How we live our lives privately eventually comes out publicly.

Never Despair!   Be a channel of helpfulness for others.
Have more sympathy.
Feel more tenderness towards others.
Your lives shall not be all care.
My strength has conquered depression, sorrow and death. -God Calling

We are works in progress.
Quit over reacting to your short comings.
Let's give a new definition to emotional well being -
progress, movement, not perfection should be our goal.
Refuse the guilt for being less than perfect.
Walk forward with all of the 'less than perfect' humanity.
Grow in the knowledge of our Lord.   2 Peter 3:18

"To honor our self is to be in love with our own life,
in love with our possibilities for growth and for experiencing joy,
in love with the process of discovery and exploring our distinctively human potentialities"
All made possible as we come to know who we are in God.
Movement doesn't change us,
soul engagement does.
Either we humble ourselves,
admit our daily need for more of His life and influence within us and we are beautifully changed in the process.
Everything we do is in response to the life giving power of God mightily at work within us.

What we do in secret from day to day seems of little consequence,
but in due time,
those small hidden choices either reveal a life of discipline or laziness.

- secret to a successful life by Jeff Olson

How we live our lives privately eventually comes out publicly.
Either we grow in our faith and become more intimate with God,
or we fall away from Him.

"My eyes are not focused on the storm, 
but on the living God,
who controls every circumstance of my life."
Proverbs 9:10  

By knowing You, we will begin to understand You.

Private prayer times mark our lives with true power.
To know the Lord is to walk intimately with Him.
His power energizes us to do the things He has appointed us to do.
We more clearly see what in our schedule is an unaccounted, unannointed work
and we seek to align our life with God's best purposes for us.
When we are intentionally engaged with God, we are more fully engaged in the work He has
assigned to us.

Ever feel overwhelmed by your bills?

"Does the way seem a stony one?
Not one stone can impede your progress.
Courage.
Face the future,
but face it only with a brave heart and a happy heart.
Do not seek to see it.
Know that all is well and the faith,
not seeing,
but believing,
is what will bear you to safety,
over the stormy waters.
According to your faith be it unto you.
If for wonder working,
if for healing,
if for salvation,
faith is so necessary.
Become as a little child.
Faith is the child attitude.
Seek to become childlike,
until the years have added to your nature that of a trusting child.
Not only for its simple trust must you be childlike,
but for it's joy,
laughter,
lack of criticism,
desire to share with all men.
Ask much that you become as little children,
friendly, and loving towards all - not critical, not fearful.
Except you become as little children,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven". -God Calling

The pleasure of belonging to a family is a treasure indeed.

Marriage:   Threefold, friendship, fellowship, passion.
Do you have fun together?
Common interests, emotionally supported.
Passion.
Are you secure in the fidelity of your marriage commitment?
In spiritual closeness/common eternal goals?

Enlarge our capacity to enjoy intimacy!

Do not weigh your spirits down with the sins and sorrows of the world.

Lord, help us to be good stewards of the blessings you have given us.
Only in the fullness of spiritual things can the heart sick and faint and weary be satisfied, healed and rested.

Do not weigh your spirits down with the sins and sorrows of the world.  
Look for the loving, the true, the kindly, the brave in the many around you.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Lord sometimes I am task oriented rather, looking at my goal, instead of being in the present.


Much that I must accept in life is not to be accepted as being necessary for me, personally,
but to set an example to share in the sufferings and difficulties of mankind.

"He saved others, Himself He cannot save."

"My path has tender lights and restful shapes that no other walk in life can give.
That your joy might be full.
True happiness rests in the certainty that God cares alot!

Come up in the morning.

Spare no effort to become all I would have you.
Never look back and never leave until tomorrow that on which you can get MY guidance today.

COME UP IN THE MORNING.
PRESENT YOURSELF TO ME ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN.    Ex.  34:2

"My mother's habit was every day immediately after breakfast,
to withdraw to her room.
From that time she drew strength and the sweetness which enabled her
to fulfill her duties and remain unruffled by the worries and pettiness  which are often the trial of
narrow neighborhoods."   -Charles Cowman.

MARRIAGE:  
May your purpose of oneness find it's way into the depths of our spiritual journey together.
Stand on the truth.
Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.
It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.   Hebrews 11:1

Open our eyes and our hearts to love our spouses.
Help us to see all the things that drew us to each other.

God positions us for His purposes every moment of every hour.
Every experience we have matters to Him.
Since He is always at work may we ever be attentive to Him.  
May we walk this faith journey with eyes wide open, eyes attuned to His voice, may we live fully alive, fully aware at the wonder of it all.

Do you feel unloved by your spouse?
Do you feel as though you have no intimacy at all?
Do not talk, and do not touch?
No connection?
Do you feel like roommates instead of lovers?

Lord please help our thinking.
You know our thoughts.

Love and Trust.
Let no unkind thoughts of any dwell in your hearts,
then I can act.

Show us how to love Lord.
Help us in intimacy.

MARRIAGE:


I know in my heart if I had not trusted God with my husband and our kids our lives would be very different today."

Ever have that fight with yourself to not freak out on your spouse?
How many times do we 'freak out' on them because they are doing their responsibilities.
but we see the responsibilities an inconvenience to what we want.
How we build our walls!

Please help us as spouses to stop making demands of each other that are just beyond each others control and capability.  
Our expectations, we want them to go to work and give
 but we resent when they go to work because they are not with us!

Sometimes we feel oppressed and depressed!

Lord, we lift this day up to You.
Sometimes we feel oppressed and depressed.

MARRIAGE:

We lift up Your plans for our abundant intimacy.
We lift up our hearts to you with all it's hurts.

GOD IS FAITHFUL.

Sometimes God does not seem to be faithful because He doesn't answer our prayers as we expected Him to. If the whole purpose of my life is to learn to love God and to show this compassion in the world,
then what He is doing IN US is more important than what He is doing FOR US.
He will continue to mold us into the people we are supposed to be.  -Sheila Walsh

I have a long way to go.
"In everything you do, stay away from complaining."   Phil. 2:14

Please let our home be a home of joy and peace and welcome and grace.
Help us to get to the point that we don't care who gets the credit or whose fault this is,
someone needs to do something right now.  And that someone is me!

As people pleasers, we lie. We can't be trusted.

Lord we lift up our days to You.

When I miss my  prayer times, I miss You.

What do You want me to do today?

"Live with Me,
think of Me,
talk to Me,
grow more like Me.
Love Me.
Rest in Me.
Joy in Me."

Help us to stand firm in a loving manner even when those around us rationalize and argue towards us.
Help us to stand firm in what You want,
and to trust You to touch our loved ones hearts.

Help us to love each other.

I have missed You.
I know You are still here to guide me in what I am supposed to do, with this life You have blessed me with.

Much of Christ's ministry took place in private homes.
Our homes are meant to be welcoming places,
places of security and grace
that reflect God's nature.
Housework is sacred.

When we face a crisis,
we can go to the One with the greatest ability to help
and the greatest desire to love us and help us.

"Codependents are caretakers, rescuers,
they rescue, then they persecute,
then they end up victimized.
Rescuer,
persecuter, victim.
Our favorite reaction is the rescuer, enabler.
We not only meet other people's needs,
we anticipate them.
We fix, nurture, and fuss over things.
We make better,
solve, and attend to.
'Your wish is my command' is our theme.
We are the caretakers.
We rescue people from THEIR responsibilities.
We take care of people's responsibilities for them.
Later we get mad at them for what we have done!
Then we feel used and sorry for ourselves.
This is the pattern, the triangle.
Enabling is a destructive form of helping.
We become resentful and angry at the person we have so generously 'helped'.
We did something we didn't want to do,
we have ignored our own needs and wants,
and we get angry."   -  Codependent No More

"I lay my life down willingly, not out of compulsion."

People resent being told or shown that they are incompetent no matter how loudly they
plead incompetency.
And when they turn on us, we head to our favorite spot...
the victim corner on the bottom.
Rescuing or caretaking is not an act of love.
It is a hate triangle.
It fosters and maintains self hate,
and it kindles our feelings for other people.
We feel 'rejected' when someone refuses our help.
As victims,
we attract perpetrators.
We feel helpless.
At the heart of most rescues is a demon.
Low self worth.
We rescue because we don't feel good about ourselves.
Some men believe good husbands and fathers are caretakers - superheroes.
Responsible for meeting every need of each family member.
God wants us to help people and share our time,
talents, and money.
But He also wants us to give from a position of high self esteem.
If we absolutely cant feel good about something we are doing,
then we shouldn't do it!
No matter how charitable it seems.
Other people arent helpless,
neither are we.
Caretaking is closely associated with martyrdom,
people pleasing.
People pleasers can't be trusted.
We lie.
And as caretakers we don't take care of ourselves."   -Codependent No More