IT’S TIME FOR YOUR FALL TUNE-UP
The beginning of each new season brings a deluge of daily reminders to our mailbox or email box of preventative maintenance issues we need to address. These reminders warn us if we do not maintain our vehicle, furnace, teeth, pet, filters, smoke detectors, and etc.; there is a good chance the warranties will be void or something will begin to malfunction. I even get email notices that the pressure in one of my tires is low and it shows me which tire! Sometimes I think I could spend several hours each day doing preventative maintenance on the stuff we own! Yet to ignore these daily reminders of what demands our attention will cost us more in the long run. This summer my daughter called because her A/C was not running properly, it was frozen on the outside and no longer cooling the house as needed. I asked her when the last time the furnace filter was changed. She had no idea the last time the filter was changed. Truth be told it had been months past due for replacement. She let the A/C unthaw, changed the filter and the A/C was up and running. I reminded her it is far cheaper to change a filter than it is to replace a furnace or A/C unit. I suggested she tape a piece of paper on the outside of her furnace with a date on it to remind her when the filter needed replaced next time.
Did you know your marriage which is of greater importance than all of the above demands constant attention? If we do not practice daily agape our marriage will soon begin to resemble that junker running down the road that barely makes it to the destination.
Unfortunately most married couples spend very little time cultivating healthy marital habits. We spend more time watching TV or playing on the internet than we do interacting with one another. Dan and I are marriage counselors. Normally by the time a married couple comes to see us, their house of marriage has burnt to the ground and all that is left are smoldering black coals, with little hope for a happily ever after. Praise be to God, He is in the restoration business and if we are truly sincere even the darkest of situations can shine with light again.
Consider this your card in the mail, reminding you it is time for a fall marriage tune-up. Don’t know where to start? Well you are at the right blog.
#1: fall on your knees before God and ask Him for direction. In James 1:2-25 (NKJV) it says;
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,
but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,
but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
#2: Read through the archives of this blog, pick up a copy of WE PROMISE or call a professional marriage counselor and schedule an appointment ~ your marriage is well worth the money and it will be the wisest money you have ever spent.
I love a happy ending! In Honor of Marriage……………….Penny
