Finding joy in the everyday

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (Ephesians 5:31). This verse is not simply an example of beautiful, poetic language. There is a fundamental reality behind this: Husband and wife are not just two people rooming together. Their lives actually do blend into one another . They actually become one . It is, therefore, true that what hurts the wife damages the husband. It cannot help but do so. If he is bitter toward her, it will eat like a cancer in his own life and heart. That is why, if you have had a squabble with your spouse, you may find yourself unable to do your work properly that day. No where in the verse does it say that the husband is to dominate or control his wife, to treat her badly, to punish her, to ignore her concerns or her feelings. And likewise a wife shouldn’t be pushy or dominating, nagging, nitpicking etc. This is the union of two people who become one and one doesn’t hurt ...

Contentious : causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial, (of a person) given to provoking argument. The Book of Proverbs paints a graphic picture of a contentious wife and it isn’t pretty. A foolish son is the ruin of his father, And the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping. (Proverbs 19:13) A contentious wife is not a person any husband is going to enjoy living with and she is bound to make him very miserable. Can you imagine having to listen continually to a dripping tap — it would send you mad, which is why things like water-boarding are use in torture.  She is argumentative and she is always right so her poor husband never stand a chance.  She argues for the sake of arguing and she uses her arguments to dominate her husband until he is worn down to a thread and she is in control of everything. I am sure you have all met men that appear to be a shell of themselves and cringe with their wives arrive. They are the sort of women that ...

God created marriage. In His perfect wisdom, He designed man and woman to complement each other and to enjoy a permanent and complete union with each other. In Genesis 2:18 He said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” After the Lord created Eve, He then said, “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” When you take time to nurture this oneness with your spouse, you bring honor to God and acknowledge His ideal design. As you love your marriage partner, you are showing love and obedience to God as well. And as an incredible result, you’ll experience the fullness and blessings that God designed for a married couple to enjoy! Take time now. Set aside five minutes and pray, “Lord, how can I express my love today?” Then write down every way you can think of to tell your honey, “I love you.” “Nurturing oneness” in your marriage should be something you think and pray abou...

Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. "Behind  every great man is a great women" — I'm sure you have all heard this quote.  But it is true — a wife can either build her  husband  up or pull him down. She can be an encourager or  discourager, she can make him strong or make him look like a fool and as wives we play an important part in our husbands lives. I n other words, a wife can bring the greatest joy to her husband or the greatest misery.  In the verse, it talks about a crown which is conveying the idea of honour. A excellent wife will bring honour to her  husband but one that chooses the opposite will bring shame like the rotting of his bones (which sounds terrible and the smell would be far worse). In  Proverbs  31, verses 11 and 12 we also read about the virtues of an excellent wife " The heart of her husband sa...

Asset : a useful or valuable thing or person. An item of property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value. I read a story in which someone referred to a woman as her husbands asset. When the woman looked up asset in the dictionary, she was deeply touched by the compliment.  Our husbands may have valuable assets such as land, but aside from monetary value, don't we all want to be our  husbands  most valuable asset/possession?  Knowing  my husband is completely satisfied with his choice of a wife and that he feels he could never replace me is a huge compliment. (source: Discovering My Place by Mary Burkholder) We can find 3 verses in Proverbs that talks about the importances of finding a valuable woman as a wife—ones that will become their husbands greatest and most cherished assets (isn't that what we all want to be?).  Proverbs 18:22 says " He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favour from the Lord. " — if a ...

One of the most important things in my life is keeping my marriage strong and healthy. 💕 If you neglect your garden, it becomes overgrown and things start to suffer. Some plants will die and others will battle hard to get above the weeds. But overall, the garden as a whole will no longer be as healthy and as beautiful as it once was. Marriage is a bit like this. Neglect your marriage and it becomes overgrown with weeds and things start with wither and die, it become bitter and very unhappy.  As the say goes "marriage is hard work" and it is.  You can't sit back and expect it to remain rosy as it was during the honey moon stage if you don't do anything.  We all need to work on our marriages to keep them fresh, strong, healthy, loving and romantic and that takes quite a lot of investing.  As wives our main goal is to please our husbands, and likewise husbands to please their wives. Marriage isn't all about what the husband wants and nor is it abo...

I wrote a post back in 2014 about taking care of our menfolk, as for many, life has been tough recently. Many men, unemployment is real, they are seeing a decline in industries that they have worked in for decades  (i.e. the decline in the manufacturing industry) and many feel disenchanted with current politics, in fact many feel completely ignored and forgotten. They do the best they can for their families, but they are feeling the pain a great deal.  We have seen the evidence of this with the results of the current US election — of those men who voted for Trump many were white middle to older men outside of the major urban centres. These are the men who feel the most forgotten, feel as if they are no longer in control, unable to find suitable employment, having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet or seeing that their area of employment is shrinking and no one coming to their aid. They feel as if governments have abandoned them and they ha...