Ladies, God cares about the choices we make because they impact our lives as well as others.
I appreciate the writings of Francis Schaeffer who is now with the Lord. He pointed out that there is no distinction between sacred and spiritual. All of life, minus sin, is lived out before the eyes of the Lord. He wants us to live in this physical world with integrity in our personal lives as well as our spiritual lives. Because they overlap.
We have a tendency to think that brushing our teeth or exercise is not a godly action. Well, it is. Cause you are caring for the body that belongs to God. I used to think changing diapers did not seem particularly spiritual. But ladies, it is. You are caring for a child, and that is all part of raising that baby with love and graciousness.
We need to live a balanced life where we keep the important things important and focus on eternityLet’s talk about the fruit of the spirit: That is if you are walking with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, your life will have these qualities.
Galatians 5:22 – 23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Did you hear self-control? That includes not blowing up in anger, but it also includes good diet and good sleep habits.
Laurie Boulden is my guest today. She has just written the book Weighed Down. The main character learns balance in her life.
I don’t know if you have an itch to be perfect, but I do. I was a straight a student in school, and I worked so hard not to make any mistakes. That tendency to long for good grades has snuck into my everyday life. I cannot bear to err. And I know I fail all the time. The older I get, the more I am aware of the wickedness that resides in me. I wish it was not there.
Romans 3:23 says “For All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Everyone agrees none of us are perfect, but some have a leaning toward different sins. Sin separates us from God, but the consequences of some sins are more extreme than others.
Either way, we can become snared in sin and be unable to free ourselves.
In 2 Peter, the apostle speaks of false teachers when he writes: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” This verse makes it clear that a person can become a slave of sin. Fortunately, the Apostle John shares “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Bob Fife was enslaved by homosexuality for twenty years. His book, Out, tells his story of breaking free.
We’ve often covered topics relating to our responsibilities as parents, and we’ve discussed this passage in Deuteronomy. “…you shall teach them [God’s Laws} diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” That’s pretty intense because you will be teaching all the time.
Teaching the Bible to your children can be challenging since you have developmental issues mixing with doctrinal issues. And I am going to tell a couple stories about myself.
When I was young, I attended a church that was very missions oriented. They had mission conferences often and people would come forward saying God called them. Lots of them talked about how they didn’t want to be on the mission field, but they were miserable not following God. I assumed if you didn’t want to do missions, then God had called you. That was the last thing I wanted, which meant I had to do it. So I said God called me to be a missionary.
The other story is about my family. Mom and Dad had a name for each grandparent. For instance, my grandmother on Dad’s side was Granddad Thomas. On mother’s side, it was Granddad Cofer. My uncle was Eugene. I never saw his name, so as a child, I envisioned his name to be U.Gene because he was my uncle. It made sense to me that the U was a shortened form of Uncle. Once I grew up and heard the name Eugene, I realized my mistake.
Both of these stories show that children think differently when they are young. Realizing their developmental stage helps to understand how our children might get confused. My guest is Jann Martin, who holds a degree in Elementary Education.
Lasting Love: A Story from History with Angela Breidenbach
Doesn’t everyone want lasting love?
We have just celebrated Valentine’s Day. Now everyone is either eating candy or watching their flowers wilt or wishing someone gave them candy and roses. Our society suffers from an obsession with love, and yet we can’t even define it. We love our homes, our cars, our pets, and our spouses. Whenever this emotion takes hold of us we must obey its bidding. We can fall in love and out of love quickly. Using Scripture, we can define love. (Of course, we have to go back to 30 a.d. to the time when the church began. the disciples wrote what they learned from Jesus.) The love God has for us is called agape. It’s a love that impacts the will, seeking the best for the one loved. Agape not based primarily
Using Scripture, however, we can define love. (Of course, we have to go back to 30 a.d. to the time when the church began. The disciples wrote what they learned from Jesus.) The love God has for us is called agape. It’s a love that impacts the will, seeking the best for the one loved. Agape is not based primarily in the emotions, although emotion comes along with it. Jesus demonstrated agape when he came to earth. He left his glory behind and came to die for our sins.
Agape love does unselfish acts of service regardless of what the emotions appear to dictate. This is the kind of love that lasts. Ladies, you and I know our emotions ride a roller coaster depending on the state of our hormones and the amount of sleep we get. If we truly care about someone, we will agape love them whether we feel the emotion or not. Many times, we choose to act, and those emotions come later.
Today Angela Breidenbach shares a story of love from the history of her family:
3:50 Your grandfather married your grandmother to keep her reputation?
Doesn’t everyone long for that perfect spouse that loves her forever? How can you achieve that?
There’s a huge interest in genealogical research today. People want to know their family tree, and they’ll go to great lengths to do that. Because of the internet, more information of that kind is available. There are several online sites where you can find such information if you are willing to pay. Even in a sluggish economy, people opt in. Family is important, but broken relationships there can also be the more painful than any other. While friendships may not last, we often we don’t expect as much from our friends as we do family.
It’s interesting that while we long to know our family tree. Marrigaes are falling apart. The divorce rate is ridiciulous and many couples aren’t even getting married now. But let’s face it. From Genesis, Marriage forms the core of family. God preformed the first wedding ceremony. A man and a woman had a child and that was the family.
We are nearing valentines day, and there’s talk of love. Because of this emotion, love, people insist they must act as they feel. Red roses and chocolate candy can be found everywhere. Do those things constitute the kind of love that lasts? if not, then why?
Today I have Dianne Barker, and she has been married to the same man for fifty years. Presently she is writing a book about how to have a good marriage. She’s going to give us some tips. 2:00 Tell us the story of your marriage.
8:25 What were some of the differences you saw and how did you learn to accommodate?
11:47 Resolving Conflict
17:10 What if something he said hurt your feelings? What would you do?
21:45 How does your husband express love?
23:00 How did you come to understand how he expressed love?
You can overcome abuse, and we are going to talk about how that’s done.
The mind is incredible. God designed us so we can access our memories and relive events. As we do that the emotions wash over us again as if it was happening in that moment. In fact, that’s one reason Worry is bad for us because we imagine something bad happening and our bodies respond as if it did happen. All the negative chemicals start flowing through our bodies. Those bad chemicals can make us ill.
Ladies, If you’ve lived very long, you’ve been through heartrending stuff, you’ll have baggage. Stuff from the past that weighs you down and impacts your actions and even reactions. What can we do about that?
2 Cor. 10 5 says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
Today we are going to talk about how you can implement that verse and how Scripture can help you heal:
I have Becky Harling with me, and she wrote, Rewriting Your Emotional Script
2:25 Why pray Scripture? Isn’t that magical thinking?
3:12 How can God heal you with the Word?
4:00 How can we be ‘poor in spirit’?
5:30 We need God.
6:45 How is letting go different from being a victim
