Creatures of Habit
Now it is your turn. Make a list of some of the small irritations, annoying habits, and idiosyncrasies of your man. Then next to each irritation, write out the upside or why you can choose to love that part of who he is.
3 Disciplines to Help You OVERCOME Rejection
Do you have what it takes to be told, “You don’t have what it takes?”
Do the One Thing that Changes Everything!
Janell Rardon No story offers entrance into the world of relationships like the greatest story ever told, the Bible. For centuries, these true stories reveal the power of real love…
Are You Listening?
mabel ninan | mabelninan.com I plugged my ears with my headphones as I sat down for my manicure. I smiled at the aesthetician and gave her the purple nail color…
Leading Hearts: Heart to Heart Podcast with Dr. Sabrina Black
https://vimeo.com/440835252 "Church, Let's Do More than Just Talk About It" Racial Reconciliation, Repentance and Restitution. Read Sabrina's Article at leadinghearts.com. Visit her online at Drsabrinablack.com
The Gift in Your Present.
I’VE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR THE PAST WEEK WITH A VIDEO ON REPEAT. It was January 4, 2020, my father-in-law John Buckley’s last birthday. At 91 years of age, he was surrounded by my husband and daughter, his wife and friends as they sang “Happy Birthday” round the table. Glasses raised, smiles on faces.
Who would have known this would be the last time he would wear those paper crowns from those traditional British Christmas crackers or the last time he would ask Mum if she wanted cream on her cake?
No one knew it would be the last time we saw him blow out his candles. And right now it seems like one of the most precious moments in the world to me that I have caught on video.
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5 TOOLS TO SURVIVE THE STING OF CONFLICT
When confronted by the mean words/actions of others, yield immediately by praying three words: God help me.
STANDING IN AN OLD CORNFIELD WITH NOTHING BUT A SLEEVELESS BLOUSE AND JEANS TO PROTECT ME, THOUSANDS OF BEES BUZZED AROUND ME. “Should I be nervous?” I asked Greg, my novice beekeeping-pastor, who graciously invited me into his world of beekeeping.
Knowing I was working on a manuscript centered around the concept of spiritual unity, he wanted to show me a few things he had learned by observing his bees.“Oh, no,” he said. “Just stay out of their flight pattern. Move a little to the left and you’ll be fine.” “They have a flight pattern?” I gazed about. “Yeah, sure. See? You can see them coming in for a landing. Straight to the hive.” “Got it,” I said. “Let me get out of their way.”
He smiled. “As long as a bee doesn’t feel threatened, everything is OK.”
Greg’s words were the aha moment I’d been waiting for. “Wow, Greg,” I said. “You were right. Your little bees do have a lesson for me and my readers.”
It seems we are all OK until a threat enters our “perceived flight path,” i.e., our domain of home, work, family, relationships, ministry or leadership.
(more…)Why Your Marriage Needs a Mentor
Look around and see who holds hands, who acts kind to one another, who opens the door, who prays for one another or for other couples.
LIFE IS MUCH EASIER WHEN YOU HAVE SOME HELP FROM THOSE WHO ARE FURTHER ALONG THE
TRAIL.
Their wisdom and insight will prove to be invaluable in your own journey together. Mentoring is becoming even more important as much of the population today comes from homes that experienced some kind of fractured family.
You may have never lived with both a mother and a father. How are you supposed to know what an intact family looks like? Who is going to model for you how to work through conflict if your own parents decided to abandon their marriage?
How do you find a mentor?
Look for a couple who has the love that you’d like to have. We have experienced many mentors: Bill and Tina, who equipped us while we were dating and engaged; Tom and Barbara, a couple we lived with to save to go to seminary and who simply modeled the daily habits that build a long-lasting love; Jim and Sally Conway, professors and authors who equipped us to balance marriage and ministry.
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Stop Stabbing, Start Sharpening
by Edie Melson in Leading Hearts magazine
IN SOCIAL MEDIA TERMS, IT’S A VOLATILE WORLD OUT THERE.
So often, what’s posted online seems more focused on stabbing and wounding than on encouraging and sharpening. Part of that is due to the medium.
Almost 100 percent of the time, online interaction lacks the warmth of a real-time, human connection. It’s an impersonal — anonymous — medium. While we may call those we connect with “friends,” many of them are just faceless names.
When we’re speaking online, it’s far too easy to be so focused on what we want to share that we forget the individual — hurting — hearts of those we’re communicating with.
(more…)HOLLYN: In All Honesty
by Jennifer Taylor in Leading Hearts Magazine
All relationships can be tough to navigate, but that is only amplified when you are struggling through the confusion with no one to confide in.
This is a snapshot of feelings that recording artist HOLLYN experienced in a relationship that, in all honesty, ended in heartache and grief. That season and afterward inspired her to write six songs — the culmination of her current album Bye, Sad Girl.
Lyrically Speaking
“Bye, Sad Girl is all about stories. Mainly, my story of when I walked through a pretty rough time in my life almost two years ago.
I went through a six-month period where I was in a relationship that was very confusing and crippled me with a lot of anxiety and depression. I really didn’t know how to talk about it at that time,” HOLLYN says.
“I remember feeling so isolated and like nobody could really feel what I was feeling. I had never been through anything like that before. It was so different and new to me that I kind of felt crazy.”
HOLLYN wants everyone who feels alone in these situations to know there’s a God who loves them. She started writing the songs about six months after the relationship ended but knew they were nothing like her other recording projects — because all of the emotions of her journey were just spilling out.
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