Aloha! I am back. I have not written a blog post in more than 3 months due to the fact of how insanely busy our lives have been. I am in the process of making a job change(more to come on this later) and have been feeling like a crazy woman lately. I want to do a post soon and catch up on the last 3 months I have missed. But today I want to talk about how God has been working on me. A couple of weeks ago we went to a marriage seminar weekend at Honolulu Church of Christ. The speakers for the weekend were Glenn and Cindy Colley. We had just went to a marriage retreat with our congregations a few weeks before, but Landry heard who was speaking and said we should go here them.
Landry's dad and granddad built his childhood home. He has so many found memories growing up there. His family moved when he was a sophomore in college and he has told me several times how he misses it. We live in a small world, because the Colleys actually bought that house. We went to grow in our marriage relationship and to learn about how to raise our future kids in the Lord. But we gained so much more than we expected.
We both took away a lot from the different lessons we heard in the group sessions and the split men and women times as well. Here is a list of some of the things that stuck with me and hopefully will be encouraging to you....
1. Teach your children that the definition of True success is living your life and going to Heaven.
2. Every evening you should have a time of Bible study with your family. Just bringing your kids to church is not enough.
3.T.I.M.E. spells love to your children.
4. Teach your children to obey you now so that later in their life they will be able to obey the Lord.
5. You NEVER get what you need in marriage if you deprive your spouse of what he/she needs. You must change yourself first.
6. The principles that make a person a great Christian also make a great spouse.
7. Decide to find something positive to say about your spouse everyday.
8. Let laughter, fun and sex be main stays in your marriage.
9. Have the attitude that I am going to love you whether or not you are good to me!
10. Speak to and about your husband in respectful words. Compliment your husband, especially around others.
11. Women don't nag, pout,manipulate or lie. Make the home a peaceful, loving sanctuary for your husband.
We both had to work part of the weekend and missed a couple of the lessons, but the ones we heard really made us reevaluate some things. We spent a time of study alone with the Colleys one of the nights they were on the island. Landry and I celebrated our 2 year marriage anniversary last February and the last couple years have been some of the happiest times in my life. Moving away a year ago from all things familiar in Tennessee to a whole new way of life here in Hawaii has been one of the greatest blessings to our marriage. We have completely depended on each other and grown so close as we stepped out together. But one area we have struggled in is studying our Bible and praying together as a couple.
In our time alone with the Colleys they really encouraged us to set aside a time everyday together to have a Bible study and the gave us some tips. They gave us their book "You're Singing My Song" and we have been reading it together at night. They also suggested to change it up. Some nights we read a book, some times we watch an encouraging video, listen to a sermon online or make a prayer list and spend some time in prayer together. We have been consistently having this time for about a month and it has been amazing to see God pulling us close to Him and to each other. You can check out some great resources on the colley's site http://thecolleyhouse.org.
Also for all the ladies out their check out this podcast http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=112808&cmd=tc. Once a month Cindy and some other ladies do a podcast on a different book of the Bible. The theme is Sanctification and this month's book is Daniel.
I am finding there are so many ways to daily draw yourself close to God. It just takes a conscience effort. James 4:7,8 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you,...."
My prayer today is to never stop trying to draw near to God as long as I am on this earth, because I always want to feel Him drawing near to me.
