Valentine's Day Truth or Dare

Let me start by saying when you are reading any of my posts, just know that either I have already walked through that season (and God is still working on me) or I am currently in that season. And the things I write are the things that God is teaching me, reminding me, and growing me in - especially when it comes to marriage!

When it comes to marriage, I am the wife that is either on the mountain top or about to explode with my emotions. I never seem to be in the middle and I’m often kicking and screaming when God is gently lovingly talking to me about my husband.

If you remember one thing, just know that I am so (so) far from being the perfect wife or having the perfect marriage. I mean, some days are a struggle for this strong-willed woman (who loves Jesus) to keep my mouth shut! I really need rolls of duct tape (maybe I could wear them as bracelets) so that I can just tape it shut!

I can handle tough situations, treat complete strangers with kindness, survive the Walmart check-out line, but when God tells me to love my husband even when...to pray for him even when…to encourage him even when...it’s not so easy. Like, ‘WHAT ABOUT HIM, LORD?!’

Here’s an added layer: not only do I live with my husband; I work with my husband! And we work at a church together. That should make us super holy, right? Not quite. It just makes me need a little more duct tape.

So, I am writing this post for that someone who may be super discouraged and the thoughts of Valentine’s Day make you cringe. Let’s start with some truth.

We have to remember where our worth comes from. We have to remember who we are in Christ and that the Creator of the universe made us. We were created with an empty space only God can fill and there is no husband on this earth that God designed to totally complete and satisfy us. You can stop looking. He doesn’t exist. When we think that our husbands, a man who God created so unique, and completely different than us – is going to make our lives perfect, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment!

God not only created us but HE loves everything single quirky, broken, messy thing about us! Do you ever have a hard time believing that? I know I do. But He designed us and never wants us to be someone else. He doesn’t try to change our appearance, or look at us and think, ‘she should have not eaten those Girl Scout cookies.’ No - that is not who Jesus is!

He knows when I roll my eyes at my husband. He knows what I’m thinking and the condition of my heart; He still loves me! Because of His love, I can learn to love my husband the way God intended.

When you take two sinners and put them together, you won’t get perfection. Why do we expect that?! Men cannot read our minds. My husband certainly cannot. I have to remind myself that my husband is human and it’s my job to seek God first. This is how I love Him: dig into His Word and pray!

So, I have 10 dares for your marriage. Here it goes:

This is TRUTH!

I dare you to try it!

“God is always faithful! Even in the toughest seasons. Even in the storm. Always.”

Just a week ago I posted this on my blog. When I think about God’s faithfulness, I can tell you I have 100% seen it all throughout my life. I cannot tell you how faithful God has been to me during tough seasons – there have been a lot of storms! Even in the darkest of storms, when I felt like I couldn’t get through it – God was there and, you guessed it, He was faithful.

I can remember some very specific, very hard and honestly, devasting times in my life! I’ve been through seasons where the next breath seemed impossible. But God never let go of me. He never gave up on me, even when I would try to run away! Faithful. Loving. Always full of Grace.

Little did I know that just four days after my first 2022 post, one of the greatest dads, husbands, principals, and childhood friends I know would pass away unexpectedly at the age of 54. WOW! It is one thing to write about God’s faithfulness and goodness in the good times, but then to be (yet again) faced with one of those devastating moments. It’s hard. But remember what I wrote last time? God’s plans are better than mine and…He is faithful.

This is what I love about God, His faithfulness, and just that He gives us the gift of FAITH! You really cannot comprehend it. You cannot put it in words the feeling of complete and utter sorrow sometimes, yet you feel peace. That peace that surpasses all understanding. You cry, you hurt, you even question what God is doing. Yet you are reminded of so many times that you were in the middle of a storm and He stood right beside you. Right in the thick of it.

I pray today, as I know many of you are grieving, hurting, going through the toughest season of your life, that you will be reminded that you are not alone! God is faithful. He loves you! And you can rest in His arms knowing that He is right there with you.

Here we go again – but now it’s 2022!

Hello friends (old & new)!

Thanks for joining me back here on my blog. I can’t believe that my last blog post was in February…February 12, 2021 to be exact. Basically, I quit. I gave up.

I don’t consider myself a quitter. Actually, I am very driven and every time I have to do a personality test for work/team building, I score high for vision, drive and am just a goal-oriented person. So, why has it been so easy for me to quite something that I know in my heart God has called me to do?

Quite honestly, I spent most of 2021 trying to figure that out. I thought I had figured it out the first time I quit this thing, back in April of 2020. And the year before that, August 12, 2019. WOW! Notice a trend?

Even though I am disappointed with this start-quit-and-start-again pattern, God has shown me a lot. But let’s be clear – He’s not done teaching me. I’d say He has His work cut out for Him!

So, all of this leads me to a question I have for you: do you ever just feel disappointed in yourself? What about starting something new, in a new year? Perhaps you set a few goals with great intentions, but they didn’t pan out. Maybe COVID slowed things down, or turned your world upside down entirely. Maybe your marriage isn’t the fairytale you’d hoped. You might be hanging on by a thread.