Marriage

  MARRIAGE

Corinthians 7

                    Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ...

    The Lord created marriage to keep men and women from the temptation of lusting after others. In marriage you have a duty to your spouse to love them with love from where, without marriage, you would be lusting. 

     Marriage is a "forever until the end of our days" commitment. It shows the relationship God wants to have with us; a strong "forever" bond. He wants us to be captivated with him and not lusting after other gods. 

   I believe it is important that everyone take time to pray for their future spouse. Asking God to help your marriage to be honoring to Him and that you will love and respect your future spouse.

God has a person that he has destined for you to marry. Trust that he has a plan for you, your marriage, and your future spouse.



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Self-Image

                                                                                                                                                                                            Everyone has those days where they look in the mirror and do not like what they see. For some that may be everyday. It is very hard to love they way you look in today's society, which is constantly trying to define what is "beautiful." We need to stop paying attention to the world's standards and turn our minds to what God sees as beautiful. It has nothing to do with appearance, my friends. When your life ends the amount of fat you have on your body is going to be of no importance. God calls us to take care of our bodies because they are His

               We are all made in the image of the great living God! All the insecurities you have, all the imperfections you see in yourself everyday; God sees them as beautiful. Hold onto that. You are gorgeous!

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Ephesians 5:33

"However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

        As you can see, the topic this time is marriage. There have always been conflicting ideas of what marriage should look like for a long time, but the Bible specifically says that the wife needs to respect the husband, and the husband needs to love his wife.

       There is a cycle that occurs when this idea isn't obeyed. If the wife does not show respect, which may look like a range of different responses, the husband will become upset and believe that his wife doesn't respect him. Because of this behavior, the husband will then act in a way that the wife doesn't see as loving towards her, and she will believe that he doesn't love her. The cycle of lack of respect and lack of showing love will then continue and continue and get worse and worse until it is stopped.

        How is this cycle of unhappiness stopped, you ask? Let's think about this for a second. In marriage, the wife is the one who needs to be reminded and shown that she is loved ardently, and the husband is the one who needs to know he is respected and needs to be shown the respect that he asks for. The only way to stop the cycle is for the wife and husband to realize that the wife needs to show more respect for her husband, and the husband needs to show more love for his wife. Once this problem is solved, life will become easier and better. Communication is incredibly important.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

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        I have no idea what my marriage will look like. I have absolutely no idea who I will marry some day. I do know, however, that it is all in God's hands. A habit that we should have is to pray to God for our future spouses and that whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever they are dealing with, that God protects them and prepares them for us to be with some day and that God prepares us to be the perfect person for them to be with some day. I may not know who I will marry, but I know that whoever God ends up bringing into my life some day will be an incredibly remarkable, amazing, and perfect husband for me. God knows exactly what He is doing, and we can have peace knowing that He will bring us our future spouses in His perfect timing.

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Pride and Humility
 “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.” 

Pride is something that I have struggled with my whole life. It has become an essence of who I am. Studying pride was something that was very difficult for me seeing as how I don’t know how to rid myself of this sin. God repeatedly states throughout the Bible how much he despises the pride that dwells within us, as it can almost separate us from Him. This was hard for me. How am I supposed to rid myself of something that has been a part of me for my whole existence? The only real way to do this is through God. Without Him we are helpless. With Him we can do anything.

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Prayer

Prayer is such a beautiful thing. After my second surgery, I wasn't faithful to God and spending time with Him. I simply didn't have the desire to. But, after having some encouragement from loved ones, I spent time in His Word once again. The time following then was full of God and seeing how He had been working so greatly in and through my life and what I had been going through. I fell more in love with Him. I ended up watching the show "War Room" with my family and really admired them and how they prayed to God. I remember sitting in bed a night after that and really just praying with my whole heart and crying out to God. After discovering more of who God is and how He works so perfectly to make everything work so incredibly well together for the good of those who love Him and to glorify Him more, I had a new faith in Him and how real He is and how He hears me and will work. That following week after praying like I had, I saw God work again so perfectly to answer my prayers His way that glorifies Him and brings me joy. He did this more that once. It was truly humbling and  wonderful. I am filled with such joy even just thinking about it.

I also think that prayer is beautiful and important because it brings us in a closer relationship with God. We are able to speak everything we feel to Him, we are able to vent. And He hears and understands it all! We are able to release all our cares to Him who is able to take all our worries and gives us peace. He wants us to share every single thing with Him, He wants to be a part of every single element of our lives and be the center of our lives. It also brings us to surrender and recognition of who He is and His power and His ability. We get direction from praying and reading His Word and spending time with  Him listening to Him. In short, it brings us into fellowship and deeper relationship with God our Father.

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Marriage

She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

(Proverbs 31:12)

In my life I’ve been surrounded by a multitude of healthy marriages. One marriage in particular is my grandmother and grandfather’s. Back in the early 90s my grandpa suffered a stroke that limited his ability to do most everything. He can’t form coherent sentences the majority of the time, he can barely walk, he can barely do anything for himself. My grandma has devoted the last twenty plus years to taking care of him every second of every day. She is the definition of a Proverbs 31 woman.

I watch her and I have no idea how she does it. She loves my grandpa with such a selfless love, never expecting anything in return. I guess that this world is so tainted by divorce that the thought of unconditional love is such a foreign concept. For years I never understood why she would put herself through all the strain that she does just to take care of him, but I am now finally starting to.

When my grandma said her wedding vows nearly sixty years ago, she meant it. She loved and loved on him throughout sickness and in health. It didn’t matter what the enemy tried to throw at them, their marriage still stands.

My grandma is the kind of wife I aspire to be one day. I pray to God daily that he will give me a loving husband and, in turn, that I can be a respectful wife. I don’t want my future marriage to be another divorce statistic. I want my future marriage to be filled with all things pleasing to the Lord.

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Marriage

   A lot of girls grow up with the dream of getting married. Walking down the aisle in a white dress, seeing your partner on the other end of the aisle waiting for you in their wedding attire. They'd put the ring on your finger, promise to be together with you and love you forever, and seal that promise with a kiss. But, if you get married with the wrong intent, is it worth it?

   I think two people should get married with the intent of spending their lives together, and in a Christian marriage, to help the other grow in their walk with God. If someone is getting married with the wrong intent, the marriage isn't going to be the best that it can be. But if you walk into the marriage with the intent of helping your partner grow with Christ, then you're getting married with the same intentions that God wants for you.

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Prayer

 

       








    Prayer is one of the most important things you can do in a relationship with the Lord. It is a connection between you and God, the only way of direct communication in this world. If you do not pray then you need to take another look at your relationship with the Lord.

               Over and over again the Bible calls us to cry out in prayer to God for it is one of the most powerful ways he can answer and help you in life. He tells to "Be devoted to one another in prayer."

              

              In Bible class we watched a movie called "War Room", it told a story of how powerful prayer is. How ,when you actually take time to talk to Lord and listen to what has to say in reply, extraordinary things can happen. The only way to see this for yourself is to sit down with the Lord and have a chat with him.

            Now, you may think some things are unimportant to Him---'Why bother?' Because the Lord cares about all things no matter how miniscule you may think they are. We are to go to Him about everything. So, " Lord what should I wear today that will bring glory to you?" is as important a prayer as any other. Try to spend as much time as possible throughout the day in communion with the Lord, praying when you feel led, whether it be every two minutes or once every hour. Say hello to God and let Him know you want to talk to Him and He will answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Modesty

Modesty is a very common problem among girls.  It can be very hard to dress modestly when the world around teaches the opposite.  Many girls think showing as much as they can and making guys like them is important. Though if you dress immodestly and get all sorts of guys hanging out with you, will the guys actually like you for who you are or do they just like your body and seeing it uncovered?  The guys that are good and godly men who would make a good husband and take care of you, will not want to be tempted by lust and will try to avoid you.

If a guy marries someone just because he likes her body, then when she gets older and not as attractive or he sees someone else with a nice body, he will probably cheat on her or leave her.

In my opinion being modest is one of the most important things that is dying out in the world. 

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Self Image

Self-image, negative or positive, can have a big effect on all of us. Negative self-image can make you feel self-conscious causing you to feel afraid to do things you can do.  It is really hard for you to show off your talents or feel special in what you can do if you feel afraid of what others are thinking about you.  Sometimes seeing other people showing off their talents, might make that person afraid that they aren't as good as that person so they should not even try.  People with a negative self-image can sometime misinterpret the abilities of people around them.

Negative self-image is something that does not easily go away, it can stay with a person for a life time.  To fight against negative self-image takes prayer, reliance on God, and conscious effort.

Too much of a positive self-image causes people to be egotistical, which can cause them to be proud and boastful.  They need prayer and reliance on God to obtain a correct self-view.

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"When you look at yourself what do you see?"

                                            Self image                                              

When I normally look at myself I hate what I see. I always have to find something wrong and I tear myself apart from it. I know I am not the only one who struggles with this. Our world has an image in their head, and if we don't look just like that, we think of ourselves as unworthy.  I know God made me too look just like myself for a reason, I was made in his image, and I have a reason. Even though I see myself as unworthy sometimes or I think I'll never be good enough. We all struggle with that and I don't think society has helped with that at all. Our world is a crazy place now built with "picture" perfect thing in out\r heads. You are not the only who to struggles. We all struggle, but God loves every single one of us for who we are, not the picture we have in our head of what we should look like. Sometimes I feel like every time I look at myself in a bad way I'm sinning, Because I know deep down inside I was made perfect by my Creator, but have I changed that because of the way I tear myself down?  No you haven't destroyed that, but God doesn't want us to sit here and wish we were other people. He wants us to be confident with ourselves and love who we are. It's not all about what we look like, yes we always go to "looks" first, but its also about what you feel about yourself. If you feel good about yourself you won't be so down about how you look. Look at yourself differently now, don't look at yourself with fear of who you are, and don't tear yourself down by the way you look. Look at yourself with confidence, love yourself for you are and because God made you perfect in His eyes.

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Pride

Pride was the fall of Lucifer, because he felt too much pride in the fact that he was the highest angel and thought he was better then God. Pride was also the fall of Adam and Eve because they listened to Satan and thought they could be like God if they ate the fruit from the tree of good and evil. It was also one of the three roots of all sin that Jesus mentioned in the New Testament.

Pride can show itself in people who are loud and boastful, who always boast about things they can do just to get attention. Some people try to get other people to praise them by saying how poorly their work is, when they know truthfully it's not. It would be better to work for the Lord seeking His approval, quietly letting their actions speak for themselves.

The other side of pride that is less obvious would be with one who is afraid to share their talents and abilities, which they know is good, for fear of insult and rejection. Again focusing on the Lord can take away fear of rejection. 

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Dressing Up

Modesty I feel is starting to become less and less in this world. The way girls dress at school, with friends, or even just around town. Ladies just are not understanding why it is so important to dress appropriately around others. If every women was to dress modestly in this generation, I feel that our society would be so much more enjoyable. 
I feel that dressing modestly should be taught in more schools and by more parents. And that shouldn't apply to just women. Men can also take a part in dressing modestly for women. If you were to do your part in the world and teach others around you, I think that people around you and me could be much happier. 

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