Thoughts on The Christian Journey
Submitted by Nathan Bailey
Submitted by Martin
I recently came across a book, "I Kissed Dating Good-bye" by Josh Harris. Very thought-provoking! How scriptural is dating, anyway? Dating as we know it today has only been around for 100 years.What is God's answer? Someone once said that"Dating prepares you for divorce!" HUH? Well, if you look at our dating practices, you could say that. We go out with someone, give them a piece of our heart- something doesn't work out-- and it's adios amigo! Go on to the next relationship. Our model for relationships by the time we get married has been established, if it doesn't work out-- divorce and on to the next!Seek God for the answer!
Submitted by Susan Felger
The habit and discipline of prayer, of acknowleging God in your life always, is excellent practice for having another person in your life always. To the extent that your prayer relationship with God is open, affirming, loving and constant, you know the strength of life with another. Of course our partner is not God, but the openness to and practice of a constant, loving relationship with God is among the best training I know for a strong and lasting relationship with a partner.
Submitted by Elizabeth
The fact that I am engaged to marry a God-fearing man is truly a miracle in itself--a gift from God. I have been a Christian ever since I was seven, but I never really understood what it meant to have an ongoing *personal* relationship with the Lord. I had been deceived, and really thought that as long as I believed that Jesus died for our sins I was doing all that I was called to do as a Christian. I met a wonderful man in the spring of 1994, while I was not involved in a church or actively pursuing my relationship with the Lord. My fiance attended church in high school but had never made a profession of faith. We made several wrong decisions during the first two years we dated. We did not submit to the Lord in our relationship, and consequently, had several severe problems. We broke up Easter 1997, after the pastor preached a sermon about new beginnings. I had rededicated my life, and my fiance refused to attend church with me and resented my involvement in anything other than him. So I left him. I continued to pray daily for him, but didn't have very much contact at all until one day in May, when he called to ask if he could go to church with me. The Lord spoke directly to him that night, and he was saved. He said that night that we'd be engaged within two months--I told him that would not happen--that I was not ready to be involved with him again until I knew his conversion was real. But I had been praying all along that God would bring him to me if He wanted me to be with him. Our relationship began to flower as it had never before. We became engaged on June 29th, and on August 4th, I received this confirmation from the Lord, "This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He is the one who has the key of David. He opens doors, and no one can shut them he shuts doors, and no one can open them. 'I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me'" Rev 3:7-8. My fiance's name is David. He is the leader of our relationship now...he is the one who clarifies that which I do not understand in the Word...he has grown so quickly in His love for and knowledge of the Lord. I always hoped that I'd find a good man to marry, but I never dreamed that through faithfulness to the Lord and His Word He would bless so bountifully. We praise His holy name daily, and pursue Him as a couple. We want our life together to be a living sacrifice for the Lord and a testament to our love for Him.
Have you ever prayed, "Lord change my spouse"? Who hasn't? Well,
one of the most valuable things that the Lord has given me is not to pray,
"Lord change my spouse" BUT "Lord change me". Pray for the Lord to change
you and open your eyes to how you can be a better mate to your partner.
You'll be surprised at the results!!Submitted by J H Clark
What a wonderful and affirming page!
My husband and I have been married thirty-nine years this month. Our daughter and son-in-law celebrate their thirteenth anniversary today!
My engagement ring holds my diamond, my mother's and her mother's. Together, the ring represents 131 years of marriage. The ring will someday belong to my only daughter, so as of today I can add another thirteen years to that number, totaling 144 years. Were they all years of wedded bliss? Certainly not. Marriage is not perfect. God's perfect love, however, offers us the opportunity to love one another each and every day, learning and growing as we go along.
There are some wonderful testimonies on this page which reflect my inner thoughts. I shall not repeat them. I will say, "God. bless this page," and let us all spread the word of its positive affirmation of God's love. jhc
Submitted by Ashley
I Just want to praise God for the wonderful encouragement I have found on your pages. I had been wondering why our life wasnt as good as God meant it to be. I realize now that its because we have just been neglecting God in our marriage we have just been trying to find worldly solutions to everything. I have been so encouraged to put Jesus first & I've realized that I've lost my first love which is why Satan has been creeping in. I am going to put Him back on the throne of my life & marriage where He belongs. Praise God for all those wonderful people who contribute their thoughts here & enable others to learn through their often painful experiences.
Submitted by Pamela
My husband and I have been married for 22 years. We often tell others that it is only by Gods grace and mercy that we have learn to be the best of friends and that we both understand that God is the head of the household. We have 3 beautiful children. We always show our children love to each other and by our actions. My kids often make fun because we still holds hands and act like childhood sweethearts. And I have told them when they leave this house they will know what LOVE is and not violence. To often the children see and learn from their parents actions. But we have ask God to allow us to show them love constantly. Now after many years. The kids see and hear their friends situations and they are thankful for us, and for the love we are giving. I have told them parents are never given a hand book, but with God we often times are guided to make the choice we make. I am truly blessed for a christian man and 3 christian children.
Submitted by Ron
Communication
Communication
Communication
1-How do you see our marriage?
2-Am I supporting you as a spouse-husband or wife?
3-Not data dumping from the day?
4-Humble yourself before the Lord and we will be able to humble ourselves before our spouses, children and loved one.
5-If you would invest your time and heart into your marriages the way you did when you first met, I guarantee you that your marriage would be happier and more spiritually fulfilling.
Remember you must share your heart. Sometimes it can be good things and other times the sharing may not be so pleasant. Pray for the Lord to give you His perfect timing on the difficult issues and prepare the persons heart you are going to share with. Be honest with your children, when your right and when your wrong, let them see that God is teaching you as a child the same things that the Lord desires to teach them as children. Refer always to the word of God. "Above all taking the shield of faith to distinguish the fiery darts of the ememy.! Remember your spouse and your children or loved ones are "not" your enemy, but Satan is. If you don't believe me read some of the prayer requests for marriages on this web site. Satan wants to destroy generations of families and Christians. "Husbands love your wives, as Christ loves the church and give your selves for them". Wives in the same way submit to your husbands as unto the Lord, the Husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church. Persevere - in prayer, in love, in Christ, in all things, wait upon the Lord and He will renew your strength. That is a promise from Him! How long do you wait, you ask? Wait, upon the Lord and He will make all things new, I promise if you trust and wait you will be glad you did. If you are in a situation of abuse physically seek professional or pastoral couseling.
Submitted by Anonymous
I am writing this to let others know what God has done in my life, since my husband and I were married,almost four years ago. After living fairly well for our first year,things changed dramatically. My husband lost his job and after six months of trying to find steady work without success,we strongly felt led to another province,where we felt God was calling us to be. We sold 95% of everything we owned,to get money to make the trip, and packed our suitcases into our car and drove the 12 hours,out of beautiful B.C. Canada and into Cochrane, Alberta . We stayed in a relatives basement, and were treated poorly for the months we were there. My husband drove into the city every day, but was having no success in finding a decent paying job.I couldn't handle the stress and went back to stay at his mother's for a month.It was so hard to be apart, as our love and marriage was still strong, God and our love for each other was all we had, and we refused to let that be taken from ! us too. After I went back to his Mother's, our car was re-possessed and my husband was unable to drive into the city anymore. The day before our car was taken,my husband drove down a long road, pulled over and cried and prayed for a few hours,asking God to show him where to go next. Around this time I was asking God to keep his promise to me-about never giving anyone more than they could handle, I pleaded with him to please show me his mercy. I was overcome with a feeling of complete joy and peace, and knew God had answered. My husband started to drive down the road, and came upon a sawmill.The big sign out front said "Jesus is LOrd!" A smaller sign quoted the bible verse about putting all your trust in the Lord and He will direct your paths. Well,they weren't hiring but God gave him a job there anyways. He started on Thanksgiving, which was very fitting, as we sure were thankful. For the past year our life has been nothing but blessed. We were very young when we got married ! (both barely 21), but with God on our side, we know our love will last a lifetime. Praise God!And always remember:God has a plan,even if you don't.
Submitted by Pam Clark
I have found a very wonderful and powerful book that I think can greatly enrich the Body of Christ and those who are struggling in their love relationships, including children. It is a book called "The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate" by Dr. Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing) and describes how you can really love someone and them not feel it because you are not speaking in the language of love that they understand. This can even apply to your children! So when the person does not feel or sense their love, they withdraw and act out and go seeking other places for it. I really hope this will save and minister to thousands of relationships and families and churches.
Submitted by L. E. Hart
We can relate that passage to a marriage and say, "Except the Lord build the marriage, it is an exercise in futility." Probably the most important aspect in married life, one which secular Marriage Counsellors omit, is the Spiritual Life in Marriage. When there is a breakdown in this area, all other areas suffer a breakdown. Spiritual life in marriage can be likened to the hub of a wheel. If there is a malfunction in the hub, then the wheel becomes out of alignment. The areas of communication in marriage - the role of the husband- the role of the wife - sex in marriage - finances in marriage- and every other area one can possible think of is affected. Ensure that your spiritual life in your marriage is well-oiled and you will have a functioning,effective marriage.
Submitted by Ayabomi
I have been married since March of 1994 to a wonderful, honest, hard working man of God; who also is a Pastor in a local church in the city of Indianapolis. I have witnessed many marriages ripping from the seams by the tricks that Satan has introduced. It is apparent to me that he is tearing up families by weakening the foundation of marriage. My husband and I have experienced some ups and downs and through them all, I know that our love for God has sustained our love and commitment to each other. When we married the minister instructed us during the ceremony to keep JOY in our relationship:
J Jesus First
O Other Person Second
Y Yourself
What important words to live out!
Submitted by Anonymous
My husband and I have been married 5 years and we have two beautiful boys, both toddlers. We made a LOT of mistakes coming into our marriage, due to our painful childhoods and some very wrong choices while dating and throughout our marriage. I must ashamedly confess we have both been at the point of wanting a divorce.
Now, for the good news... I prayed and prayed and PRAYED for answers from the Lord on how to make our marriage work. For the most part, the answer was always given, but I wasn't able to hear it. What I feel God said over and over to me was "humble yourself". It took a long time for me to start to understand what He meant by that.
It meant learning to reclaim the pieces of my soul I had foolishly given to other men before I met my husband. It meant learning what "honor your husband" really means. It meant making a choice to truly "give" ALL of myself to my husband even when I "felt" I couldn't, and of course, it meant to forgive him his short-comings, as God has forgiven mine.
I know the road ahead is long and full of decisions that might be painful to make, but I know that God is faithful, because He is faithful, even when I am not. But most of all, I feel that He will give me the strength to actually DO the things in my marriage I have been unable to do so far, and the grace to forgive myself when I fail.
To me, even the chance of having a happy marriage is indeed a miraculous blessing from God.
I hope this will encourage someone out there who feels there is no hope
left for their marriage, because I know I've felt that a lot.
Submitted by Peggy Bohanon
Five hundred wedding announcements to address--a big job lay ahead of us. As I picked up the pen to address the first envelope, my fiance said, "Wait! I want to do something first!" To my awesome delight, he said, "We want to invite the Lord to be our first wedding guest." We prayed, and HE answered--our wedding was filled with love, joy, and most of all, the Lord's sweet presence. And that's how it's been for almost twenty years now...A life filled with love, joy, along with tears, sorrows, and hard times--but always the Lord's sweet presence. We recommend any couple to invite Jesus to be Lord of their wedding, their home, and their family--we are living proof that it works!
I just wanted to send a message to all those women
out there who are battling with infertility and are going through the
difficult times each month
in finding out they're not pregnant.
I was diagnosed with endometriosis after only 3 months of being married and
was told by several doctors that there was a very real possibility that I
would never have children. I just would not
accept that and prayed to my heavenly Father each day and put it in his hands
and today almost ten years later I have 2 beautiful daughters, and there is
no signs of infertility in having future
children.I think sometimes as human beings we forget that God is in control
of our lives as I did at first when I was going through the months of
struggle with negative pregnancy test month after month, but when I let go
and let God do his miraculous work, it was then that I won the battle over
infertility. I just want to give God all the Glory!!!! And I want you couples
who are going through these battles as I and my husband did that even though
I may not know you, I will be saying prayers for you each night. God will
make a way!!Submitted by J.A. Hart
Today, October 1, 1997, my wife and I are celebrating 14 years of Marriage. We realize that this could only have been accomplished with God's help. Over the years, He has led us through the good times and the bad, always providing for our family - we have three daughters. Yes, there were disagreements - now that's a "nice" word to describe them! - but we were always able to hold on to the belief that God would come through for us and that the solution to our problems lay in the obedient application of God-given principles. I am immensely thankful to God for the preparation growing up in a Christian home gave me. My parents weren't perfect, but they set a good, solid example for me to follow - based on God's word. My father, by his example, showed me how to be a man, a husband and a father. I grew up knowing that real men DO wash the dishes at times! It is my hope that we will provide to our children a similar example - that our home will continue to be grounded in Godly principle. Thank God for a Godly heritage!
Submitted by Nancy Still
Mother was a good woman. She, like me, never had much in her days on this earth. She was a common laborer working for everything she ever had. She carried water from a well for years, in my life time, to wash dishes and clothes,for us to heat on a stove and take baths with. We moved when I was eight years old to a nice home that had a both a bath and running water with water heater. I am pretty sure she felt like a Queen. I have seen her work and toil in a garden that my Dad had planted. He worked at night as a truck driver, planted the garden on his off days, slept during the day. Mother would work out the weeds and then harvest the fruits of the earth, and by the sweat of her brow, put them up canning or freezing them. We lived in the new house without the convenience of a clothes dryer for years and I'd watch her hang clothes out to dry. We did not have an air-conditioner until after my Dad's first heart attack. They both worked real hard in their life times, which is probably what took my Dad away at the tender age of 56. She also found the time to make our clothes, my sister and I. That is why she is connected to Dorcus in the Bible, later will be mentioned as to how that plays a part in my life. She stayed on in that same house that the family shared. She never looked at another man and never dated. She said that Daddy was her one and only, and nobody could ever compare to him. It was true love. I recently wrote their real love story and how they met for my children to keep. I did manage not to toss it away. She was the healthiest of her family, with all three children being disabled from various things. She watch her first daughter have kidney failure from Lupus and watched her on kidney dialysis for l4 years. My sister finally decided to accept a kidney transplant and was put on the list. She got a transplant within 3 months. Mother was with her, throughout the rejection period, staying at the hospital 3 months off and on. Then my sister almost died of pneumonia about 4 years ago. We left my sister thinking that she would surely die during the night. Mother perservered, and only saw her once succumb to the thought that she might die. She did all this staying in the room with my sister in the hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. When she went to Critical Care, she had to have a place to rest. The hospital furnished her a room for three nights and days to rest. By then, my sister had come around and was ready to go back to a private room. She soon become well enough to come home. Mother went home and I stayed with my sister while she rested,leaving behind my two children and husband. I was sick also at the time with the disease I have. But willing to pitch in and do my part. When I first saw Mom sick and comatose, somehow I knew that she was going to leave us. She just did not look right. She had the look of death about her. Can you imagine how I felt when I came in the next morning and she talked to me through the respirator, as painful as I know it was, I had high hopes. But God saw fit to call her home within the next 30 minutes. I will always be grateful for those precious few moments we shared together that day. They are written in stone. It brought me closer to God and I guess if I have a reason as to why she only talked to me, it would be that. I gave my heart and soul back to Jesus afterwards on that Wednesday before Easter this year. When I did, her minister, now mine, said there is rejoicing in Heaven at this very moment. At the close of her funeral service our minister said she was like a woman in the Bible named Dorcus, who made beautiful clothes, she clothed herself well, as well as her soul. It is in the Book of Acts, Chapter 9, verses 36-43. There has never been any questioning as to where my Mom and Dad are. A few weeks after I walked the aisle at age 7, my Dad became a Christian, right there in his working clothes, in an old church that you still had the hand fans and the opened doors and windows. This was in the summer and the hymn they played was Amazing Grace. When he turned to Mom and said something, I knew he was on his way down. I remember his expression changing on his face. The last thing I said to her before we pulled the respirator off of her, was "Mom, you have that mansion on a hill top, in that bright land where we will never grow old. Someday we will walk together in that bright land where the streets are pure as gold." I kissed her and said "Goodbye, Mom". I knew it was all over. Everything in her house is just as she left it. She left to me that sewing machine that she sewed those clothes that I always called "my coats of many colors". She taught me her talent and now I sew for my little girl. I will never leave behind a story like this one. But I do share it with others, especially my family. That was really all I wanted from her when she died, was the sewing machine. She made sure that I got it through her WIll. I will get over it, oneday. I don't know when that day will come, but I know that I have Jesus to lean on and she is with him. Though she knows no pain or heartache he stands between she and I to hold me up until I may join them. I pray everyday for a cure for this disease I have. She did too. I remember as a child, I slept with Mom because Daddy was on his run with his truck, the last thing I heard at night was a prayer. If I was lucky, I heard another one the next morning for taking care of us and bringing Daddy back home. I loved my Mom and had to say that. She was a person in my life that meant so much. She made a difference in too many lives not to share it.
When I was just starting out in college, being the curious type, I
was invited to a party at another college, and I wanted to go to see what it
was like. I was a reborn Christian, but I didn't have what I call "roots
that go down deep" to hold me where God wanted me to be. My curiosity got
the best of me, and I went to the party. As I was going to the party, I
thought to myself that it might not be such a good idea after all, because it
might be bad for not only myself, but for those who were with me. Then the
thought crossed my mind that they would not be affected because this was my
decision. It sounds a bit complicated but the lesson is very clear. As a
result of where I let my feet carry me (rather than putting God first and
letting Him lead me to places where it was safe to be curious) my friends and
I became involved in sinful attitudes, actions and relationships. These
things impact entire lives! I had so foolishly allowed satan to convince me
that my decisions and actions would not affect others! Though I would never recommend
doing things you shouldn't just to learn a lesson, I know the lesson I
learned from my wrong choice is this: EVERYTHING you do affects others! It
is like a stone thrown into a pond--with ripples making ripples and so on
outward all around it. Don't be reluctant to make the right choice, even if
it means you don't get to do or see something you think you 'd enjoy. You'll
spare yourself a lot of bad experiences (they look good at first, but don't
let that fool you!) and heartache--and you'll spare those around you the
same. Don't be afraid to do what God wants you to do--your choice to stay
home instead of going somewhere you shouldn't will be blessed by God with
other things to do. Sometimes He'll give you something fun to do right away,
sometimes gradually--but He wired everybody to want to have fun, and He'll
help you to have fun in a good, clean way that brings no shame and a smile to
your face for now and in the future when you look back and remember.
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