Ten Ways To Love - #3 & 4: Give and Pray

This is the second post in a series I'm writing, called Ten Ways to Love. 
To read part one, go HERE

Some people are always greedy for more,
    but the godly love to give!

Proverbs 21:26

 #3 on the list above is to "give, without sparing". What does that mean? I think it means to be willing to share the best of what you have with others who are in need. Whether it is money, time, material things, or a service/skill, when we give to others, without sparing(or holding back) we are showing the pure love of God. For, through Christ, He showed His ultimate love for us by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins. He gave to us what was precious to Him. What a great example of love!! Are we willing to do the same?

 What is precious to you that you know would bless someone else?

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Colossians 1:9

Do you pray for your husband? For his well-being, for his spiritual walk, for his role as a husband and father? According to #4 on the list above, one way we can show love for others is to pray for them. As a parent, I find myself continually praying for my child's salvation, health, and safety. For those family members, co-workers, or even someone you have just met that has a need, prayer can show them what truly loving others is about. Don't you feel loved and considered important when someone tells you that they have been praying for you? (Or better yet, when they ask to pray with you.) I know I do.

 Today, I am listing some more reasons that I love my husband and linking over at the Happy Wives Club  blog hop!

Last week I listed 26 reasons I love my husband, for each year that we have been married.
Since today is February 7, I am going to list 7 more reasons:

27) He calls me every day when he is on his break at work, most of the time just to say 'hi' and see how I'm doing.

28) He is patient with me, when I get in a bad mood or am feeling grouchy.

29) He will change the channel on the TV, if there is a gory or scary show on that I don't like.(Even though that doesn't bother him)

30) He will surprise me now and then, by doing the dishes, when I get busy and fall behind.

31) He may be slow, but will eventually complete any home project.

32) He usually is brutally honest with me, sometimes telling me what I don't want to hear.

33) He will let me have the last slice of pizza, dessert, or anything we are eating for dinner.(Even though I usually don't want it, he always offers.)

Ten Ways To Love - #1 & 2: Listen and Speak

One could say that February is considered the month of "love".

Smack dab in the middle of the month is Valentine's Day....the day couples celebrate love.

For some, love is a mushy sentiment, which includes sending love letters and poetry, flowers and candy. Some believe that the evidence of love should be butterflies in your stomach, holding hands, cuddling, and kissing. And unfortunately, many believe sex equals love. 

The Bible talks a lot about love. Interestingly enough, none of the above is ever mentioned as defining love. That's because love is much more than the temporary emotions, physical pleasure, or outward appearances. 

1 Corinthians 13 is considered the 'love chapter' of the Bible.

Most Christians are familiar with this chapter and it's definition of love.

But, we can find the subject of love and what characteristics are evidence of "real" love throughout the Bible. 

 Here is a list of just a few ways to 'really' love others:

Today, I am going to discuss the tongue and listening(the first 2 on the list above), instead of speaking. 

You may ask, "What does that have to do with love?"

Well lets check it out.

If you read through all of Proverbs 18, wisdom and unselfishness are achieved only by listening to others.

Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.

 Proverbs 18:2

Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.
Proverbs 18:13

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

We also read in the New Testament that a wise and loving person listens first and speaks second.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 

 James 1:19

Loving others means being willing to listen to them and speaking words of love and kindness, not with accusations and anger. How many times have we ever interrupted others who are talking because we had something more 'important' to say?   I know I'm guilty! I could learn to show love towards others more by listening. 

In my next post, I will cover, yet another characteristic of love from the list of "Ten Ways To Love". So, stop on back. 

I am also continuing to add to my list of  'gifts', as I continue in the Joy Dare.

A song heard, a soft word, a light seen

1,210 - In song: What a beautiful, uplifting song!

1,211 - A soft word: 

 "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." Proverbs 15:1

1,212 - A light seen: "The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes." Psalm 19:8

A gift on paper, in a person, in beauty

1,213 - on paper:The anniversary card my hubby gave me.

1,214 - in person: My hubby, taking me out to a fancy restaurant; he's truly a gift from God!!

1,215 - in beauty: flowers from my hubby

3 gifts red: (my 3 favorite shades of red)

1,216 - Maroon: described as half way between bright red and black, Maroon is the only color variant here which is a true shade of pure red; deep and true, not flashy; example: Chocolate Cosmos(the great part, too, is that they smell like chocolate!)

source

1,217 -  Coral-Red: Increasing amounts of blue light are added, and this makes the end tone much more pinkish; a little playful and summery; example: aptly named, it's is the color found in coral reefs.

 

 source

1,218 - Claret: A dark or grayish purplish red to dark purplish pink; because I've always loved the color purple, this deep red color has been a favorite; example: the color of boysenberry jam.

 

 source

Great info. on the color red - (Shades and Tones of Red), (The Power of Red)

3 gifts in writing:

1,219 - Loved this post from Ann Voskamp, written a few years ago.    "How to Really Write a Love Letter"

1,220 - Reading old entries from my journals; good memories, thoughtful reminders of His provision in my life!

1,221 -The written Word...the ultimate gift in writing!!

    

Linking over at these blog parties: 
Multitude on Mondays (A Holy Experience)  

  Sharing His Beauty (Beauty In His Grip)

Gratituesday (Heavenly Homemakers)
Winsome Wednesday(My Daily Walk in His Grace) 
UNITE (Rich Faith Rising) 

26 Reasons Why I Love My Husband

26 years ago, on January 31st, 1987 at 6:00 p.m., I married the man of my dreams! The events of that day are still pretty clear to my heart and in my memory for many reasons. 

First, the setbacks. Yes, just about every wedding day has them and ours was no exception. He was an extremely nervous groom. In the stress of remembering what to bring to the church, he forgot my wedding band and there wasn't time to go back to his house, 40 minutes away, and get it before the ceremony. So we ended up borrowing his friends' wife's ring until after the ceremony. I wasn't a happy camper. On top of that, his brother, who was a groomsman did not show up for the wedding, and could not be reached anywhere. Thank goodness, a friend of Ken's who was at the wedding was the same size and fit into the tux and was able to stand up in place of his brother. Thank goodness, both of the issues we were able to resolve without a lot of hoop-la and chaos.

There were also some amazing moments that were totally unforgettable. Like when the minister was saying a blessing and the caged doves up on stage began to coo ominously, yet beautifully. The fact that I actually played handbells at my own wedding, without royally messing up, still amazes me. The moment Ken and I shoved cake into each others faces (we weren't too mean) that made everyone laugh. The fact that we almost bought our first dog (a big slobber-y Great Dane) on our honeymoon. Whew! Glad we didn't do that! 

To complete my post today, I decided to hop on over to the "Why I Love My Husband" Link-up at the Happy Wives Club. For every year that I have been married to my wonderful man, I am writing down a reason I love him so much! Enjoy!

26 reasons I love my husband:

1. He is a faithful husband and father.
2. He is a Christ-follower and does his best to live a godly life.
3. He puts his wife and family first.
4. He is a hard worker and provides for the family.
5. He tries hard to be romantic and sometimes he actually surprises me.
6. He is such an optimist.(Always looks at the positive side of things)
7. He took me to South Carolina to renew our wedding vows.
8. He took time off work, cooked, and cleaned while I recovered from surgery, without being asked.
9. He is an amazing fisherman.
10. He genuinely gets excited for me when "I" catch a big fish.
11. He doesn't complain when I get behind on the house work.
12. He isn't annoyed by my obsession with picture-taking, especially of us together.                                                                                          Renewing our wedding vows; Folly Beach, South Carolina,
    December 24th, 2012.  (Our son officiated.)
            
13. He doesn't care that I've gained weight over the years.
14. He still thinks I'm attractive and is always calling me "beautiful" and his "lovely", and at the appropriate time, says that I'm "sexy".
15. He's understanding when I get emotional, which is alot of the time!
16. He's a great kisser.(Among other things!)
17. He rarely gets angry.
18. He's very forgiving.
19. He often will go with me places, even places that are just for me - ie. the mall, craft store, clothing store, etc.
20. He does some of the shopping to save money at our local discount grocery (Aldi's).
21. He notices when I get a new outfit and will compliment how nice I look in it, never asking how much it cost me.
22. He gives great back rubs!
23. He has an awesome laugh!
24. He asks for and respects my opinion/discusses with me all important decisions in the household.
25. He's good at inventing, creating, and building things that would be costly to buy or that would help improve our lives.
26. He thinks I'm a great mom and wife and tells me so.

Morris Island lighthouse in the background.

Throwing flowers into the ocean...

  My prince charming, sweeping me off my feet.

 A very romantic day!

Getting silly!

Linking over at these blog parties:

Why I Love My Husband (Happy Wives Club) 
"Almost Friday" Thursday blog hop ("Quite" the blog) 
Thursday Favorite Things (Katherine's Corner) 
 Hearts 4 Home Thursday (Our Simple Country Life)
Domestically Divine Homemaking (Far Above Rubies) 
Proverbs 31 Thursday (Raising Mighty Arrows) 
 Thumping Thursdays(Life's Beautiful Moments)

How I Met Your Father....

No, this post isn't about the T.V. show. 
That actually is called, "How I Met Your Mother." 
But you might say it is the story of how my hubby and I met.(I never have written our story out before, so I decided this is a great time to do it, with Valentines Day around the corner. Plus our 26th wedding anniversary is Jan. 31st. Maybe our son or daughter will keep this story to tell their kids someday.

I think our story is a little bit unconventional, at least for someone like me. Today, it's a little bit less exciting, with the internet and how technology has come so far. But for the 80's, it was unique. I also believe there were some events that made it obvious that God had His hand in bringing us together. 

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

It was my last semester of senior year of college.(Around March of 1984, I think.) My little sister, who at the time was working in our hometown, was living at home, as was I, to save money. We shared a lot with each other about our relationships. A few times she had helped me find a date at the last minute or even helped me to get bold enough to ask a guy I liked out. (I was a little shy back then. But she definitely wasn't.) 

There was a free newspaper (called "The Paper". Very original, huh!) The Paper had a section that advertised singles wanting to meet other singles. I guess you could say it was what people did before internet dating sites became popular, let alone computers. I don't even think the internet was discovered yet. (Yikes, I'm getting old!) My sister would write into the singles ads to meet guys, as well as answer ads guys posted. One day, we were just looking through the ads for her to see if there was any that looked interesting, when I came across one that caught my eye. I wasn't looking for someone to date, but for some reason, his ad struck me. My sister said, "Why not just write to him and see if he is interested." I was like, "No way!" That just wasn't my style. But my sister was pretty persistent and eventually she talked me into it, but only if she would help me write the letter. How the service worked was that a person would respond to an ad (which had a specific number) and send it into the paper, who then sent the letter to the corresponding person who wrote the ad. Then that person had the option of responding or not responding. I really didn't expect to hear from him and put it behind me. But about a week later, I got a phone call from a guy named "Ken".  I was so shocked that I almost didn't know what to say, but I must have somehow impressed him over the phone, because we decided to meet the following week. I was so flustered that I forgot to even get his phone number. After thinking about our plan to meet in a parking lot in his home town 30 miles away, at night, alone, I started to panic. I didn't even know what he looked like (so it was a blind date.). And I couldn't call him to cancel, since I didn't get his number. My sister, once again, came to my rescue. She had been going out with a guy, also from the singles ads, and said they would just come along and if this guy didn't like it, we would just leave.  I was quite impressed, for some reason, when "Ken" told me to look for a blue Camero. (Oooh, a sportscar!)

The evening finally arrived. My sister, her date, and I headed for Warsaw to get to the meeting place. We got there a little early and kept our eyes pealed for a shiny blue Camero. All of a sudden, a rusty old, loud Camero pulled into the lot. Oh, boy! That wasn't what I expected. He got out of the car and we did introductions. Obviously, he was a little set back to see two other people with me, but later said he understood my cautiousness. I thought right off, this guy is very cute! Tall, with dark, curly hair! He worked out regularly and was pretty buff, too! We had dinner at the Pizza Hut across the street. The conversation between us all went really well, so we decided to go bowling, after having eaten. The bowling alley was down the street a little, so Ken offered to drive us all over in his car. I didn't realize it at the time, but my poor hubby-to-be wasn't the richest guy on the block. The whole floorboard of the back seat had holes in it and we got what I would describe as free air conditioning. Bowling was fun, too. In fact, I got the best score ever and haven't been able to top it since.(149, if you must know. I'm not that great a bowler.) By the end of the date, I'd decided I really liked this guy and would enjoy seeing him again.

The following week, Ken called me. We talked for awhile. The conversation seemed to go well. Then, right before saying goodbye, he said that he had something to tell me. Oh, no! What could it be? "Well," he kind of mumbled, "I just felt I should tell you that I'm divorced." Oh! I  swallowed, O.K. "And something else. I have two kids." I was so flabbergasted that no words came out. "Is that O.K. with you? If not, I understand." He failed to mention this in his single's ad. (This was God intervention #1, for I know I would have never responded to the ad if I had known he was divorced, with kids). Well, he was so nice, I just couldn't  bring myself to tell him that I didn't date divorcees with kids! So, I said, "No, that's fine." We decided to go out again, and the relationship began.

About 5 months later, I was a college graduate, deciding what I wanted to do with my life. Our church(denomination) had a short-term(up to 1 year) volunteer mission program for young people in the U.S. I had considered missions and wanted to try it. There was a need for teacher's aids working with deaf and hearing impaired kids in Ohio. Since I had taken some sign language classes in college, I felt this was a perfect match for me. My relationship with Ken had kind of come to a stand-still. He wasn't really ready to marry again yet and I wanted to go on the missions in Ohio. So we parted ways as friends. In reality we didn't even stay in touch with each other after I left for Ohio. 

Fast forward to 1 1/2 years later. I moved back home, after completing my time in missions and spending some extra time working in Ohio. A week after my move home, Ken called me just to see how I was doing. Again, I was floored! "How did you know that I just moved back here?" He replied, "I didn't. I just happened to think about you and thought I would see what you were up to." (To me, this was God Intervention #2. He brought us back together just at the right time.) We started dating again...well, it took a little work at first. I was recovering still from a broken relationship with a guy I dated while in Ohio. I actually almost ruined our chance to get together again, when I kind of was rude and abrupt on our first time meeting again. But, thankfully, Ken was willing to give me another chance to see if I was just having a rough night. I made sure I was a lot nicer after that. I also had to get over the shock that he really didn't have naturally curly hair. The first time we dated, he had a permanent (Definitely an 80s thing). When we met the second time, no curls were on his head! 

A year later we were married and the rest is history!

In 2012, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows on a beach in South Carolina!

Linking over at these blog parties:

Tuesday Talk(Our Life on a Budget)
Soli Deo Gloria Party (Finding Heaven)
Gratituesday (Heavenly Homemakers)

Titus 2sdays (Time Warp Wife)

Teach Me Tuesdays(Growing Home)
Walk With Him Wednesday (A Holy Experience) 
Winsome Wednesday(My Daily Walk in His Grace) 
Why I Love My Husband (Happy Wives Club)
  Sharing His Beauty (Beauty In His Grip)

Story of Joseph - A Story About God's Promises

http://www.365promises.com/promise-photo-gallery/

I've been attending a Bible study at my church for several weeks. We have been studying the basics of the Old Testament ~ many stories of people of that time that have revealed how God has worked in their lives, and how He still works today.

Most recently, we have been studying the life of Joseph. Several statements in our study guide reminds me just how much God works in and through our lives each day. This story also brings up the fact once again that how we look at our circumstances in life affects everything else.

 The story of Joseph:

Genesis 37,  39,  40-45

Joseph's faith in God and what He communicated allowed him to see beyond his circumstances and serve the Lord.

• God is the Promise-Giver and Promise-Keeper. Joseph trusted that God was still with him, despite the apparent hopelessness of his situation.                  

1.  Sold into slavery by his own brothers. 
2. Falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit and imprisoned. 
3. Forgotten by those he helped, while in prison.

• God spoke through dreams to Joseph and the Egyptians    

1.   His dream as a shepherd boy 
2. The wine-taster's dream 
3. The king's dream

• God speaks to us in different ways today.

1. Through His Word. 
2. Confirmation through other believers 
3. Answered prayer, even if it's not what we pray for.

•  The Joseph story tells us that God was with Joseph and showed His faithfulness to him in the very worst of his circumstances.

             "The LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden." (Gen. 39:21)

• God is present. He is with us always.

1. The Bible tells us this truth: "For he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake    you.”(Hebrews 13:5) 
2. We are aware through our experiences and when we have peace that only He can provide in our lives. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you" (John 14:27)

• When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, he is able to forgive them and tells them that “It was God who sent me here—not you.”

•  God is sovereign.

1.  As children of God, we are able to see His sovereign plan, in spite of the   circumstances that led us down the road we take in life.

(source)


This story is a great reminder of who God is and how He works in our lives, each and every day.

Joy is a function of gratitude — and gratitude is a function of perspective.

(Ann Voskamp)

Sharing the many gifts God has graced upon me: Joy Dare

3 witnessed blessings:
1,198 - Getting to see my brother eat solid food again! Continued healing, as he is finally gaining, not losing weight, since his 4 month illness began.
1,199 - Quick healing of my knee, after surgery.
1,200 -  A friend who needed encouragement, finding the goodness of a stranger, just at the right time.

3 gifts from God's word: His promises
1,201 - Psalm 145:13-14

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

1,202 -  Psalm 91:1-2  
 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” 
1,203 - Malachi 3:6

"I the LORD do not change."

3 gifts only seen close-up:
1,204 - Through study of His Word, I can see many of His promises.
1,205 - A wedding invitation received in the mail.
1,206 - Pictures of my hubby when he was young, found in the corner of a dresser drawer.

3 graces from people you love:
1,207 -  Friends, who call and text me, saying they are praying.
1,208 -  My hubby, working hard to finish our latest major home renovation project.
1,209 - My hubby and son, doing dishes and laundry, to help around the house, while I recover.

Linking over at these blog parties:

Multitude on Mondays (A Holy Experience)  
Gratituesday (Heavenly Homemakers)
Winsome Wednesday(My Daily Walk in His Grace)

Thankful Thursday (Grace Alone) Hearts 4 Home Thursday (Our Simple Country Life)
  Sharing His Beauty (Beauty In His Grip)
God-Bumps & God-Incidences(Getting Down With Jesus)