For all the fatherless children today this video is powerful! I hope you are listening men. Men, be a keeper. I pray you are listening women who are looking for a man to marry. Women, find a keeper.
Wedding Ring
Ever wonder why we wear our wedding ring on the fourth finger? Here’s a Chinese explanation.
Every Day He Tells Me And Shows Me How Much He Loves Me
Love is more than words and feelings, it’s action. It’s found in the little and big things in life. I know I am engulfed in God’s love for me. I am not so sure about the rest of the world’s love for me but God’s love, I know, is there for me daily. Even when it’s pouring rain in my life and I engulfed with trouble and battle I am loved and I know it. Even when I am not acting my best, I am secure and safe in the knowledge of God’s love.
The bible never commands a woman to love her man because she does so without effort. She is emotional by nature and so she loves and she loves deep. The bible commands a husband to love his wife. Why? Because men are more practical in thinking and so emotion doesn’t run high, they don’t always say they love their woman. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and my husband is staring at me. It kinda freaks me out because I think, was I snoring or drooling, why is he staring? When I ask him what is wrong he says he was just watching me sleep peacefully and he just loves me and is glad I am there next to him. It’s easy to love me when I’m sleeping because I am silent!
During the day, at some point in the day, or several points in the day, he tells me he loves me. Every great once in awhile though he doesn’t. Maybe he got busy or maybe he was angry or maybe.. my mind goes crazy with thoughts of why not but those days thankfully are very few and far between. He shows me he loves me when he does things he knows I like. When he makes the bed, yes it’s that simple or when he quits his video game playing when I come home late from a long day at work to pay attention to me. That doesn’t usually happen but when it does it’s great. When we go to mid-week church service and he doesn’t have to preach so we sit together and he rubs my neck as I take notes. It’s in those little things I didn’t ask for but I prayed for that I see his commitment to me and his love.
Find someone who thinks of you. Who is not selfish and who you don’t have to remind all the time that you are there and that as a woman you need something more. For you to feel secure in his love it must not come from nagging but from self propelled action. If he is not showing it before marriage, he will not show it after.
Light Up The World
I’m a big Desperation Band fan (thanks Casey)! Here is their new video and I LOVE IT! Check out the websites. Make a difference.
Have You Seen This?
Too cute! Parents will totally get this! Enjoy!
Shacking Up and Pregnant
Dear Pastor Susan,
What happens when a woman claims she’s a Christian but she’s shacking up and pregnant?
Well, she’s a liar, her life doesn’t match her words. Just because you think you’re something, doesn’t mean you are. I color my hair every six weeks or so, today I’m a chestnut brown-headed woman, this is how I would describe myself. I just got the new color this week, last week I had blonde highlights, but my roots are dark brown and show what color my hair really is! She also stains the name of Jesus. Seems really harsh huh? Here’s some scripture:
1 Samuel 15:22 Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices – empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.
2 Corinthians 6:1 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. 2 God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. 3 Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. 4 Our work as God’s servants gets validated – or not – in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; 5 when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; 6 with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; 7 when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right;
Psalm 119:4 You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. 5 Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set;
Ephesians 5:1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
3 Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. 4 Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect. 5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them – the usual variations on idolatry – will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. 6 Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him.
1 John 2:3Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. 5 But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. 6 Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
If these aren’t enough, let me know, the bible is full of scriptures that tell us that we must walk the walk and talk the talk and not live as the world does. Thanks for writing in!
Flirting With Death
Proverbs 8:1 Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling? Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice? 2 She’s taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. 3 Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, 4 “You – I’m talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets! 5 Listen, you idiots – learn good sense! You blockheads – shape up! 6 Don’t miss a word of this – I’m telling you how to live well, I’m telling you how to live at your best. 7 My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth – I can’t stand the taste of evil! 8 You’ll only hear true and right words from my mouth; not one syllable will be twisted or skewed. 9 You’ll recognize this as true – you with open minds; truth-ready minds will see it at once. 10 Prefer my life-disciplines over chasing after money, and God-knowledge over a lucrative career. 11 For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
12 “I am Lady Wisdom, and I live next to Sanity; Knowledge and Discretion live just down the street. 13 The Fear-of-God means hating Evil, whose ways I hate with a passion – pride and arrogance and crooked talk. 14 Good counsel and common sense are my characteristics; I am both Insight and the Virtue to live it out. 15 With my help, leaders rule, and lawmakers legislate fairly; 16 With my help, governors govern, along with all in legitimate authority. 17 I love those who love me; those who look for me find me. 18 Wealth and Glory accompany me – also substantial Honor and a Good Name. 19 My benefits are worth more than a big salary, even a very big salary; the returns on me exceed any imaginable bonus. 20 You can find me on Righteous Road – that’s where I walk – at the intersection of Justice Avenue, 21 Handing out life to those who love me, filling their arms with life – armloads of life!
22 “God sovereignly made me – the first, the basic – before he did anything else. 23 I was brought into being a long time ago, well before Earth got its start. 24 I arrived on the scene before Ocean, yes, even before Springs and Rivers and Lakes. 25 Before Mountains were sculpted and Hills took shape, I was already there, newborn; 26 Long before God stretched out Earth’s Horizons, and tended to the minute details of Soil and Weather, 27 And set Sky firmly in place, I was there. When he mapped and gave borders to wild Ocean, 28 built the vast vault of Heaven, and installed the fountains that fed Ocean, 29 When he drew a boundary for Sea, posted a sign that said, no trespassing, And then staked out Earth’s foundations, 30 I was right there with him, making sure everything fit. Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause, always enjoying his company, 31 Delighted with the world of things and creatures, happily celebrating the human family.
32 “So, my dear friends, listen carefully; those who embrace these my ways are most blessed. 33 Mark a life of discipline and live wisely; don’t squander your precious life. 34 Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day’s work. 35 When you find me, you find life, real life, to say nothing of God’s good pleasure. 36 But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul; when you reject me, you’re flirting with death.”-“The Message”
Complimenting One Another
In part three we wrap up some thoughts on just being human and letting our attributes and God-given differences be just fine! To read part two click here.
As we talked about yesterday, I grew up in a home where I felt my parents worked together. I never felt as if I couldn’t talk to my dad about anything. My dad took me to buy my first bra. No big deal. Why? Because my parents worked together when it came to us and I only saw a parent, someone who was there to take care of me. Yes, they did things differently. My mom was the parent who saw danger in horseback riding in the washes of Arizona, where we spent our summers, and my dad saw fun. My dad was the one in which if I didn’t want to comb my hair that day, it was summer who cared? My mom saw a tangled unruly mess which must be tamed. They were different, no question about it, but they were both necessary to my well-being. My mom worried, my dad thought we’d be fine.
Men and women are different in character and needs and desires and yet God say we are equal. He doesn’t love one more than the other. God says we are necessary, both of us, male and female, we were created with our unique abilities. He doesn’t say one is better than the other. A man is not more than a woman and a woman is not more than a man. We are different and equal. Each of us was designed with a different purpose. I, for one, am happy and grateful for that. It means I don’t have to go out of my comfort zone to try to be something that I am not. I can just be who I am supposed to be.
Does that mean that I advocate a woman to stay home and cook and clean and a man to go off to work? No. I believe we can do whatever we want but I do like to see a child being taken care of by a parent who loves them and not by daycare. I also understand that for some it is a necessity that they work. I am also honest enough to say that those who have necessity are few and far between. Lifestyle choices, not food on the table, dictate that necessity to me. I don’t believe a woman can work, have children and do a good job at it all. I have yet to see it and I lived it, one always gives way to the other. A sick child sidelines your work and a deadline sidelines your child. Something has to give and most of us don’t have great support systems at either place. Yes, there are exceptions but let’s face it they are very few.
Can I ask a question? Why do we demand organically grown vegetables but we don’t want organically grown children? Why do we scream about vaccinations while attempting to raise artificially designed androgynous children? If we are about all natural then let’s be about all natural. I don’t see many boys today who are allowed to be boys. We don’t seem to want or need men and we are a lacking society for it. What is wrong with a boy who wants to conquer and a girl who wants romance?
The silence of Adam kept us from achieving the goal the first time around in the garden. The silence of Adam still keeps us from acheiving the goal set before us today. Adam where is your voice? Eve, please let him speak. He has something to say and what he says could change the course of where we are going. Will we listen? I hope so because the reality is you’ve been sick and tired for far too long. Adam, if there ever was a time to speak now is it! Adam, where are you?
Different But Equal
We started a conversation yesterday about children and how we try to change who they are. I brought up the fact that women are still allowed to be at the core women, but we don’t give men the same grace. Here’s part 2.
We are so busy building an androgynous society that we have clearly messed with the original design and purpose of what God had intended. We have people who are confused about what their heart tells them to do and what the world tells them to do. Women have taken the brunt of the responsibility away from the men as they decide they no longer need them anymore. We have built a society that despises men and neuters them on every level. Then we sit back and complain that they do absolutely nothing for us and are worthless. I know little boys who do not have one single masculine toy. Without any sort of warrior spirit we have removed the essence of who they are.
Why do we disdain men so much as a society? I believe it happened when we began to believe the lie that women could do it all. We decided that as women we didn’t need men for anything but sperm and they can toss that in cup any day of the week for us. We decided they were the enemy that was keeping us from our destiny and desire. They made more money and position in the workplace, they had expectations we no longer wanted to live up to and they were foreign to our way of thinking. So the goal became to get rid of them or at least sideline them. In the silence of men, just as Adam’s silence sealed the deal in the garden we together have created chaos.
Only something has happened since that thought process invaded our society. Women now are more tired and unhappy than ever before. They work full-time in the workplace in every single occupation imaginable, then they come home to cook and clean and take care of children as they attempt to build relationships with others and they juggle constantly between their pull for their children and the demands of their jobs. They live feeling guilty for the most part because the lie is just that, a lie and we can’t have it all. At least we can’t have it all at the same time. We struggle to balance a life that is so off balance that it becomes a losing battle. Now we are so far into this song and dance it feels as if it is too late to quit. Besides, the message is still that we can do it, so pride enters in and also insecurity that maybe it’s just the individual, me, who can’t do it all. In the meantime, we try figure out what is wrong with us that we can’t seem to live up to the expectation. So we fake it and pretend to be tough.
This conversation is nothing new. We had a similar one a few weeks ago, only something has got to give. The fact of the matter is that God created man and woman to compliment each other and to work together side by side to build a better world. He created us too raise a family with children who learn both perspectives of their parents being both male and female. In my home as a child, we had a family unit that worked together.
He-Man Vs. Barbie
When Anthony was a three-year-old he collected all the He-Man figures and watched the cartoon, subsequently, I learned the history of He-Man. He-Man was an action figure who lived in Castle Greyskull. He was dressed like a gladiator and had a huge tiger named BattleCat that he rode off to battle. His enemy was named Skeletor and he was always causing havoc from his home on Snake Mountain.
Anthony had a sword that when you flipped the switch lit up just as He-Man’s sword did. He took this sword everywhere he went, including to bed and carried it hooked to the back of his shirt where he could easily grab it in case of danger. He was always looking for an enemy to fight and I remember one day when we walking out to the car and we encountered a big bullfrog sitting on the sidewalk. Anthony quickly pulled out his sword and said in his toughest three year old voice, “Stand back mommy, I’ll take care of this.” As he took his sword out and lit it up for battle he took the warrior stance against the bullfrog. I played along and carefully walked around the scene while he stood guard. When we got into the car, I thanked him for his protection and he smiled proudly and said, “That’s okay.” All in a day’s work for my little He-Man. Anthony’s dreams for his future was to be either G.I. Joe or on the team of M.A.S.K.
When Casey was three she collected Barbie. Barbie was a doll who along with her friends, Midge, Skipper and Ken went to the beach and had parties. Barbie married Ken on a regular basis. There were no wars and there were no swords, only fun and lots of changing of outfits and shoes and cutting of hair. Barbie at some point or another also married He-Man and GI Joe which Anthony swore, would never happen in real life.
Casey’s dream was to marry Prince Phillip, from Sleeping Beauty fame, and they were going to live on the Rhein River in a castle. She would tell of tales of riding off on a unicorn to pick wildflowers and fruit in the forest. The danger for her was keeping a diligent eye out for a wicked witch. Prince Phillip would fight the Pirates on the river before dinner and he would always win.
This is an area of my children’s lives where fantasy and imagination ran wild. I would often play along and I know for a fact that Casey would have approached the bullfrog much differently. She would have wanted to catch it and see if he talked and if he turned into a prince when we kissed it. Yes, she would want to kiss it just in case it was her prince. Her life was about love and romance. Anthony’s life was about war and protection. Anthony still carefully watches over his sister and I as the man of the family and Casey is still relational looking for romance in her adventures.
I say all this to say that God didn’t create us male and female to be the same. That is a lie and puts a lot of pressure on each of us to be things we are not. Can women be warriors? Yes, they can in moments of danger and they show extraordinary strength but not in the same way a man can. A woman was not designed for war instead she was designed to nurture. Yes we as women have had to step into places that were never intended for us as a means of survival but it is not our original design. Can men be nurturing? Yes and they are, but the expectations in today’s society is that they act and think like women and they aren’t designed to do that.
Tune in tomorrow….
Pastor Susan 