5 hard things to pray for your husband

“Your husband doesn’t only need you to pray that he has a good day, is successful, and walks with Jesus. These are not bad requests, but are rather generic prayers that have too little specific direction behind them. What our husbands need from us are specific prayers, hard prayers, for their growth in godliness. I love my husband and I want what is best for him. And the best thing for him is to be a man who who lives for the glory of God.

Here are five hard prayers I pray for my husband, and would encourage you to pray for yours.”

Jen lists these and explains briefly what she means.

1. Conviction of sin
2. Humility of heart
3. Patience in life
4. Love for God
5. Discipline from God

See more at The Time-Warp Wife

 

 

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Posts to peruse and ponder

A message for complainers from  Justin Peters.  Another article that complements the video is Far Too Easily Displeased – Jon Bloom admits he is a grumbler by nature and reflects on what it is that makes us grumble.

Mothers tell their abortion stories: Sunday’s New York Magazine features testimonials from twenty-six women who have had their unborn children aborted. The stories are raw and revealing. These are not stories of feminist liberation and power. They are the stories of women who have pangs of conscience over what they have done. Some of them have muddled through the aftermath by suppressing their consciences. One woman even says, “There’s no room to talk about being unsure.” Other women aren’t able to pretend and are obviously living with a heavy burden of grief and regret.

Dr. Albert Mohler writes about this article in the New York Magazine in Their Abortions—What Do These Abortion Testimonies Really Reveal?

Effective Personal Evangelism – Jeremy Walker has completed his series of articles on effective personal evangelism. He gives us a lot to think about!

Fred Zaspel writes about the death of their 29-year-old daughter:

Surely a day will never pass, in this life, without sensing this deep, gaping hole in our hearts. We just cannot imagine life without Gina. How we loved her.

I have often suspected over the years that Christians who romanticize death have likely never experienced the loss of a close loved one. Death remains a dreaded and a devastating enemy, and there is just no way to make it pretty. It still stings, deeply so, and when it comes close like this it leaves us feeling all but completely undone.

Yet for Christians there truly is a difference. And during this past week since Gina passed, agonizing as it has been, we have learned first-hand that we really do not sorrow as those who have no hope. The weighty promises and massive truths that God has revealed to us in his Word truly are life-shaping and soul anchoring, and they provide a sure point of reference for even the most hurting heart.  You can read the whole thing here.

Are These Enemies of Marriage in Your House?

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Is parenting more complicated today?

Parenting has become more complicated than it needs to be. It used to be, as far as I can tell, that Christian parents basically tried to feed their kids, clothe them, teach them about Jesus, and keep them away from explosives. Now our kids have to sleep on their backs (no, wait, their tummies; no, never mind, their backs), while listening to Baby Mozart and surrounded by scenes of Starry, Starry Night. They have to be in piano lessons before they are five and can’t leave the car seat until they’re about five foot six.

It’s all so involved. There are so many rules and expectations. Parenting may be the last bastion of legalism. Not just in the church, but in our culture. We live in a permissive society that won’t count any sin against you as an adult, but will count the calories in your kids’ hot lunch. I keep hearing that kids aren’t supposed to eat sugar anymore. What a world! What a world! My parents were solid as a rock, but we still had a cupboard populated with cereal royalty like Captain Crunch and Count Chocula. In our house the pebbles were fruity and the charms were lucky. The breakfast bowl was a place for marshmallows, not dried camping fruit. Our milk was 2%. And sometimes, if we needed to take the edge off a rough morning, we’d tempt fate and chug a little Vitamin D.

As nanny parents living in a nanny state, we think of our children as amazingly fragile and entirely moldable. Both assumptions are mistaken. It’s harder to ruin our kids than we think and harder to stamp them for success than we’d like. Christian parents in particular often operate with an implicit determinism. We fear that a few wrong moves will ruin our children forever, and at the same time assume that the right combination of protection and instruction will invariably produce godly children. Leslie Leyland Fields is right: “One of the most resilient and cherished myths of parenting is that parenting creates the child.”

Excerpt from Crazy Busy, A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem

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Busyness: Are you staying connected?

Justin writes:

Life is busy. It isn’t that we don’t have good intentions when it comes to staying connected as a family, it’s just hard to be intentional.

I’ve never drifted into spiritual health. I’ve never seen our family drift into quality time together. We’ve never drifted into deep, meaningful, life-giving conversations. Those things have to be chosen.  .  . .

No matter what stage of life you are in, the next one won’t bring relief. You’ll have to create your pace of life or your pace of life will create you. 

Justin offers three questions to ask that will help you stay connected more with those you love most:

• How much TV are we watching?
• How many nights do we eat dinner together
• Are we praying together?

Read more about these “Three Questions”

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25 ways men can be servant leaders.

The call to be a servant-leader is tough. No one gets it all right, and certainly no one gets most of it right overnight. It’s a life plan — a way of living you grow into with practice and time. Here are 25 suggestions, men, for being a servant-leader in your home.

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A plea from Daisy’s mom to all parents!

A plea to parents from Kate Merrick, whose 8-year-old daughter Daisy is now with Jesus:

Love your babies, your husbands, mothers, sisters.

Love each day like it’s your last.

All you mamas out there, you have been entrusted with the precious gift of a human life who depends on you.

Enjoy your gift.

Breathe in the scent of your child’s hair, breath.

Let them cook with you and make a mess of the kitchen.

Play hide and seek with them, build sand castles with them, take them on picnics, read to them!

Listen to them, value and respect them, never shame them.

Your words they will carry with them their whole life and you have the power to give them wings or stunt their growth.

Motherhood can be tough but it’s worth it.

It can be exhausting, boring, tedious, but never for long.

You blink and they’re grown.

It has been my honor and privilege to love Daisy these last 8 years.

I’m thankful for every minute; the joyful and the terrible alike.

 

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Gospel-centered mothering

Short but helpful article here which shares three areas moms can kind of a do a “quick check” on mothering in between more significant times of evaluation and planning. Gospel-centered mothering certainly involves more than these three things, but not less.

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Weak mothers are good mothers

Christine Hoover writes about her struggle with being a good mother. She concludes,

A good mother is not one who bakes intricate treats, who schools a certain way, who manages her household within an inch of its life, or who has her children in a million wonderful activities. A good mother is one that acknowledges her need for the power of God to train and teach and change the hearts of her children.

The most important thing I can do for my children each day is to trust God and acknowledge my weakness, not rely on myself. He will take my meager offering and turn it into a miracle.

Read how she describes her struggle–one that I’m guessing many mothers reading this post can relate to.

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Should you raise your children without God?

A CNN iReport titled “Why I Raise My Children Without God” has been making some waves, so I thought I’d choose a portion of it for this week’s challenge. We’ve already covered some of the objections in the article about evil (most of the objections in the article come down to the problem of evil) and prayer, so I went with the one on morality: 

God Does Not Teach Children to Be Good: A child should make moral choices for the right reasons. Telling him that he must behave because God is watching means that his morality will be externally focused rather than internally structured. It’s like telling a child to behave or Santa won’t bring presents. When we take God out of the picture, we place responsibility of doing the right thing onto the shoulders of our children. No, they won’t go to heaven or rule their own planets when they die, but they can sleep better at night. They will make their family proud. They will feel better about who they are. They will be decent people.

Does an “internally focused” morality create better people than one that’s enforced by God? What do you think?  Here’s one  video response.

—Stand to Reason

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Counseling wives and mothers who feel like failures

Nicole imagines a conversation that goes like this:

“I feel like such a failure. I’m a horrible mom and a terrible wife. I’m exhausted, depressed, and overwhelmed.”

Then she turns to you and asks:

Sound like a mom you know? How would you counsel this woman? What gospel-centered words would you give her? Maybe you are that mom. As your soul’s counselor, how do you apply the gospel?

I’d encourage ladies to read “Gospel-Centered Counsel for Moms” and learn how to”discern the specific gospel-truth that applies to a particular discouraged mom in her unique situation.”

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