Help Your Children Remember

Deuteronomy 6:8&9 “And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

(I once again need to apologize for a lapse here, but my husband was on spring break and we took a few days away to be together and to see our family that lives in the Dayton area. We had a great time, but it is always good to get home.)

Last time I posted, it was concerning the mandates in the verses in Deuteronomy that precede these two verses. Now, I am not qualified to exposit about these passages, but I am just trying to share some of the principles concerning child-rearing that I have gleaned from this passage over the years of my experience in raising three children.

I see in these verses the command to the Israelites to post something in three different places. In order to accomplish that task, it is necessary to know what it is they were to post! If you look back to verse 6 of this chapter, you will see that it is “these words” which we talked about in the last entry. And if you look ahead one more verse, you will see that they have to do with our love for the Lord. So it is that they were told to bind these words for a sign on their hands, put them between their eyes and write them on the posts of their house and gates. That command was specific to those people, but I think that the principle applies to us today!

I don’t think that we need to figure out how to place anything between our eyes or on our hands, but I do think that we can place appropriate things around our homes that will remind our children and others that this is a place where God is remembered and honored. If you look around your home, will your children be reminded to “Love the Lord their God” or will they be encouraged to love the world and its system? Do they see reminders of God and His plan and expectations for them, or do they see all the “stuff” that reminds them of the saying, “He who dies with the most toys wins”?

What then are some ways of displaying a God-loving and God-honoring attitude in your home? Is there a place in your home where your family meets daily for the purpose of family devotions and prayer? I am wondering if there is a Bible or a devotional book on your breakfast table that reminds your children that this is where God’s Word is read each morning before your family leaves the house for the day in order to give everyone encouragement as they head out to face the things that come along as we face the world each and every morning. Is there a Bible story book that reminds them that this is how we end each day before we all head off to bed after a busy day? Are there books on your bookshelf that encourage your family to study the deeper truths of God’s Word? Is there good music available for your family from good Christian children’s music to quiet devotional music for the family? These are just some of the ways of “posting these words” on the door posts of your home. We will all have different ways of accomplishing this mandate, but the important thing is that you DO IT! Start small, but start with a plan. Decide today that you will do one thing to make your home a place where God is remembered and honored. Pick one of these ideas or think of one of your own, but get started today! If you think, “Sometime I will have to do that” it won’t happen! And remember, your children are growing every day and they will some day leave home and then it will be too late! You only get one chance to raise your children. You can’t get to the end and decide, “I guess I blew it that time! Let’s try this again!” So get started on some of these things and let’s raise children that remember and have as their goal to “Love the Lord ‘their’ God with all ‘their’ heart, and with all ‘their’ soul and with all ‘their’ might!”

A Call To Prayer

If you have read the introduction to my blog, you know that I am a homemaker that has spent most of my life doing things that homemakers do like raising my children, ministering to my husband and family, homeschooling, church ministries, etc.. Many years ago, God impressed on me the importance of praying, first of all for my husband and family and for the Church, Christian ministries, and many other areas of life including our country, the United States of America.

Almost every day, we receive requests in the mail or by phone for money for this or that cause or politician. And like you, we are not able to give financially nearly as much as we would like. However, we do want to make a difference in the future of our country and do what we can to preserve the freedoms we have for our children and grandchildren. I believe that God has called us to prayer in order to accomplish His plan in this world. We do not understand how our prayers affect His carrying out of His will, but we do know that He has told us to pray for many specific things including our leaders. (I Timothy 2:1&2) We are sometimes guilty of thinking and sometimes even saying that “all I can do is pray”, when in reality praying is the VERY BEST thing we can do! God has once again burdened me to organize this “team” of women who will commit to pray throughout this election season. I am not asking for a commitment to me, but a commitment to our Lord that for the sake of the future of our kids and grandkids, we will “stand in the gap” (Ezekiel 22:30).

I am sure that most of you know most of the issues that are before us at this time as we face the election in November, so I won’t go through the list. I just wonder if we are all aware of the major impact some of these issues could have on the future of America. I will try not to overstate any of the consequences, but our country is at a major crossroad and we need God’s mercy in order to preserve the freedoms that we have enjoyed all of our lifetimes. It is not my intention, nor will I in the future make reference to any particular parties or to particular candidates for the purpose of criticizing anyone specifically. However, I will try to bring to our minds specific requests that need our prayer and if that implies a particular candidate, then I guess we will trust God’s Spirit to cause us to pray for whatever He brings to our minds.

I believe that God will do great things across our land if His people band together for prayer! God has given me a great burden in the area of prayer and if I can pass it along and inspire anyone else to pray that would be a great answer to my personal prayer. If you are encouraged to pray, share it with others that you know and let’s see what God will do when His people pray!

I will be posting reminders and requests and encouragements on my blog from time to time through this election time. God bless each one of you and may He be honored through our efforts to give our country the very best we can give, our time in prayer!

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!” James 5:16

Contented Children - Part II

Wow! I have been terribly busy for almost three weeks now, and I haven’t been able to find time to think about or write on my blog! I am hoping things will settle down now, so I am returning and will try to get back on track. We have had company, entertained grandchildren, visited our son in Dayton, been to the Dr. and dentist, etc.!

We started the topic of contentment last time and I would like to continue on that line today. Another important principle of teaching contentment to your children is to keep your home “low key”. Teach your children to enjoy the simple things of life. Make a big deal about things that you want them to enjoy like going for walks and picking flowers. Let them plant things in the garden and watch them grow. I learned very early on that my children would reflect me, so if I was happy, they were happy. If I was frustrated, they could soon be frustrated. The kids would enjoy the things that I enjoyed. Sometimes we underestimate how much we influence our children from a very early age. So, it is important for us as mothers to have responses that we desire our kids to have.

Since we are in the fall time of the year, we will soon be faced with several very different options of how to celebrate the “holidays” that are on the calendar. As I have come through the past several years of my life, it has become more and more important to me to celebrate Thanksgiving in a bigger way! Without getting into the moral or spiritual aspects of Halloween, may I just say that Halloween at best teaches those who participate in it a very selfish attitude about “getting”. There is a lot of greed involved in going around and asking for candy from everyone we can think of! Why not skip Halloween and move from fall to Thanksgiving. I mentioned in my last entry that teaching your children to be thankful is one good way to ward off discontent. So this will give you a very good way to teach this in a tangible way! After Labor Day is over we give it a couple of weeks and then we get out the Thanksgiving things and put out things that remind us of the blessings of God and how much we have for which to be thankful. I have noticed to my dismay that most stores skip right over Thanksgiving, so if you are taking your cues from them, you will miss Thanksgiving too. Thanksgiving doesn’t offer much in the way of revenue, so it is not on the calendar except as a “comma” between Halloween and Christmas which are the real money-makers.

Speaking of teaching your kids to be content, one thing you can do to encourage this is to teach them to serve others. It is good for them to see others who are in need so they realize they have some responsibility to minister to and share with them. Every fall in early October, I have my grandkids over to help me make cookies to distribute to some of the elderly and shut-ins that we know. So on October 2, I picked them up and they came over. I had cut out the cookies (maybe as they get a bit older, I will let them “help” me cut them out as well) in the shape of apples. Then as I frost them with red frosting and green leaves, the kids are responsible to put on some red sprinkles and red cinnamon candies. Then we pack plates and deliver them around town. This year we delivered ten plates in all. Of course there is the joy of the older people that delight in hugging the children or giving them a treat and when we get home, everyone can have a cookie with milk. It is a very special time for all of us and I just pray that this will be the beginning of teaching them to minister and give to people who are in need.
Children are not born being content. They are born with all kinds of needs and desires and the culture adds to that and soon we have children who are very self-centered and selfish. And there is no one thing you can teach them that will solve this problem. It takes a life time of teaching by example and helping them arrange their priorities. I have so many thoughts on this topic, but I pray that you can see the way to plant some seeds and I pray that you will see growth and fruit in your children and grandchildren.

Teach the Younger Women to ... Be Keepers at Home

Last week I wrote on being “keepers at home” and I included two thoughts about why I think that is an important concept for all of us women to consider. The first idea that I covered was the fact that working in a place with men other than our husbands makes women vulnerable to the possibility of making relationships with men with whom they work which is not a good thing. I also commented on the fact that God has given women many ministries within and outside of the church and many of those aren’t getting done because so many Christian women are in the work place. If your children are grown and you have a job where you are used for the growth of God’s Kingdom, then praise Him and be sure that you are following the guidelines in the Scripture on how you approach your situation.

Today I want to cover two other reasons that I believe God would have young women to be “keepers at home”. The first one today has to do with the care of your children. I believe with all my heart that mothers and dads should raise their own children. I can’t give you a verse and reference for this thought, but I just know that most all of the guidelines in the Scripture given for parenting are given to parents and not to babysitters! And since God has given the dads the main responsibility of earning the living for the family, that leaves moms home to care for the children. I think that one of the main reasons we are where we are as a culture is that moms have given the privilege of raising their children to others! I don’t care how loving the caretaker you find, she is not going to love and teach your child as you do. And if you think that your child just loves to be out with other children and learning to “socialize”, you may very well be mistaken. From my experience, children love the security of being home and being in the same environment during their formative years! And don’t expect your child to necessarily tell you that. A young baby or young child has no way of expressing himself and you are responsible to do the right thing for him from your own Biblical understanding of what he needs.

Remember the verse I talked about in one of the earlier lessons? Deuteronomy 6:6&7: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them DILIGENTLY (emphasis is mine) unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” In order to accomplish the intent of this verse, I believe it takes more than the short time and diminished amount of energy that is left after a busy day of doing whatever one might do outside the home. There is so much to teach and so much learning that needs to be taught in order to help protect our children from the culture, we must remember that when God gives us children that becomes our full time job; and though the responsibilities change, we never “retire” from the job of being a mother! By the way, when God wrote through Paul that women are to be keepers at home, I don’t believe He just meant not to have a job outside the home. There are many other ways a woman can violate this principle and you know the areas where you might be crossing the line.

My final thought that I would like to cover on this topic of being a “keeper at home” is also VERY important. When we marry, we willingly put ourselves under the umbrella of the man that God has given us to be our husband. When we work outside the home, we are putting ourselves under the authority of another man who, in most cases, is not our husband. That means that conflicts could arise. What if your boss requires something that conflicts with the desires of your husband? Maybe your boss expects you to travel away from home? What if your boss expects long hours that interfere with your responsibility at home to make the evening meal for your husband? How will you resolve that conflict? In reality, your husband’s desires should trump the requirements of the boss. And please don’t buy the “feel good “ lines of the culture that tell us that if we are both bringing in our “share” of the income, then we both take on “our share” of the household work. Now, there are things at home that men do that we just kind of expect them to do. But in general, women are given the responsibility of keeping the home and making it comfortable for our families. The other consideration on this topic (I kind of covered it last time, but I think it bears repeating) has to do with spending that much time with someone that isn’t your husband and how you must dress for your job. My guess is that if you work in an office, you probably dress more professionally and spend more time “looking good” than you would if you were spending the day home cleaning house. That is just the opposite of how it should be. Your husband deserves your best as you have the most invested in that relationship. “Looking good” in the office is also a bit of a danger as we don’t want to attract the attention of men that aren’t our husbands.

I pray that you will all take these blog entries in the spirit in which they are written. Remember, these are things that I would want my own daughters and grand daughters to know for the protection of their own marriages and for the Spiritual well-being of their own children. You are just sitting in on my very personal “chats” with my girls and I pray that they will be a challenge and an encouragement in your lives! And above all, may God use these feeble words for His Glory in the lives of whoever may read them! Next time I will take a break and do something related to July 4 which has and always will have a very special place in my heart!

Our Family -- Memorial Day Traditions

I have been VERY busy for a few weeks, so I am sorry for the delay in postings a couple of times recently. We have been busy trying to get the spring work done. We are also trying to paint our living room and patch up some of the drywall mistakes that we made 35 years ago when we built our home! Anyway, it takes a lot of time and so I haven’t been able to keep posting as regularly as I would like.

I decided that with the Memorial Day holiday this weekend, I would focus on some things related to that. First of all, having grown up in a home of teachers and having been a teacher for a few years and having been married to a teacher for almost 38 years, Memorial Day has always held a special place in our hearts. Aside from the patriotic significance, Memorial Day always marked the “almost end” of the school year and it meant that soon we would all be “free”!!! So we always approached Memorial Day with much joy and anticipation of summer and the outings that would take place along with a trip that was always in the offing!

I will first touch on the patriotic significance and mention that though our country is having a multitude of issues now, we still live in the greatest country on earth and for that we should be VERY thankful!!! Having grown up in a home with a dad who fought in WW II (he was in the Pacific – Iwo Jima and Guam), I am very grateful for the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom! May we never forget the sacrifice of those patriots!

So the first tradition we had in our home when our children were growing up (and we still do it today with our grandchildren!) was to be sure we were up and ready to attend the parade that we always had in our small town. The parade was nothing to write home about, but the Vets always proudly carry the American flag and we wave our flags and clap for their bravery that still gives us chills in our spines even today! Then we walk the ¾ mile up to the cemetery where we stand and listen to the local high school band play the “Star Spangled Banner” and we hear a speaker share of the blessings of living in America before “Taps” is played along with a “21 Gun Salute”! It is all VERY moving and gives goose bumps to those of us who are still sensitive and thankful enough for the many ways that God has blessed our great country! Then the kids get to climb on the official cannon and the stack of 100 shells that was placed overlooking the “soldiers plot” in the cemetery in 1897.

The rest of the traditions that I will be talking about are more related to the fun part of just being together for the holiday and the food that accompanies our picnics on that day. One of the things we usually did that was not the favorite activity of the day for the kids, was planting the garden! We always had to kind of “bribe” the kids with the other fun activities of the day in order to get them to do the work with a happy face! Living here in Michigan necessitates our planting the annual plants on Memorial Day weekend or later in order to avoid losing them to late spring frosts.

After planting the gardens (flower and vegetable) there was always a fun picnic – usually in our own back yard to avoid the crowds that would surely be at Lake Michigan where we loved to go for many of our outings. There were usually some grandparents at our picnics, and if we were especially blessed, there might be some cousins, but there were always favorite foods that we could count on as part of our Memorial Day traditions! I am going to include some of our favorite recipes so that you can share them with us and get a “flavor” of what we enjoyed on Memorial Day!

I want to include three simple recipes that we often use on Memorial Day for our gatherings. One is for shish-ka-bobs, one for fruit pizza and one for refreshing summer punch.

SHISH-ka-BOBS

• Meat enough for your family – I use chicken, beef and hotdogs
  Cut into pieces about one inch square
• Vegetables enough for your family – I use green peppers, green onions and mushrooms
• Your favorite marinade – I make my own
• Cut everything and place in a large bowl with a cover. Pour marinade over the meat and let sit all together for at least 24 hours –the longer, the better
• On Memorial Day, place items on skewers and grill over your grill! (Sometimes the veggies cook more quickly than the meat, so it may be helpful to use separate skewers for the meat and the veggies.

FRUIT PIZZA

Make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough. Flatten it out into 2 large circles on 2 large cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 12 – 15 minutes. Cool.
Make topping using one pkg cream cheese, 8 oz. Cool whip and ½ cup powdered sugar. Spread over cooled cookie crust. Top with your favorite fruits, cleaned and cut. Cut into wedges and serve.

SUMMER PUNCH
Place one 12 oz. can of frozen orange juice in a large pitcher.
Use two mint tea bags to make about two cups of very strong mint tea.

Mix the above together and pour about two inches in a large glass. Fill glass to the top with Ginger Ale and ice and enjoy.

As I close this post, just let me say that kids LOVE tradition! Be sure you have lots of traditions that your children can carry with them! They love to talk to others and share the things they do “at their house”! Let your traditions be related to holidays or just to life, but have them!!!!

Loving Your Children - Part VI

Discipline Your Children (continued)

In the last entry, I talked about reaching your child’s heart in your discipline. It is very important in all of your child rearing days that your goal is to reach your child’s heart. Discipline and training that is expressly for the purpose of changing behavior without reaching the heart is pretty ineffective in the big picture of discipline.

One point that I wanted to add to last week’s discussion, is to dispel the idea that is pervasive in today’s culture and that is the whole idea of “time outs” or what we used to call “grounding”, especially for young children. Now I don’t have any Bible verses that say that this type of discipline is not effective, but from my own personal experience and from seeing what happens in homes where this type of discipline is regularly practiced, I want to say that in general this type of discipline is pretty ineffective. First of all, though Scripture doesn’t say not to use the other, it does definitely come down in favor of physical discipline. Proverbs 13:24 says. “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him (his son) chasteneth him betimes (promptly NKJV).” This verse pretty much rules out long stretched out forms of discipline. Punishment needs to be swift and the relationship needs to be reinstated. When discipline is administered properly, there is a sense of a broken relationship that the child needs to have repaired as soon as possible. If there is a prolonged form of punishment, then it is that much longer before the relationship can be fully restored. One other principle has to do with the idea that as parents we get tired and we can get distracted in our goal and we can easily back off on following through with a long drawn out punishment. This sends the wrong signal to the children. It is usually better with young children to discipline with something that gets over soon and allows the relationship to resume normally.

Discipline, of course, involves more than physical punishment. Discipline involves teaching and training as well. You need to spend time building Godly habits into the lives of your children as well as punishing them when they do wrong. This refers back to something I said earlier and that is that child rearing takes time! It isn’t something that can be done in between all of the other activities of life. It needs to BE your life for as long as it takes. Your children are among the people that you would like to take to Heaven with you and that makes it worth the time! Mothering is a job, but it is more than a job, it is a way of life. It is never over and there are no vacations. But the rewards are better than time off and vacations!

One more issue that I would like to touch on before we leave this topic is to look out for the tricks (“foolishness”) that is “bound up in the heart of your child”. One of the initial lessons that must be learned by a child is the lesson of who is the boss. I want to keep this short, so I will just tell you that when you tell your child to do something, he needs to do it. He needs to do it now and he needs to do it the way you told him to do it! It is great fun for a child to determine how much of your command he needs to follow. There should be very RARE instances when things are open for negotiation. For instance, if you tell him to sit beside you on a chair, he shouldn’t be allowed to sit beside his friend on another chair without your permission. If you desire that he just sit down and you don’t care where, then don’t tell him to sit beside you. If you desire that he sit beside you and you tell him that, then he needs to be obedient and do just as you said. Children are very good at changing the instruction to fit their desires and to show a little bit of control. Don’t be fooled by that. Biblically, parents have control until it is gradually handed over to the child as he shows himself to be mature enough to handle it. Make sure that your children know that you are in charge and that you will give them authority for their own decisions as you see fit.

Well, I think I have covered the topics on loving your children as thoroughly as I plan to at this time. There are many more topics that could be covered, but I think that next time I will move on to something else. I trust these thoughts have been helpful and encouraging to you as you seek to raise Godly children for Him!

Let's Take a Break and Make Muffins

I thought it would be good and fun to take a break from the very serious things we have all been dealing with this week and just have lunch! If you were to come to my home for lunch, chances are VERY high that I would serve you muffins of some kind as part of that lunch! I love muffins and so I thought I would share a couple of recipes with you today just for fun!

Old Fashioned Blueberry Muffins
(no mixer needed)
½ cup milk
¼ cup salad oil
1 egg
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 – 1 ½ cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Stir milk, oil and egg together. Add dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Gently stir in blueberries. ( frozen blueberries may make the batter turn somewhat blue, but the flavor is not damaged!) Fill 12 muffins cups that have been greased. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
(Makes 10 large muffins or 22 regular muffins)
1 stick butter or margarine
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
Cream the above.
3 eggs – add to above mixture
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream
Mix dry ingredients and add alternately with the sour cream.
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Stir into above batter and mix well. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups and set aside.
TOPPING for muffins:
½ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
2 Tablespoons flour
Mix with a fork until mixture resembles coarse meal.
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Add to above mixture and sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 to 25 minutes (depends on size of muffins). Check often after 15 min.

Loving Your Husband Part III

Loving Your Husband - Part III
(Fun ((and inexpensive)) ways to show your husband that you love him)

Today I am just going to share some ways that I have found to be helpful in showing love to my husband over the 37 years of marriage that we have enjoyed. None of these things are in the Bible, but if they can jog your mind to think of things to do for your own husband, then risking my personal thoughts and ideas is worth it!

First of all, I remember when I was growing up, they told us that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Well, after being married for over 37 years, I am not sure if that is entirely accurate, but I do know that it helps! Since I love to cook, it has been very fun for me to think of things to do related to food that have been an encouragement for him. If cooking isn’t your thing, you probably still like to eat good food. Part of my motivation for cooking good food is that I enjoy eating and I am too frugal (cheap) to buy it all out! There are lots of ways of finding good and fun recipes. There are cookbooks that give the most beautiful and appealing pictures of the food for you to prepare. There are very beautiful food magazines with delicious recipes that aren’t difficult. “Taste of Home” is the one that I thoroughly enjoy. And finally, there are WEB sites where you can find hundreds of recipes for anything you might like to cook! The availability of recipes is boundless!

We live within 10 miles of Lake Michigan, so one of the fun things that we enjoy from time to time is to go to the Lake and eat our supper. I make something cold (wraps, salad, etc.) along with some chips and cookies and we go over and park the car so we can see the lake and we eat our supper. If the weather permits, we often sit at one of the many picnic tables along the channel and enjoy the boats coming and going. I know that you are not all blessed to live near one of the Great Lakes, but you have your own kind of beauty wherever you live. Be sure you enjoy it with your husband/family. We often did this when our kids were still home as well.

We do go out to eat from time to time, but that isn’t our source of happiness, so when we are on the road, we often plan fun things to eat in the car. I plan things similar to the things we eat at the Lake and we enjoy things that I don’t make often when we are home. Instead of always going to a restaurant where we are bombarded with the coming and going of other people, we will just take fun things that aren’t on our “diet” and have a little enjoyment with the food!

Another thing I do to love my husband is to try to schedule my days around his schedule. I try to make sure that my “work” is done before he comes home so that I can be available to be with him and share our evenings together. I love to help him when he has a project around the house and we love to chat about the things going on in our lives. I used to tell my kids that “people are more important than things” and that is especially true in respect to our husbands! No one deserves our best time more than he does!

Finally, we love to do things together like bike riding, walking and camping. These activities are conducive to being able to spend uninterrupted time chatting without the phone and other disruptions.

I am sure that you have your own set of options, but just be sure that you schedule those things into your day! If you always talk about doing things with him in the future it will never happen, because the future never gets here! God will be glorified in the marriage of a husband and wife who are devoted to being together and doing things with each other! That is not a common sight in our culture, so you will be sure to attract others to “see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven”! Matthew 5:16

“Picnic by the Lake” recipe ideas:

Wraps: 2-4 flour tortillas
2-4 tablespoons sour cream mixed with some dry ranch dressing mix
Spread tortillas with sour cream mixture. Lay a piece of thin smoked turkey over the sour cream. Put some shredded cheddar cheese over turkey and roll up like a jelly roll. Insert a toothpick to hold. Serve with pickles – dill or sweet.

Chicken Salad: The meat from two chicken breast halves cooked and shredded.
1 cup pineapple tidbits OR chopped grapes
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ - 1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup shredded cheese
½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
Mix all of the above and serve over a lettuce leaf or whatever you have to make it pretty.

Love Your Husbands Part 2 - Titus 2:3,4

My last entry was concerning the responsibility for wives to love their husbands. I shared three areas which are important manifestations of your love for him. They were:

Keep yourself looking nice and attractive to him. (And ONLY him!)
Keep your home looking warm and clean for him.
Keep good and enjoyable food on the table.

Today I want to just add a couple more ideas of ways you can love your husband. (There are MANY more. Be creative!)

First of all, loving your husband involves giving him high respect! Scripture doesn’t exactly use the word “respect” but in Ephesians 5:22, we are told to “submit to your own husband as to the Lord”. Is there a better way to show respect than to submit to his desires and plans? I know this is not a popular practice in our culture, but we are under the authority of the Word of God and not under the whims of the culture. I do not want to get into a whole discussion here about wifely submission, I just want to remind us all that God is the final authority on marriage and it was all His plan and design and the ways of the culture haven’t proven themselves to be very sound and don’t have a good track record. So we need to listen to the one Who ordained marriage instead of the culture which is very good at destroying marriages!

The last point that I want to mention today is to pray for your husband and let him know that you are doing just that. I know that many of us know this in our heads, but how often do we actually remember during our busy days to pray for the man that God has given us for our lifetime companion? How often do you remember to thank God for your husband? (While we are on the topic of being thankful, when is the last time you thanked your husband for being your husband?) If prayer is our God-given way to talk with our Heavenly Father, then let’s be sure we come each day to talk with God about the man God has blessed us with and let us allow God to use us to be a blessing to him!

May we all be encouraged to see how God might use some of these thoughts in our marriages as we seek to be the wives that God has called us to be!

Loving Your Husband

In the last entry, I mentioned the fact that Titus 2 admonishes older women to teach younger women to love their husbands and children. Today I want to expand on what it means to love your husband and some practical things you can do to show your husband that you love him. It is, after all, of little use to love your husband if it doesn’t manifest itself in some way so that he can see it!

I am thinking of three areas of practical applications to this principle. They are:
1. Keep yourself looking good to him.
2. Keep the house neat and warm and inviting.
3. Keep good food on the table.

As I expand on the first point, it is necessary for you to remember that if your husband works out of the house, he is exposed at every turn to women who are dressed so as to attract his attention to them in some way! Be up and cheerful and somewhat ready for the day before he leaves so he will have "happy thoughts" of you during his day. It is the right thing for you to be dressed and fixed up in a nice sweet way in order to bring his attention to you as soon as he walks in the door. This does not mean extravagant dressing in the definition of the culture. It just means to present yourself when he comes home as neat and clean and sweet.

The house should be neat and clean as well. This doesn’t mean there is no dust or dirt, but it does mean that he doesn’t have to jump over toys, magazines or see a pile of dirty dishes in the sink or whatever may be your weakness. Be careful of the priorities of your day and make sure that you are “prepared” for his return home at the end of his busy day.

And make the meal attractive and tasty! Make meal time enjoyable! You can serve good food without spending all day and you don’t need a three course meal so as to avoid adding those extra pounds. Just put some thought into it and plan. If you serve soup, make some muffins to go with it! It you serve a sandwich, make a good salad to go with it. Once in a while, serve a roast with mashed potatoes and a pie for dessert. Pies aren’t really hard to make once you get the hang of it. A little time and effort in making things interesting and comfortable may save you a lot of time in court at a later time!

Here are a couple of easy recipes to start:
Chicken Breast Supreme -- One of our favorites
6 boneless chicken breast halves
8 slices dried beef
3 tablespoons real bacon bits
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Grease the bottom of a glass 9 by 13 baking dish. Lay dried beef on the bottom of the dish. Trim chicken and lay on top of beef. Sprinkle with bacon bits. Mix soup, sour cream and cheese and spread over chicken. Bake uncovered at 275 degrees for 3 hours. Serve over rice.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 ½ sticks real butter melted
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
Cream the above.
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chocolate chips
½ teaspoon soda
Mix well and add to creamed mixture.
Place 1/3 cup dough on cookie sheet about 2 ½ inches apart. Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes until edges begin to harden and cookies turn golden brown. Cool cookies on cookie sheets and then remove with large metal spatula. Makes 18 large cookies.