LiveFreeLoveHard

Bringing in the New Year Tips - 2019!! My fellow Wife-Lifers, we have arrived to the threshold of 2019.  Congratulations on making it through this year.  It has been a wild ride.  Regardless of how your 2018 was, whether there was heartache and mistakes or big breaks and booty shakes, it's time to put the year behind us.  You can't drive forward and look in your rear view mirror at the same time, its dangerous - in life and on the road.   So, here are the rules for you Mrs. Fabulous: 1)  Tonight, understand no matter what, that you are the most beautiful, sexiest woman in the world to your husband.  This is factual, but we often don't believe it.  In God's design, Eve was made perfect for Adam.  And when Adam beheld her, his jaw dropped and the world stopped.  He followed her around like a puppy dog.  God has not changed his design for us.  You are Eve to your Adam. Revel in it and strut in it!   ...

So, I was compelled to start this series because I want to be happily married till death do us part.  I am thrilled by the opportunity to live this journey with my favorite person - you know, newlywed stuff.  I wanted to find a way to bottle this time of my life, with my husband, and hold onto it, for the rest of our lives.  He's such a wonderful man!   We all know that there are ups and downs in life, and marriage is no different.  But it's worth it.  And if you ever questioned that, here is a final declaration - Yes!  It's worth it.   I'm writing this to myself in 5,10, 20 years. I'm writing this to my mom, my best friend, my sister, and my fellow wives.  You have been in my shoes and I will be in yours, let us help one another safely through this journey.  And let's have some fun while doing it!! I am convinced, with what I see on tv and in movies, that marriage is under attack.  Marriage is always on the defense fr...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…Ephesians 3:20 Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling, blah!   Feeling like you’re just going through the motions with no real sense of joy, excitement or expectancy.   You feel like today is going to be just another same ole, same ole day.   It actually makes you linger in bed a little longer because you don’t really have anything that’s pushing you to get up and greet the day.   That’s what today was like for me. Without sounding dismissive about the blessings God is filling my life with, I’m not saying my feelings are valid. I’m just saying that’s what I felt.   I have a lot to be thankful for and I see God all around me, but this morning it took some prompting, praying and reading my Word to get my mind back on the right track.   As I was making coffee, my husband asked me, “Is everything alright?”   He notic...

So, this morning I had to reel my thoughts in several times to get through a one minute prayer.  "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for waking me up this morning and thank you for this day [ok, today I want to make sure I drop off the letter in the mail and wash the clothes we need for this trip] and help me to focus on you, Lord. [I'm gonna set a reminder to call Susan back later this morning (grab my phone, Facebook pops up, begin scrolling...10 minutes later) Lord, I love you, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. It's not a very productive prayer.  It's not a focused prayer.  It's just what seems to happen when I sit down and desire to spend time with God.  I am so easily distracted.  I am flooded by thoughts, to-do's, happenings of the day, that getting quiet with God for Him to speak in my life has become that challenging.  And with the limited time I do have to devote to sitting down with him in the early hours of the morning, if I can't commit my thought...

Do you remember when you first learned your ABC's?  In order to memorize them, we sang songs, wrote them down, did picture associations, and drowned ourselves in the alphabets until we had it down.  We played with letter blocks.  Everywhere we turned, someone was trying to show us an alphabet.  Sound this word out.  What letter does "airplane" start with?  If you have young children right now, this is likely on today's agenda. Why do we do this?  Because we want to learn it, know it, and have it be a part of our natural understanding.  I've been a Christian a long time, but I realize that I have to approach the word of God with the same diligence as I did when learning the alphabets.  I have to study it, say it out loud, memorize it, hear it back, make word associations, revere it and spend time in it.  Why?  Because I want to learn it, know it and have it be a part of my natural understanding - how I process the world I live in. ...

I asked before, what are you believing God for?   Now, I’m going to take it one step further and ask what are you living like you believe God for?   From the outside looking in, what might a friend say about what you believe God for?   Are you working toward something that is bigger than you, and you continue to press in and press on, knowing that God will help you along the way?   To truly live by faith, we have to be willing to live with a bigger vision than we could ever truly accomplish.   Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.   Well, I don’t hope for things that I can do on my own.   I don’t hope to make it to the store and buy food when I have a pocket full of money and a car to get there.   I hope for what I don’t have.    I hope for things for my future and my family.   The evidence of things not yet seen, I believe is the action behind the belief that we will ...

Sometimes I’m really hard on myself.   There is a disparity between where I am and where I want to be.   I’ll never be perfect, and that’s never been my burden.   I’ve always wanted to do my best.   And I feel an incredible sense of satisfaction when I’ve given my best effort.   When you know you’ve left it all out on the field, when you’ve given it your all, when you’ve fought till your last breath.   There is a sense of peace when you live there, and I want to live there more often than not. Living there requires passion.   That’s where some get lost.   Not knowing what their passion is.   To give your all, there has to be something that you care enough about that you’ll exhaust yourself, staying up late to get it done.   You’ll wake up early to get closer to achieving it.   There isn’t anything easy about it, except loving it.   So, that’s what drives you to keep pressing toward it.   As the apostle Paul said in Philipp...