Monday, October 24, 2011

Difference between Submission and Obedience

Today the bible study session was short, but that is okay because I am still trying to work on and apply the previous days application to my life!  I have been struggling a bit to put Super Daddy's needs above my own, because I still stumble and fall many times a day!!  I'm so ready for this baby to come out!  I'm irritated by things left out and not taken care of, having to ask for so many times for one thing or another.  I have a bad attitude most days; I'm a sinner and I struggle a lot! 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 has been on my heart lately.  I need to apply this to my daily life.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

I'm sorry Jesus for not allowing you to continually to work in my heart.  I pray that I will surrender EVERYTHING to you and put you first in my life. Please allow your love to penetrate my inner being and may it overflow to others around me.  I want to love like you do, please change me and mold me.  I pray for a change of heart and that I WILL apply these truths you are teaching me to my heart and life.  I pray my husband feels my love and devotion for him. 

Today's study is the difference between submission and obedience...

Submission requires 1. love 2. respect 3. willing yield to another.  Obedience doesn't require those nor does it even require a relationship.  It is merely obeying a command or set of instruction from another.

"A submissive wife not only brings order to her house, but she excels above a merely obedient wife by blessing her husband with the beauty of Christ - and everything pales in comparison to Christ."

Friday, October 21, 2011

A modern day Rib in action...

Today I am beaming with excitement!!!  Today is officially the first day in 2 weeks that I am off of bed rest!!!  We are now 37 weeks pregnant and considered full-term.  We are praying for a successful healthy home-birth.  I hope it's not much longer now for I cannot wait to NOT to pregnant anymore!!  I praise the Lord for carrying our little guy inside until he was considered full-term!  Boy, am I excited to meet him though!!!  Today, in my bible study, I worked on "a modern day rib in action."  Wow!! Today God has convicted me of so much I am lacking and causing pain to my husband.  I want to be the wife he needs, not the one who causes him strife and discouragement.  Lord, please change my heart to be a proverbs 31 wife.  Here are my notes of today...

A modern day Rib in Action:  "Biblically submissive wife living in a modern day world."

How does the rib protect his heart (vigor-life-blood) and lungs (air breathed)?

The Heart
  • Yearns for his wife's acceptance of him
  • Her respect
  • Her love and devotion
"We feel like because we are the "weaker vessel" it is more important that we receive praise, acceptance and appreciation from our husbands without realizing that he needs ours to survive."

Nagging and quarreling sucks the life out of your husband-which is unbiblical.  I am very guilty of this offense, I have been a quarrelsome wife and I'm sorry Lord Jesus, please help me to change! 

 Proverbs 21:9 and 25:24
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

These are the verses that pierced my inner soul today.  As I asked SuperDaddy to be honest with me the other day and I said, "In your opinion, what do I need to work on to be a proverbs 31 wife."  After much hesitation he responded, "less quarreling." Wow, after reading these verse, I cannot believe what I have been doing to my husband!  For it is better for him to live in a corner of the housetop than to live in a home with me.  Lord, please forgive me and change my heart to be an encouraging uplifting wife who provides a peaceful home for her husband.


The Lungs

"As wives, we are to protect the air our husbands breathe in and protect the air he breathes out."

How?- Air breathed in...
  • Protect his atmosphere by making our homes (with the Lord's strength) a place of restoration, peace, and comfort.
  • set out each day to intentionally bless my husband with my words and actions. 
Air breathed out...
  • communication-when he has spoken wrongly to you or someone else, tell him with gentleness and Love only in private.
  • If in public, in humility ask for forgiveness that you frustrated him.  Then after prayer and if he really offended you and didn't just act in the way you wanted him to; bring it up in private to discuss. 
Like I said, so much to learn from the study today that I may need to recap tomorrow and meditate on what God is revealing through this one day of study.  So much I need to learn and change and with God's help, I trust and believe I can become the wife SuperDaddy needs.  Lord, please help me change my heart and actions toward my wonderful husband.  May I always put his needs before my own, learn to show him my acceptance, respect, love, and devotion to him, create a home that brings restoration, peace, and comfort to his inner being, set out each day to bless him, and to communicate respectfully and humbly with him bringing you honor and glory. Please mold me and change me into a woman after your own heart and a wife that brings honor to my husband. In Jesus name, Amen.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The wife and the rib

Today, I must confess, I failed yet again to allow the Lord to work thru me. Satan had a foothold and I complained to SuperDaddy about all the misery I'm dealing with. The Lord gently reminded me that He is all I need and I just need to turn to Him for rescue. I immeadeatly started to pray and ask Him for forgivenss. Our Lord keeps His promises! Such an amazing thing, yet we doubt Him at times. why? Our sinful nature is a powerful dangerous part of us. I praise the Lord for saving me and showing me His unconditional Love! For how I do not deserve it, yet He freely gives it continually!

Today's lesson in my study is about the wife and the rib. Why did God use Adams rib to make Eve? Some of the key points that stood out to me we're...

Woman was made to be by the mans side. "to walk alongside him, to bless, support, and to protect him, to be the closet thing to his heart."

God made women to be delicate in nature.

God made women strong-"this gives us the ability to fight for our families and what we believe in."

We protect his heart and lungs, his vigor. "all that he breathes in and breathes out is dependent on his wife's protection."


So what can I take from this... Well I definetly know that this morning I was a huge discouragement to my husband when I just kept complaining through text messages how awful my day was going. That was nothing but encouraging to him. He is at a loss in how to respond to such behavior. God wants me to encourage my husband and build him up. So the life application for me today is to pray and think before I speak(or text) I need to have wholesome uplifting words leave my mouth for anyone I may be talking to/with, but especially my husband.

Dear heavenly father, I'm so sorry for the way I was this morning, I ask for your and SuperDaddys forgiveness. I pray I could lean on you and with your strength not allow Satan to grab a foothold. I pray you continue to mold me and make me into the woman you have planned. Please change my heart. In Jesus name, amen.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

My Second Love: A Proverbs 31 Study

As you can see, or not see,  my life has been crazy these past few months.  From the roof leaking, water damage, mold, foundation issues discovered, my home ripped apart, not having a kitchen to cook in, living out of two rooms we have made into a "mini loft apartment" on our second level; to pregnancy complications, intense discomfort, pain, going into labor 5 weeks early and after 30 hours of intense pain-still no baby, bed rest until we reach full term to keep him in longer, and the scare of him coming too soon for his lungs to be mature; it has been a whirlwind of emotions on this roller coaster of my life.  ( I know that is a run on sentence but it makes my point clear)  Life has been anything but pleasant and "easy" these past few months.  My heart has also been a roller coaster thru it all.  I would love to say that thru all of this, we as a family, have trusted the Lord wholeheartedly and have watched him work miracles in our hard situation.  Yes, it's true we have watched him do miracles; but to say I have fully been trusting in Him would be a lie.  Only have I come to my knees recently and have asked the Lord to forgive me for the way I have been in my heart regarding all of the choas in our lives right now.  My attitude, heart, words, and actions have not been godly nor appropriate. I have since then been clinging to the verses found in Romans 5:3-5 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  I pray that we will forever be changed and seek the Lord wholeheartedly first, me as an individual, then as a couple and as a family.  Thank you Lord for these hard times, for it is when we go through them, we realize how much we must rely on you and not ourselves!
God has been showing me my heart and has asked me to take a walk with Him through Proverbs 31.  I want and strive to be a woman after God's own heart and to be the mother and wife my family so desperately needs.  I asked the Lord to show me where He wants me to go.  He took me to the study entitled "My Second Love: A Proverbs 31 Study"... A journey I am desiring to take and I pray the Lord changes my heart; bringing Him honor and glory; showing others His love, mercy, and grace thru this change.  I want to use my blog as an accountability, as I will not be doing this study with a group of ladies, just solo.  So I'm not sure if anyone even reads my blog, but I pray this will be suitable for my accountability.  May the Lord be glorified!!

I started the study last night and worked on the Preface/Introduction today.  Here are my thoughts and notes on the Preface/Introduction...

Preface:  Biblical Submission:  What is it and What it's Not


The bullet point that stood out to me the most was:   A wife will consider her husband and his needs more important than hers.  (Phil 2:3)  This is a simple idea/thought/characteristic.  It means to be self-less.  Something the Lord is revealing to me that I must work on.  Yes, I want to regard my husband needs greater than mine.  But then I think, I'm the one pregnant, in intense discomfort and pain, have to deal with Lil Peanut's craziness of this new attitude she has started to have.  Shouldn't he be the one who should consider my needs above his?  Well, you can plainly see in Phil 2:3  Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, that is not where my heart should be.  Those thoughts are of satan and God wants me to surrender them to Him.  I pray O Lord, that I will count SuperDaddy's needs more important than myself and learn to serve him wholeheartedly!

From the preface:   "a wife who is not practicing biblical submission will become the source of one of the most horrid things – causing the word of God to be reviled (Titus 2:3-5)."

Introduction:

Psalm 139:23-24
  Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
  And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! 
Psalm 19:14
  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 
May these two verses to be prayer of my heart O, Lord.  I pray for change in my heart.  Please help me to change from the inside our.  Change my heart to be more like yours.  May I apply these verses to my life and impact those around me to bring you the glory and Praise.  I pray for your strength because I know and believe without you I will only fail.  
  

Luke 14: 27-33
 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

I must deny myself, take up my slack, my sin and carry it to the cross.  I must give it all to Him to become like Christ, please help me O Lord to become like you.  Here is my heart; please change it.  Amen.