, stay together.

That's an exercise I can get behind...