May 24, 2013

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Out-Loving Your Spouse

February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Love Your Spouse

With Valentine’s day tomorrow, the information below may be the best gift you could give your spouse.  Below is an excerpt from marriage relationship experts Pam and Bill Farrel.  Pam and Bill Farrel have been married for over 30 years and have authored over 35 books including the best selling book Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti:

“While writing our newest devotional book, A Couple’s Journey with God, we had the opportunity to stay on a beautiful farm. Within minutes of meeting John and Barb Schaller, we knew they had an unusual love. Barb found it easy to gush about how blessed and fortunate she found it to be married to John. John found it easy to compliment a wife he was obviously endeared to by the gleam in his eyes. They are our peers in marriage, married about the same amount of time as Bill and I – over three decades! When I asked Barb the secret of their long-lasting love, she said, ‘My husband forgives easily. He is full of grace, mercy and forgiveness.’ When we asked John the same question, his reply was similar: ‘My wife knows how to keep giving love when people are hard to love. She loves unconditionally and tenaciously.’ Notice it is really just two sides of the same coin: he loves without limits and she is limitless in her love.” 

“How does one go about building a legacy of love that passes from generation to generation? Follow John and Barb’s pattern… and simply out-serve one another. Love is an action verb and it is best expressed with a servant’s attitude. What is a servant’s attitude?  Philippians Chapter 2, Verses 3-7 captures it best when it simply says:

‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very naure of a servant…’” 

http://www.thefish959.com/FamilyFeatures/Out-Loving-Your-Spouse

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The Benefits of Pilates

January 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Benefits of Pilates

What areas of the body benefit most from a Pilate’s workout?  Google gathered statistics of the most popular Internet exercises searched in 2012. The list below is the result of those findings and it just so happens that each of the items listed below are also focus areas from a Pilates workout.  Here is Google’s list of the top 10:

  1. Abs
  2. Shoulders
  3. Chest
  4. Lower Back
  5. Triceps
  6. Neck
  7. Biceps
  8. Hamstrings
  9. Calves
  10. Glutes

Then there is an added bonus, Pilates also works the quads.  Basically it works all the major muscles in your body.  Why the sudden interest you may ask?  My wife has been given the opportunity to teach “mat” Pilates at church and so I watch her study each night in preparation for the next morning’s wellness program.   In my 30 year marriage I have found whatever gets my wife’s attention, gets mine as well.  After all, marriage is about love, respect, cleaving, and becoming one flesh.  At least that is what the designer of marriage has to say on the topic in Ephesians 5:25, 5:31, 5:33 / Genesis 2:24.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/01/04/top-10-google-searches-most-popular-exercises/

 

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How To Stay Married For 7 Decades

August 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo By Alex C. Hicks Jr.

This October, my wife and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary.  We began dating in high school and stayed together for five years before we married.  That means we have been together for 35 years.  Seems pretty amazing …not that we have been together for 35 years, but the fact that someone could put up with me for that length of time. 

Then I read the article listed below about Mattie Belle and J.W. Duncan who would consider the length of time my wife and I have been together as “only the beginning”.   The article says they have been married for 72 years…yikes!  Here is what they say is the secret to their success:

“When asked what has kept them together for more than seven decades, J.W. said it’s a combination of love and faith. ‘If you pray together, you stay together. Our faith has kept us together,’ he said. ‘We believe in the Bible, taking nothing from it and adding nothing to it.’”

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120727/articles/207271003/1101/duncan_couple_credits_shared_beliefs_for_year_marriage;jsessionid=962A08D7931948BD6F019BDEF4407854.m2?p=1&tc=pg

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Just Not Now

May 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lolo Jones, an Olympic hurdler who is 29 years old has confessed to being a virgin. I guess I am writing this blog on this subject because I am amazed that the choice for “abstinence” until married has become known as an alternate lifestyle… an alternate lifestyle? 

I like her attitude.  She said she was tired of answering the question, “Why are you still single?”  So she finally told the media she is saving herself for marriage.  She stated in a recent interview that remaining a virgin has been harder than training to become an Olympian.  However, she also said that her focus on being an Olympian has helped because of the discipline it has taught her.

She has a motto that can be shared with young women today who are finding it difficult to remain pure before marriage.  She believes the old motto of “Just say no” is not correct.  She says, “Just not now”.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)

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Top 2 Rules For Marriage Success

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

My wife and I recently celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary.  As I reflected on this monumental occasion, I realized how much time and effort we have invested into trying to discover how to keep a marriage, not just together, but full of love, friendship, and joy. 

Most experts in this field believe that the two most common causes for divorce are lack of communications and money.  Although I don’t doubt their expertise, I do believe there is an underlying cause for both of these problems.  The underlying cause is pride.

Think about it.  If the communication level in your relationship is poor, it’s probably because one or both of you have decided, I don’t feel like talking or I don’t care what he/she has to say or I have a lot on my mind or I need my own space…How about the issue of money, I just want nice things or I just need that $60,000 vehicle or I need to stay in the best hotel, or I have to wear the most stylish clothing, it’s all about pride.

My wife and I have adopted the 100:0 rule.  This means give 100% of yourself expecting nothing in return.  Can we always accomplish this goal…no.  But more often then not we do and it makes for a great marriage with a wonderful person. 

Rule #2:  Forgive each other…it goes a long way.

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