Praise and Despair

Today was a day in which will never be forgotten.  My husband, the leader of this family, was baptized.  It was attended and celebrated by family as well as friends and I am so proud of him for the decision he made to make his walk with Christ public.  We have talked about it for a couple of years but I always knew he would need to make the decision on his own.  Growing up, I always believed that being baptized was the "golden key" into Heaven.  Now that I'm older and maybe just a little more wise, I realize that it's just an act to publicly acknowledge that you are a Christ follower and believer.  It takes a whole lot more than just being baptized to make it through the pearly gates.  Living a life for Christ was never promised to be easy.  There will be trials and tribulations but if we trust our heavenly father to lead us, we will come through and be better and stronger for it.

  Our family is going through a tough time of despair right now one of our loved ones is in a marriage that is not built on trust and hasn't been for quite some time.  Tonights sermon hit home with that.  It was all about trust in a marriage and how if it's going to be restored, it needs to be over a long period of time.  A lot of work needs to be put into gaining that trust back and restoring it.  I sat there in both despair and in awe at the words that were coming out of the pastor's mouth.  This is the second time in which our loved ones spouse has stepped out of the marriage and had relations with someone else.  It's hard enough that the victim in this situation does not know what to do but feels as though the marriage should attempt to be saved....again, when there are many more of us that just want the marriage to end.  We see both people, with their flaws, as we all are and just don't feel as if this is what God wants for her or him.  But on the other hand, the difficult part is that I do believe and have faith that we serve an almighty and all sufficient GOD!  I believe he can turn this marriage around, or at least I want to believe it.

I want to believe that this person, who I want to hate so much, but can't because the love of Christ in me won't let it happen......I want to believe he will change and be the person we all want him to be and the person my loved on so badly deserves.  I have a marriage in which trust is the biggest foundation.  I want that for my loved one, I want that for everyone!  

Is Technology Tearing Us Apart?

I read an article today that has resonated with me.  The point of the post was about why marriages are falling apart today with our constant attention to technology.  Instead of calling our spouse, we text them.  Instead of having sex, we're scrolling through Facebook to see what every one else is up to.  At the beginning of the post it discussed how our great grandparents and grandparents stayed married for life.  You didn't hear much about divorce.  They worked their problems out by speaking to each other and WORKING together to get through it.  You didn't hear much about divorce in those days.  As I get older, hearing about divorce doesn't even phase me.  It's everywhere!

In this house, we TALK a lot.  Sure, we communicate by text when it's necessary and I realize having a husband who works from home makes it very convenient for us to communicate but even when he worked out of the house and drove to the office every day, we communicated.  It's always been a priority, an importance in our relationship.  It's part of what makes our marriage work.  My hope is that our kids see us communicating and working on problems together and take that with them when they leave home one day and decide to marry because believe it or not, marriage is still meant to be "till death do us part" but sadly, there are so many out there who don't want to put the work in to it.  Don't get me wrong, there are situations in which I can see that divorce was necessary but in so many other situations, the marriage could have been saved.

In this house, we have sex.  Yes, we are two married people and we have sex!  We flirt, we joke and we laugh, EVERY DAY.  When we disagree, we talk and move on.  If one of us messes up, we apologize.  We swallow pride, get over it and get on with it!  Life is too short to hold a grudge against the one you love and have agreed to be with for the rest of your life.

I believe technology has many good things about it but I think it works like anything else, all in moderation!