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Suicide – My Story of Hope
Suicide - My Story of Hope This is not a part of my story that I have shared often. This is not because I am ashamed that I struggled, as I believe struggles can make us stronger if we let them, but because my life is so different now. That part of my life feels like a time and experience that happened to someone else. However, I feel prompted to share this given the recent, horrifying run of suicides in our nation, and our world. My prayer is that my story gives someone who reads it HOPE! A hope that although life may feel hopeless, it absolutely doesn’t need…
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Lessons from the Trenches
Lessons from the Trenches Four key steps when marriage gets tough. All marriages go through difficult seasons, where the feelings of love are harder to find. But sometimes things can get extra tough! One of you may have admitted to an affair, or woken up one day feeling like the love has gone. Or perhaps you are spending increasing amounts of your time together arguing or ignoring each other. It is at this point that we all have a choice to make: will we get out of the marriage and move on to perceived “greener pastures”, or will we get stuck in and fight. They say that anything in…
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What Is He Thinking?! – Sex
What Is He Thinking?!? - I feel like he just wants sex all the time! God designed men and women differently. We were made with different body parts, different needs, different strengths and weaknesses and, different ways of thinking about things. For some reason, God also thought it was a good idea to make men think very differently than women about sex.
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Side By Side
Side By Side 5 Reasons Community is Vital for your Marriage When God created the world, He designed us to be in relationship with other people. We were made in the image of God and, like the Trinity, we too thrive in community. It not only helps alleviate our loneliness but also teaches us and enables us to grow. In Proverbs 27:17 it says “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This means that when we spend time around other people, God uses them to soften our rough edges. In community we learn to be less self-focused, and to improve our communication and people skills. Many…
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What Is He Thinking? – Arguements
What Is He Thinking?!? - When he gets angry at what I said, but I have no idea why. ANSWER: It’s likely he feels you were disrespectful.
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Moneytalks
Money Talks - 4 Foundations for Financial Success Everybody has heard the old adage, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”. Your parents probably said it to you many times as a child and you likely rolled your eyes in response. But, the older you get, the more you realise how true the statement really is. It often feels like the more money you earn the more you need, and it can certainly be a difficult process figuring out how to balance providing for your family while not making money an idol in your life. Unfortunately, though, money is a “necessary evil” in today's society, and given the emotions and…
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The Positivity Posture
The Positivity Posture A small perspective shift that significantly improved my marriage. For some people positivity is a gift. These people express words of affirmation exceedingly well and their outlook on life focuses on the good things. I am a strong choleric personality with a bent towards strategy, an ability to identify issues and then find ways to move forward. This means that positivity and affirmations are definitely something I need to work on. That's not to say I am always negative either, but critiquing does come naturally, much to my husband's dismay. About 6 months ago I was having a D & M (one of my favourite things to do)…
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Hope Anchor
Hope - a word that is often used to describe our feelings of expectation that something we are struggling with or waiting for will change for the better. We say to someone struggling, “you need to have hope.” We talk about the outcome we hope to happen. But for me, the concept of hope has been an ongoing source of struggle. So often in periods of waiting, hope has seemed painful and pointless as expectations and desires go unmet. Since I know God is all powerful and can do all things, when it feels like he doesn't follow through, or it seems to take a long time, my balance in…
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Clearing the Decks
3 Keys to Learning to Fight Fair The process of learning to fight fair is a journey we will be on for the rest of our lives. Whether we like to admit it or not, for most of us this is because of our innately selfish nature. It’s a symptom of The Fall, but thankfully it’s an area we can certainly improve in. Rick Warren describes marriage as “a lifelong course in learning to be unselfish” and I totally agree with him. When I reflect on the arguments I have with my husband they are pretty much always fuelled by the selfish desires of one, or both of us – even…
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Allies or Enemies? Conflict Resolution Tips
Conflict – a word that makes many of us cringe, but an unavoidable experience in any marriage relationship, especially a healthy, thriving one. The goal, however, is achieving healthy conflict rather than unhealthy conflict. Whether your natural response is to be the loud and angry fighting type, the extended silent treatment type, the stick your head in the sand and ignore it but build up resentment type, or a mixture of all three, it is important to figure out what this healthy conflict business actually looks like. I am certainly far from being an expert in this area, and to be honest, conflict resolution is probably the thing my husband…
