Don't give up!!

I realize that over the last 1-2 years on Facebook I have made it appear that I am full of nothing but joy and happiness, and have been posting nothing but inspirational (hopefully) posts and scriptures, never airing out my dirty laundry.  This is actually the way it should be out on the web, but never the less, normally isn’t.  We don’t need to let everyone know when we are mad at our loved ones, or when we hate our boss. However, because of this, I fear that I may have given the impression that everything I have done is ok, and that I am a perfect God loving person, and that all because of this nothing I have done or will ever do, will be wrong in my eyes or His.

I messed up! I mess up! I will mess up! It is wrong in my eyes and in his! You see…….almost two years ago my wife moved out of our house. We hated each other. We were both set on divorce and nothing or nobody was going to stop us. And neither it nor they did. But you see, that’s the problem, nothing or no one persistently tried to stop us. We now live in a society and in a country full of people that think its ok to get a divorce. I was the same way, I thought that just because things were hard and she wasn’t doing things the way I thought she should have been doing them (and I wasn’t doing things the way I should’ve been doing them), I had a right to give up and quit. Please understand that I know that there are extreme conditions where we must flee due to our safety and sometimes the safety of our kids. But for so many divorced couples this is not the case. We give up because things aren’t going the way we thought they would, or should.

“I just don’t love him anymore.”  “She’s always nagging me.” “He/she is not the same person I married.”

Those are our excuses. The thing is though, those are not good enough! Those are lame excuses. Heck, I don’t like my job, but you know what…….I’m still working, because I have to. I have to support my family. And that’s the way we should look at marriage. You see marriage is a sacred institution. Like so many great people have said before me, it’s a covenant not a contract. It’s not something that we are supposed to be able to release ourselves from just because the other party is not completely meeting our expectations. It’s something that we are supposed to hold dear to our hearts and fight for…….never give up on. This union is so special and important to God that he compares it to Christ’s love and sacrifice for us. (Ephesians 5:21-33)

I guess by writing this my hope is that we will all stop taking this union for granted. When our marriages are rough, fight……DON’T GIVE UP. And when a friend or a loved one around us (or even 7 hours away) is having a hard time or their times are tough…….DON’T LET THEM GIVE UP! We will never find happiness, looking for it in the wrong place. It’s right in front of us…….just reach and grab His hand!!!!!

If you feel that your partner is not the same person that they used to be…..get to know them again. We all change, even if it’s just a little. You don’t love your partner anymore……try loving them again. Love is an action, not just a feeling. Get out of your recliner and swoo her again. I’m willing to bet that if you get away from the TV or get off the computer (or video games) you’ll actually see the things that you fell in love with.

If you are reading this……I love you and God loves you. If you find that you fit into this situation, this is not me pointing fingers. As you read above, I’ve been there. This is me telling my story so that you can learn from it. If you knew me when I made my mistake, this is not me pointing my finger at you either. This is just the wisdom that I have been given through a new found relationship with Christ. God bless everyone of you.

What is your Next Step?

Why is it that we have such big fears and such little faith? Jesus tells us in Matthew 17:20 that with faith in God we could tell a mountain to move and it would move. Yet, for some reason when he asks us to move we let the fear and the lies from satan keep us from moving. Shouldn't we have more faith and obedience than the mountains? For so many of us, there is a feeling inside, a feeling that te...lls us we need to make a move, that we need to take a step in his direction, the direction that he is pulling us in. Aren't you tired of that feeling of regret and despair? That anguish you feel inside, when you feel like your supposed to go after something and you don't! It's only there because we're choosing not to listen to him calling us. He's calling us to something greater!! What's your next step? Don't you think it's time you've taken it??
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. ” (Matthew 17:20 NLT)