Growing in the Image of Christ

Sometimes it’s easy to feel that if our lives were different, we could serve God better. It is difficult to see how raising children, being a faithful spouse, and keeping the house clean could bring God the same glory as Hudson Taylor on the mission field. The fact is, God is more interested in who you become than in what you are accomplishing. Let’s take just one aspect of life, marriage. What if God is using your marriage to shape you into the image of His holiness? What if your spouse is the one God chose for you to help you become more like Christ?

Instead of buying into the world’s philosophy that we have to be happy before we can be any good to anyone else, let’s be challenged to renew our minds, to take on the mind of Christ. Christ couldn’t have saved any of us if he hadn’t first been holy and obedient to the Father. It is holiness, first and foremost, not happiness that God is working to achieve in our lives.

Setting Goals Successfully

It’s that time again, where goals and planning and organization take center-stage, and we scramble to get our lives into some semblance of order again. For most of us, the routine is only part of what we’ve done every year, part of the culture of our day–January is the re-evaluate month, whether or not we really feel up to the challenge of re-evaluating. But planning and ordering our lives is part of a greater purpose than simply following the national trend. Throughout the Bible, there are instances of God planning and ordering everything from our universe and our personal lives, to worship and salvation.

Consequently, planning and setting goals doesn’t have to be something discouraging, destined to end in failure. And that’s the key difference between writing a list of resolutions and creating a list of goals–goals involve more than personal resolve.

Long Distance Love: Going the Distance for your Spouse

As life surges through its twists and turns, keeping the romance in a marriage often takes a backseat–conflicting work schedules, over-time, pursuing further education, not to mention kids and all of their activities. A couple is lucky to see each other long enough to exchange “honey-do” lists before rushing on to the next task.  Though they share the same address and even the same bed, many survive as long-distance relationships.

Though its difficult for any relationship to thrive without time together, it is important that we are always searching for ways to overcome the obstacles to keeping our marriage healthy and happy. That means you may have to search for a number of ways to make the most of five minutes, rather than holding out for the hour or more you were hoping for.

Wives of Praise

Daily we are bombarded with negatives about men and husbands.  From comic strips and sitcoms to even our hair stylists–it seems that men are the brunt of every joke and sarcasm.  Men are portrayed as ignorant, egotistical, and barbarous with no interests outside of sex and sports.  It’s no wonder daughters don’t respect their fathers and wives are unhappy in marriage. 

But when God made Adam, He did say that His creation was good; and the woman was meant to be Adam’s helpmeet and companion, not an alternative to God’s less than perfect first try.

The “50-50 Marriage”: A modern strategy for wrecking your home

You cook, while your husband does the dishes.  You get the kids up in the morning; he puts them to bed at night.  You clean the bathrooms, and he vacuums.  Sound like a dream come true?  After another rough day of trying to balance life at work with life at home, this arrangement sounds perfect, nearly divine.  And yet, expecting this kind of cooperation from your husband could be dangerous for your marriage. At least, it’s not the perfect solution.

Standing by Your Man

Somewhere between the engagement ring and the anniversaries that follow, a lover’s brilliance often fades.  One day, rather unexpectedly, you awake to find that The One you’ve spent your life searching for is only human afterall.  But before the romance goes flat and your marriage crumbles to nothing but “remember when,” let’s take a step back to those first cheap dates and that greasy restaurant booth where the romance was born.

A Happy Haven

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.–Martin Luther

Think, for a moment, of the first few minutes of your husband’s arrival home.  Put yourself in his shoes and try to imagine what he sees as he walks through the door.  Where are the children and what are they doing?  Where are you? Do you look up from whatever you are doing? Do you shout a “hello” from the next room, or do you shout at the kids or the dog?  Does anyone notice when he walks in?  Or is he the great problem-solver who has just entered to resolve all disputes?

Here’s the question: after a long, hard day doing whatever it is that he does, is he excited to come home?  If he must take a deep breath before twisting that door knob, then perhaps we have not created the haven we should have.  Before you criticize him for not being the cheery presence you fell in love with, try some of these ideas for making your house a pleasant destination.