Marriage by Grace ~ Captured and Transformed by God's Amazing Grace
~ "However, let each man of you [without exception] loves his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that
she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him;
and that she defers him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly.]" Ephesians 5:33 ~
My Beloved Spencer,
I promise...
I will love you forever,
I will speak life into you,
I will treat you with respect,
I will support you,
I will be silly with you,
I will cry with you,
I would die for you,
I promise -
Always.
Your Best Friend ~ Tina
This poem was written By:
(c) Eurydice Stanley
~My Personal Memes~
My Prayer for this blog as well as my other three is the same prayer that Shannon Woodward has in her wonderful book:"A Whisper in Winter"
She writes;
"My prayer is that as you read through these stories,(my post) you'll begin to rest in God's perfect love, and maybe for the first time in a long while you'll stop struggling and striving.
Open your eyes and look up, and you'll see an amazing site: God is looking right back at you. He can't help it. Your Father loves you so much. He can't take
His eyes off you."
My personal prayer; my heart is that through my life and through God's wisdom and blessings that He has bestowed upon me, will reach out to all of you. That you will see my
heart to serve, love and nuture my beloved husband. That most importantly you will feel God's Amazing Grace through this site and it will so capture and transform
the way you live your life and the way you honor and represent your husband. May you adorn your husbands head with the finest gold and the most
precious jewels in the land. Amen
*The Excellent Wife
*Helper by Design
*Under the Apple Tree
*Romancing Your Husband
*Loving Your Spouse Through Prayer
*Liberated Through Submission
*Masters Degree
*Gentle Grace
~ 6 Way to Help Him Be the Spiritual Leader of Your Home ~
* Encourage him to be the spiritual leader at home.
When he leads be ready to follow.
* Pray God's Word over him daily. Pray over every area of his life.
* Encourage him to find an accountability partner, besides yourself, a
trusted and spiritual male friend. One that he can be transparent with and
one who shares his same beliefs in God, family and church.
* Help him make good use of his time. Time is critical to sustaining a spiritual
walk. A husband's schedule is often hectic, long, and stressful.
* Maintain a clean and organized home. Try your best to make the atmosphere
run smoothly and peacefully. Set aside a place in the home for him to be able
to study and read the word of God.
* Acknowledge his efforts around the house, do not nag him daily.
"But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully];
for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore,
I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes,
may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!
"As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be proud and arrogant and contemptuous of others, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment."
1 Timothy 6:17
In the last Pearls of Wisdom we learned that a great marriage requires our effort, but did you know that it also needs fun. We have got to remember that keeping the spark in our marriage only happens if we keep the mindsets we had in the beginning.
My sweet husband and I continue to this day, to go out every Friday. This is our time, our date night. I find myself every week looking forward to that night. Raising 6 children in our home can have so many highs and lows (more highs!!), but even with all the love that we have for them, we look forward to spending time together. Just us, no children!!
Some people have said to us, "You all are being so selfish!" Well you know what I can only respond with a sorry, but we believe we are giving our children the best gift possible. When we set time aside to keep our marriage strong, to fall in love over and over again, to live in love, we are giving them security.
I will tell you that the children watch. My children are always making cute little comments about daddy is taking mom out to dinner and if he buys me flowers, a card, or something special they notice that too.
You see we are the blueprint to our children of what marriage is to look like as well as what our relationship with Christ should look like. For those two reasons alone is why we put our marriage as top priority, under our personal relationship with Christ, but not under our ministry!
I do not know how many times I have seem married couples who are called by God into a specific ministry, gets so involved into that calling, that they forget they have a married life. I know two right now where I live and their marriage is falling apart. One of the couples we found out just filed for divorce. The devil is busy!
I do want to say I believe that ministry is important, but I also believe that marriage comes first.
God ordained marriage in the beginning. Like I said earlier, marriage was a blueprint for us to show the world how Jesus and the Church work together. Even in that realm when we really look deep into it and ask, "Would God have me put my ministry or calling above the Him?"
No!, You see even in my relationship with Jesus (symbolizing my husband) I am to seek God first, not my calling/ministry! I was born to worship Him and to minister to Him first. Jesus before ministry. There are many people serving ministry, but never serving JESUS! They are serving in vain.
Same in marriage, we work on our marraige first. We represent the "church relationship," This is why God says to a minister that his house is to be in order. He cannot take care of the physical church, if his domestic church is messed up.
I say all this to say, "Have fun, keep the spark alive and take time out for the two of you, always!!"
When was the last time you went out to eat? Went to the movies together, alone? Went to the park and had a picnic? Had a snow fight? or even flew a kite together?
Yes, keep your love child-like. Are we not that way with God? Ladies, when I stand next to my beloved husband, I always ask myself, "Can the world see Jesus in us? Do we exhibit 1 Corinthians 13 love? Oh, that is my hearts prayer, to let me be love to this world, but it starts at home first.
Prayer: "Dear Lord, I know that marriage is your gift to us. How beautiful was your plan to allow us to represent our relationship with you through our marriage. Lord, let me stand up and take that responsibility seriously. I love you so much Lord anf I know my calling as a wife. Show me where you have hidden all the precioous jewels for my husbands crown. Direct my feet onto each chosen path. Let me find each one so that I might place them in his crown. I want him to shine in the cities gates and I know that I play a huge role in that. Thank you for trusting me to represent the churches love and respect for you."
We want to impliment a date night at least every other week, but hopefully every week. I don't think it is being selfish at all. When all the kids leave home, I still have to live with this man of mine. And if there is no relastionship there because we focused solely on the kids, what are we going to have left but a room mate relationship?? I have seen it happen to others, including my own inlaws. Oh Lord, this is the last thing I want to happen!!!
What a wonderful post! I agree that a husband and wife need to take time out to nurture their marriage relationship. Whether it's going out to eat or spending some time together after the children go to bed, a husband and wife need to make time for one another that is spent with just the two of them together. I agree with you that by spending that one on one time with one another, we provide security to our children.
Take care,
Karen
www.homesteadblogger.com/tagblog
www.homeschoolblogger.com/salt
Marriage alone can be difficult, but when we choose daily to love as God loves and to grace our spouse the way God graces us. Not only will your marriage be beautiful, but you will find yourself captured and transformed by God's Amazing Grace. You will see with new eyes, speak with new words and love on a much deeper level. Won't you choose this day to pray and speak God's life-changing word over your beloved spouse? I promise, you will NEVER be the same, as an individual, nor as a couple. Grace is waiting will you allow it to capture your heart?
Just a Thought....
"The Value of Life does not depend on the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place." ~~~St. Therese of Lisieux
~My Ministries: The Father's Heart~
My desire is to see women set free. To see them walk into their God-given destinies. To share with them how to walk in God's Amazing Grace
in all that they do. To see themselves as completely His and designed uniquely by Him for His purposes. See my profile below:
A valued treasure I have learned as a wife, is to love my beloved husband unconditionally, full of grace.
I also have to thank Pamela Hines for her wonderful book: A Wife's Prayer.
She has taught me so much about the importance of praying and speaking the Word over my husband.
I have learned that instead of nagging and complaining to my husband about those qualities or situations that annoy me, I take them to God in prayer.
It has caused me to search and to know the scriptures.
You see, when I am faced with a difficulty in my marriage now. Here is what God has taught me to do:
*I get on my knees before the Lord. *I take it to Him in prayer. *I ask Him to reveal any selfish way in me. To remove it and to show me
His will in the matter. *I ask Him for a word to stand on. *I find any scriptures that pertains to the matter and I place my husbands name in the Word and I speak
life into that situation.*Then I love him with grace and let go and let God
Ladies, I promise! If you choose each day to wake up and to walk in love and grace, to honor and respect him no matter what! YOU WILL SEE CHANGE.
You will find yourself seeing your beloved husband through the eyes of our Lord Jesus. You will find yourself not being selfish, but selfless. You will find that you
speak to him with much more love, you enjoy and delight in picking up after him and doing for him. You will find that you want to please him in all that you do.
It caused me to fall in love with my husband all over again. Not to mention my love for God has gotten even deeper, which amazed me, because I adore Him with all my heart.
Most importantly, it will causes your husband to take delight in you and to trust you with his heart, completely! My husband tells me all the time he feels secure and trust me
with his heart. That statement alone is all I long to hear.
We represent the church. One day we will lay a crown at the feet of Jesus. Our life allows us to
fill that crown with jewels that represent what we did here on earth.
Today, I am a precious crown on my husbands head. What jewels have I placed in his crown?
What do I as a crown, say when others see my husband? Do I bring shame or honor to him? When I am seen do others admire our marriage? Or are they saying to themselves, "I am glad she isn't my wife!"
Proverbs 31:11 says, "The heart of her husband trust in her confidently and relies on and believes in her securely, so that he has not lack of [honest] gain or need of [dishonest] spoil.
Does my husband trust me? The word also says, "She comforts, encourages, and does him only good as long has there is life with in her." Do I do this? The word says, "Her husband is KNOWN in the city gates, when he sets among the elders."
How is he know? Ladies, we have a great influence over our men. Let us influence them to be more like Christ.
Let us begin to speak the word over them and see them with God's eyes. You will be so glad you did.
Here is a wonderful site as well that refers to 31 Days of Prayer for our Husbands.
![However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]. Ephesians 5:33](http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u159/ladolcevitabacon/blogs/Challenge.jpg)
