Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thankful for the hedge...

We went to service last night and there were opportunities for the congregation to give personal testimonies of what they were thankful for.  As I listened to what others were thankful for and how God had delivered them, it actually gave me strength and a measure of peace for my tribulations.  My soul began to reach for the power that God makes available to us all.  Here were real examples of His saving grace being expressed by real people. 
Pastor Carter reminded me Sunday of the morning prayers that Janet and I share and the request that is always made.  “Lord be a hedge of protection around our family.”  This year I want to give thanks for those things seen and unseen that His hedge of protection has kept out of our lives.  As I sat there I began to understand that another person’s testimony may have been mine if not for the hedge that God has constructed around my family.  His power is in our praise and in turn strengthens His hedge (of protection).  It comforts me to know that the hedge absorbs all my worries because almost none of those things I give weight to can breach His hedge.  Those that do are for the edification of God’s glory and become my testimony… 
 
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Making Sense of Your Man

In the early years of my marriage I would walked into my home at the end of a rough day with the weight of the world still draped over me. I could not express to this beautiful woman who had been waiting for me the frustrations I was feeling from carrying the weight of principalities on my shoulders. My lack of pre or present marital instructions pushed me to rely on my troglodyte instincts. Protect and guard my emotions. Most women (and men) knowingly or unknowingly carry the burden of expectations based on past relationship (good or bad) with the opposite sex into the next relationship. Everybody has a “carry-on” bag they bring into each relationship. What is stuffed in that bag can govern how we set boundaries and lanes in our relationships.

Can a woman really make sense of the man she loves? A woman will not be able to make sense of her man or understand his quirky ways until he is able to open up to her his “treasure chest” of true thoughts and emotions. You can be sure he will always tell you how he can “do great things in this world” or “how well he got it going on.” You will never really know him until he can tell you how he truly feels when he discovers it may take a while to do great things. Can you wait? Then you discover those great things may only be good things, or that he is still working on getting it going on cause he really “ain’t” got it going on. In all this can you accept that in his treasure chest he may be holding a fear of failing in your eyes and the worlds? Can you support his dreams even if they are not as clear to you as they are to him? Can you respect and love him while still clutching your “carry-on” or can you put it in God’s overhead bin?

What a man really wants the woman in his life to know is how much he really loves her and to what heights he will go to show it. He only needs to know that it is safe to let you see the man that God has designed for you so he can discontinue the use of the camouflaged version he has been presenting for fear of being less than you may have wanted or expected. If you can make sense of this, you will have made sense of the man you love.

Proverbs 31:10-11
Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.
Lord God my Father thank you for the gift that you have given me. Allow me to love, guide and protect her and the union that you have ordained. Second to you she is my best friend and confidant. I will forever lift up our relationship to you in thanksgiving and praise for you chose this woman for this man.
Amen