Manners. In many ways, it's a lost art. A quick scan of our society proves it. Just dine in any restaurant and observe the families eating dinner: elbows on the tables, loud talking, messiness, and misbehaving kids. On your drive home, you'll likely encounter a driver who cuts you off in traffic or gives some creative sign language.
But that's just the beginning.
I was thinking today about how my husband and I have had so many hurdles this past year. All in the first year of our marriage. So many people have come against our relationship and it made me think -
Just because there are couples that are not happy, or men/women that are divorced/single or whatever their relationship status is, it doesn’t mean we should allow them to interfere with our relationship(s). No, instead we should pray for them.
We should also thank God for our marriage and how blessed we are. And for all those people that are jealous, want to steal our joy, or try to come in between us, we should be a model of exactly what God planned for married couples to be so people can see what we have and want it. This way, our marriage in the end, not only blesses us but blesses others around us.
Perhaps that through our marriage, they are led to a better place in their relationships and see Christ working through our own marriage and subsequently want Christ to work in them and in their relationships as well.
It is about being an influence for God!
Matthew 5:44-48
“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
“In a word, what I’m saying is, let’s all be mature in our marriage. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
Take this challenge –
If you are a married couple, be a blessing to the men/women who are single, going through a difficult time, divorced, etc. Don’t allow them to steal your joy but let them see how God wants us to be. Sometimes these single or unhappy married people will come against your marriage (where affairs start). We should be a role model that they know we are not on the market for someone else we are happily married.
Love and Blessings,
Cheri
In honor of our marriages, Misses Amiss is having a showcase of marriages contest. Please email me a wedding photo of you and your husband. Along with a short story how you and your husband keep God first in your marriage. Please give me permission in this email to share your photos and your story on facebook to be entered into the contest to win a dinner for two. Email your photo and story to: missesamiss@gmail.com
The winner will be announced on March 31st, 2013. Please share with your family and friends to enter.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
New International Version (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
With all the roses, gifts and cards you could spend your money on it is truly the simple things in life that make a difference to me. My husband I have been on a tight budget for the past year and had some storms throughout the year dealing with “cleaning up the past”. With God we have managed to push through those storms. I received this letter today for Valentine’s Day from my husband. I was speechless and in awe! I love my husband and so thankful God brought us together. Please read my husband’s letter below;
Love and Blessings,
Cheri
No Mere Acquaintance
by John Boghos on Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 9:41am
There comes a time in your life, albeit beyond our power and control, that God brings a person into your life that He intends for you to be more than an acquaintance with. Depending on the person and your life phase you are in – that could be an unexpected brother or sister, a friend that you reunite with after years of no contact, a new friend that feels like you have always been close with or for some, and as it was for me, He brings you, your soul mate. Cheri Lynn Bullard walked into my life in July 2011 and almost immediately I knew that this most gorgeous, most wonderful woman was meant to be my wife.
This was not a passing relationship, this was no mere acquaintance – no, this lady was my soon-to-be best friend, my soon-to-be soul mate, my soon-to-be wife. I mean she did make me, I love you pancakes after all!
It took me about three weeks to kiss her for the first time and when I did, I knew that night, that I would someday make that woman my wife. I remember telling God, “That is my future wife!” It was then that I realized what she meant to me and I sent her the song “I Just Realized” by Matt Wertz – http://youtu.be/EwQSez9ttss to tell her so.
In my life, I am blessed enough to know the love of the few close friends I have, the love of my family and the love of my Heavenly Father; which those things most of us know and understand. And I honestly can say that up until God brought this amazing, beautiful woman to me, that I never have known or experienced real, true, committed selfless romantic love! So…here we are celebrating Valentine’s Day 2013 and really for me, it is I who feels that I have gotten the most wonderful valentine each day that I get to love and be loved by this most amazing woman.
I will be celebrating her and our love everyday that I am alive. I will protect her, I will lead her, I will love her and I will always be here for her. I believe in her, I cherish her, I would give her the last drop of blood in my body if needed. It’s her hand I will hold until I breathe my last. But really I have no choice here, my heart and my life were made for her. She is no mere acquaintance, she is my God-given soul mate. She is my world.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you – my Strength through the storms I have faced, my Love who loves unconditionally, my Best Friend who is always there, my Heart which would stop beating without you, my Wife that I will spend my entire life honoring.
I love you, Cheri Lynn Boghos, now, forever and beyond.
♥ Your Hubs,
John
2/14/13
Our church cheered as 17 more people were baptized this past weekend, but I might have cheered a little louder than usual. Not just because I had personal friends who were going public with their faith in God, even though I was certainly celebrating with them. I cheered a little louder because one person's story grabbed my attention.
When I saw 7-year-old Isabella Christie climb into the baptistry, I couldn't resist a smile.
All of us women notice the little things our husbands do and we wonder why he couldn’t have just done it “right”. For example, my husband will leave a kitchen cabinet door open or the coat closet is never shut all the way. I mean, is it really that hard after all?
Anyway, in my younger days I would have been upset and said something like, “Can’t you just shut the cabinet door or the closet door all the way?” Now, in my 40’s, I have learned that there are something’s that are not worth getting upset about. So I just laugh or smile and shut the kitchen cabinet door. Or when walking by the coat closet and I see it not closed all the way and just think. “That is my John!” and I just shut it.
“The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” ~Proverbs 14:1
As wives, we need to build our husbands up not tear them down. We are all imperfect and simply we can not expect our husbands to be perfect.
Something that I did for my husband that put a huge smile on his face. He arrived home last week to this sidewalk chalk driveway note.
Love & Blessings,
Cheri
I’ve discussed previously the #1 evangelistic mistake most of us make: We try to close the deal too early.
We’re not patient enough to walk with people long enough to let the Holy Spirit fully do His work in drawing people to Himself.
However, the most common discipleship mistake I see us often make is closely related. The #1 discipleship mistake we make is this:
We give up on people too quickly.
When someone around us drops the ball several times, we assume they don’t “get it” and they probably never will; we decide they’ll never change.
We move on.
We bail on the relationship.
We give up on people too quickly!
I think we often forget discipleship is a lifelong process.
I think we often forget the first disciples didn’t “get it,” even after being with Jesus 24-7 for more than three years.
I think we often forget, years after following Jesus, the apostle Peter still struggled with racism (Acts 10) and the apostle Paul still struggled with pride (2 Cor. 12).
If these guys struggled to become like Jesus, do you think people in our family will? People in our church? You bet. Can God still change them and help them become more like Jesus? You bet.
So the next time someone lets you down or drops the ball or doesn’t meet your expectations, don’t let the enemy fool you into giving up on them too quickly.
Why? Because Jesus hasn’t given up on you.
Boom!
Shawn Lovejoy
