Honor your Husband

Honoring your Husband this month

Merriiam-Webster.com provides one Definition of HONOR as --a showing of usually merited respect, recognition

Romans 12:10 says :  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

I am blessed with a wonderful dad and husband, men who love me and who are worthy of honor and praise.  I hope you are as fortunate!  This Fathers day, I challenge you to put the father of your children, your spouse, and your father in the biblical position of HONOR…whether they deserve it or not, whether you feel like it or not, whether they are living or dead.

Honor them in your heart by loving them as Christ would love them, in spite of all their faults and forgive them as you are forgiven.  Matthew 6:12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  For some of you this may be extremely difficult because your father or husband has committed a serious wrong and only with God’s help and some serious Knee-mail will you be able to honor them in this way. 

Honor them with your lips by practicing Ephesians 4:29:  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  Don’t make any critical or disparaging remarks about a man.  (This is a hard one, I just warning you!--especially when you include their driving, the way they fold laundry or ___ fill in the blank with your own pet peeve!  LOL).  Instead share words of praise, stories of their successes with others, build them up with words of affirmation.  Focus only on the good, not on what irritates you or with what “needs fixing”.

Honor them with your life by picking one thing the man does that is worthy of emulating and put it into practice this month.  Philippians 4:9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Happy Fathers Day!

Wedding Bells

Historically, June has always been the most popular month for weddings. That is where the term "June bride" comes from. The month of June derives its name from Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage. It was anciently thought that couples who married in June would be blessed with prosperity and happiness.  Therefore, enjoy the words of wisdom penned below by Barbara Rainey in celebration of marriages new and enduring.  



Pieces of the Pattern

BY BARBARA RAINEY

Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
EXODUS 25:9, NIV

Back when I used to do a lot more sewing, I enjoyed looking through pattern books. It was fun to select the style I wanted and then cut out the small pieces of tissue paper that indicated what went where and how everything fit together. But that's just it—all those little shapes that represent the sleeves and the bodice and the front and the back don't mean anything unless they eventually come together to form an article of clothing. Until the parts are applied in the context of the whole, they never achieve the purpose that was intended for them by the dress designer.

Many times in marriage, all we can see are the pieces. We see the romance part. We see the conflict part. We see the housekeeping part. We see the bill-paying part. We see the parenting part. But because we spend so much of our time focusing on the individual parts of our marriage, we don't always see them in the bigger picture our Designer had in mind But the pattern is there nonetheless, and it's contained in the package of God's Word.

I want you to be encouraged that the pattern for your marriage isn't something you were responsible for creating. It's not based on feelings that can be strong today and much different tomorrow. The biblical pattern and plan for your marriage was created in the mind of almighty God, whose wisdom is unrivaled and whose love for you is beyond all bounds. If you keep putting the pieces where they belong, His pattern will start to show. His design will take its beautiful shape in the form of your marriage.