The good thing about coming up with my "Good Life Rule #4" is that it reminded me of my "Good Life Rules #1, #2 & #3. (And since I just figured out this "post" thing, I thought it was time to share.)
Good Life Rule #1: Love
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." -Matt. 22:37
"You are my Lord; Apart from You I have no good thing." -Ps. 16:2
Everything good and right in this life trickles down from this love. If this is right in my life I probably don't really even need any other life rules.
Good Life Rule #2: Forgive
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
-Ephesians 4:32
"I believed that if you were really in love and really soul mates, there would be this cosmic resonance, filled with huge chunks of agreement. What a crock! If only I'd known then that there are about three or four issues that are vital to life and about seven billion other details that don't really matter at all, I could have saved myself (and John!) boatloads of stress."
Good Life Rule #3: Pray
"For the sake of His great name the Lord will not reject His people, because the Lord was pleased to make you His own.
As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.
And I will teach you the way that is good and right"
-1 Sam 12:22-24
"There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him." --William Law
"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"-- Corrie Ten Boom
"Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work." --Oswald Chambers
As Mary Ellen already mentioned, "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" , whether we like it or not it's the way it is!
So we strive to Love and Forgive and Pray, to be the "therefore", ...giving our husbands the strength to say "I can present myself as a living sacrifice, acceptable to God which is my spiritual service of worship"
This is so good, Anita! You have such a great way of bringing it back to the basics. We DO get so wrapped up in the little stuff and then when it gets so out of control we wonder why didn't I keep it simple? I would save myself and others a whole lot of time plus I would be spending more time loving, forgiving and praying rather than taking a few hundred turns on the hamster wheel of doom! Thanks for your insight that will be what I write on the mirror this week :)
ReplyDeleteAll this to say...On top of striving for outward showing of love and respect I want to be a better "therefore" a better "for that reason", "as a result of". Do a better job at doing what I'm supposed to so that he can be who he is supposed to be...even while he struggles with those things.
ReplyDeleteI have to say this is a side of Anita I've never experienced... I love it. Very encouraging and to the point. Glad to know that not only we are growing in our marital relationships but with the women at church as well. Awesome!
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