Malachi 2:15

You were united to your wife by the Lord. In God's wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in His sight.

Happy 48th Wedding Anniversary Coach Wonderful

As you can see it turns out good but we did have a little trouble getting to "ONE" in His sight. We started off with "I got my eye on you". But after the wedding day that quickly turned into "don't tell me what to do".  The years of the power struggle were and I for and I. Then life got busy with children and work and we spent many more hours apart than together.  We both misread the 'no time for' or 'lack of conflict' for a good marriage.  I have to laugh - how many people does that happen to?  Naive, not schooled in relationships, just doing the best we could to do good to each other. I took my helpmate role quite seriously and I set out to take care of everyone in this family. Of course I gleaned my wisdom from my own family experience.  It never occurred to me that my husband's wisdom from his family experience would be so contrary to my view. Yikes that caused serious trouble through the years and bad names formed in my brain towards my husband.  That's not healthy. We were both church people but neither of us had ever known to ask Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord. Through the Holy Spirit it becomes a living relationship with our Creator. 

Now you are probably thinking ok now that they have the Lord they are fixed.  Not exactly.  We seem to have a recurring pattern: we've got our eye on you Lord, not real comfortable being told what to do, an I for an I struggle, Bible studies, Christian family camps, church and community service kept us busy.  We both misread that full and busy life for being a good Christian family.  We were changing, we were growing but we were also missing something much needed.

A pearl to string: Receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled by the Holy Spirit are not functionally identical. All Believers receive the Holy Spirit at salvation but you don't get filled just one time and ride that out for the remainder of your life. In Ephesians 5:18 the Greek word for 'filled' is a verb (present passive imperative) that, based upon the tense, speaks of a continual process of filling.  In other words, the filling of the Holy Spirit involves a continual process in the Believer after salvation.  When you are full of the Holy Spirit, you are led by the Holy Spirit. When you are led by the Holy Spirit, people see the attributes of Jesus Christ flowing out from you, the "fruit of the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22-23)

And that my precious friends is beautiful

it's what we aim at and pray for in our walk with the Lord and in our marriage 

Immersed in His love

                               Lyndi

Saved the Best for Last

Christmas time has always been my favorite time of year. From the joy of celebrating Jesus birth – To the melodic sounds of carols being sung - To a gathering spirit of love for friends and family – To the outreach of kindness and generosity - To the excitement and anticipation of exchanging gifts – and let’s not forget the fun of that cute little fat man in the red suit that appears around this time of year - To twinkling lights and the vibrant colors of Christmas sparkling from every direction in a community. It’s all so beautiful to me. The end of the season is a perfect time to get married – so we did – 46 year ago. Oh my, that’s a lot of years! That gives our kids 4 years to plan our 50th. Hint, hint! When they were in school I always wanted them to start their projects the minute they were assigned. Ah the sweet irritation of mom’s notions never really goes away. Our marriage has given our precious four a love assignment.

You’re probably thinking, “oh good, she’s got a really good long marriage pearl for us today.” Dear hearts – I have a twelve strand necklace! Marriage is not for the faint of heart. Conventional wisdom says you need to blend two lives into one with mutual respect, love and honor. Ahhh, isn’t that beautiful but how do you do that if one of the two is from Mars? In every marriage one always is and contrary to popular belief that’s irrespective of gender. Coach Wonderful and I have learned that dying to self is what builds a good marriage. Not an easy task. Most of us enter a marriage as if we were shot by a porcupine in our youth. We got quills. (Hairs with scales or shingles, that point backward. Body heat makes the barbs expand and they become even more deeply embedded) Patterns – habits, attitudes, survival instincts, defensive mechanisms, just wanting to be loved and accepted. We bring into a marriage false notions of defining ourselves by what we do, what we have, what we think, and arguing our way. Quills are all about self and need to be removed from our lives. It’s a process and depending on how ‘quilled’ you are it can take a very long time. As long as it’s an I for an I your we might be destroyed.

A pearl to string: Marriage is the single most valuable liaison to battle selfishness. Learning to die to self grooms you for a closer relationship with the Lord like nothing else I know.

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" Luke 9:23-25

Thank you Lord for my Coach Wonderful. Thank you love of my life for helping me removes so many quills.

In Son shine,
Lyndi