ChristianMilitaryWives

On Black Friday, Claire Shackelford and I teamed up to tackle the topic of Keeping The Spirit of Christmas.  So often times, stores spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create promotional ads about upcoming sales that will take place on Black Friday.  The commercials are always geared to targeting individuals that celebrate Christmas in one way or another.

On the podcast, Claire brings up the fact that we have seen deaths in the United States associated with Black Friday.  Store workers who have been trampled to death because of eager shoppers trying to find a great deal.

We talk about how we can all remember how to keep the focus on Christ.  If you have not heard the podcast, you can download it and listen free by clicking HERE.  I hope you are blessed by listening.

Here's a wonderful poem that Claire read when she opened up the show...

The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

-Author Unknown

Be sure to listen to the podcast, Keeping The Spirit Of Christmas with Hostess Claire Shackelford and Co-host, Patti Katter.  Also note, we talked about BRONNERS Christmas Store.  Here's the BRONNERS website.

Power of a Praying Wife devotionals for Chapters 4 and 5

His Sexuality and His Affection

These subjects can be very personal, embarrassing or down right frustrating.  Please read and pray for your husband.

Chapter 4 His Sexuality

Mark 10: 7-9

⁷'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^{[b] 8}and the two will become one flesh.'^[c] So they are no longer two, but one. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Hebrews 13:4

⁴Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

Songs of Solomon 2:16

¹⁶ My lover is mine and I am his;
      

from Focus on the Family

My lover is mine and I am his. Song of Songs 2:16

These are words of belonging, words that for an engaged couple can generate tender imagining and anticipation of what life together will be. Lived out by a married couple, these words can hold together in intimacy what much of the world seems to determined to break apart. Intimacy in marriage, sexual and otherwise, was created by God and is to be fought for, delighted in, and fiercely guarded.

To yield to one another sexually in marriage is to step into God-created intimacy that takes us out of ourselves and into places where the walls can crumble and we can be tenderly vulnerable and real. There is peace and expansiveness of heart that come with this intimacy; one that offers such glorious contrast to the confusion and momentum of the world.

We must be willing to fight for intimacy in our marriages and to fiercely guard it. We fight for it by being attentive to each other’s hearts; by yielding to God in a way that allows us to more easily yield to one another. We guard it by be intentional, considering what pulls us from intimacy and stepping away from those places, considering what brings us life and stepping deliberately into those places.

My lover is mine and I am his; we long to belong. Marriage, as a coming together before God, offers a sense of belonging that mirrors our belonging to the Father. While the vulnerability that intimacy brings is sometimes hard or scary to step into, it is such a wonderfully holy place that God gives us, a place of delighting in one another that echoes of the Father’s delight in us.

Father, forgive me the places where, although I long to belong, I rebel under your covering. Forgive me the places where I choose not to yield. Let me delight so much in You that I can delight in the one you have given me in marriage, that together we might be Yours.

Copyright © 2008, Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

1 Corinthians 7: 3-5

³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. ⁵Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.

Chapter 5 – His affection

Love is important in showing affection, First Corinthians 13 has been called the love chapter because of its powerful description of love. However, as I am reading this passage keep in mind that its easy to talk about love, its much harder to do the tough work of living it.  Love as God intended it is more than just passion, romantic feelings, or sentimental expressions.  It involves commitment, sacrifice, and service – the kind of things that benefit both the giver and the receiver.  Think about these things as you read

1 Corinthians chapter 13

Love

 ¹If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

 ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 ¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Think of how we were as children.  Running to those we loved for hugs and kisses to let them know we loved them.  We showed them affection.  Don’t you still crave that affection?  I know I do.  And if we do, don’t you think that our husbands still do also?  All of this love that is there to give and receive, starts with accepting Christ’s love for you, and then committing yourself to expressing that kind of love in your life and relationships.

Philippians 2: 1-3

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

We need to make time for our husbands, give them encouraging words, touch them, hold them, kiss them, and above all else love them unconditionally.

Power of a Praying Wife - Podcast Devotional Chapter 1

Chapter 1 focuses on us, the wife, and what our roles are and what we can do to accept and fill those roles.

Proverbs 31: 10-31    In Praise of a Good Wife

10    A truly good wife is the most precious treasure a man can find!

11    Her husband depends on her, and she never lets him down.

12    She is good to him every day of her life,

13    And with her own hands she gladly makes clothes.

14    She is like a sailing ship that brings food from across the sea.

15    She gets up before daylight to prepare food for her family and for her servants.

16    She knows how to buy land and how to plant a vineyard,

17       and she always works hard.

18    She knows when to buy or sell, and she stays busy until late at night.

19    She pins her own cloth,

20    And she helps the poor and the need.

21    Her family has warm clothing, and so she doesn’t worry when it snows.

22    She does her won sewing, and everything she wears is beautiful.

23    Her husband is a well-known and respected leader in the city.

24    She makes clothes to sell to the shop owners.

25    She is strong and graceful, as well as cheerful about the future.

26    Her words are sensible, and her advice is thoughtful.

27    She takes good care of her family and is never lazy.

28    Her children praise her, and with great pride her husband says,

29    “There are many good women, but you are the best!”

30    Charm can be deceiving, and beauty fades away, but a woman who honors the Lord deserves to be praised.

31    Show her respect – praise her in public for what she has done.

The woman of Proverbs 31 is a model, for both men and women of a way of living that brings fulfillment and contentment.  She exhibits a lifestyle of work and love based on godly wisdom.

1 Peter 3: 1-5   Wives and Husbands

            1 If you are a wife, you must put your husband first.  Even if he opposes our message, you will win him over by what you do.  No one else will have to say anything to him, 2 because he will see how you honor God and live a pure life.  3 Don’t depend on things fancy hairdos or gold jewelry or expensive clothes to make you look beautiful.  4 Be beautiful in your heart by being gentle and quiet.  This kind of beauty will last, and God considers it very special.  5 Long ago those women who worshiped God and put their hope in him made themselves beautiful by putting their husbands first.

Ephesians 5: 21-33    Wives and Husbands

            21 Honor Christ and put others first.  22 A wife should put her husband first, as she does the Lord.  23 A husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head of the Savior of the church, which is his own body.  24 Wives should always put their husbands first, as the church puts Christ first.

            25 A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.  26 He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water.  27 Christ did this, so that he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.

            28 In the same way, a husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself.  A husband who loves his wife shows that he loves himself.  29 None of us hate our own bodies.  We provide for them and take good care of them, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are each pare of his body.  31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother to get married, and he becomes like one person with his wife.”  32 This is a great mystery, but I understand it to mean Christ and his church.  33 So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband.

 Chapter 1 Prayer – Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian

            Lord, Help me to be a good wife.  I fully realize that I don’t have what it takes to be one without your help.  Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things.  Take my old emotional habits, mindsets, automatic reactions, rude assumptions, and self-protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.  Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation.  Give me a new heart and work in me Your love, peace, and joy (Galatians 5:22,23).  I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment.  Only You can transform me.

            Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband.  I confess the times I’ve been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward him.  Help me to put aside any hurt, anger, or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do – totally and completely, no looking back.  Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage.  Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the threshold of separation where the realities of divorce begin.

            Make me my husband’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support.  Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for him to come home to.  Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to him.  Grow me into a creative and confident woman who is rich in mind, soul, and spirit.  Make me the kind of woman he can be proud to say is his wife.

            I lay all my expectations at Your cross.  I release my husband from the burden of fulfilling me in areas where I should be looking to You.  Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him.  I realize that in some ways he may never change, but at the same time, I release him to change in ways I never thought he could.  I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fully accepting that neither of us is perfect and never will be.  Only You, Lord, are perfect and I look to You to perfect us. 

            Teach me how to pray for my husband and make my prayers a true language of love.  Where love has died, create new love between us.  Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way he can clearly perceive.  Bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3:3).  May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward on another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5).  Make us a team, not pursuing separate, competitive, or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each other’s faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage.  Help us to pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Romans 14:19).  May we be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10).

            I pray that our commitment to You and to one another will grow stronger and more passionate every day.  Enable him to be the head of the home as You made him to be, and show me how to support and respect him as he rises to that place of leadership.  Help me to understand his dreams and see things from his perspective.  Reveal to me what he wants and needs and show me potential problems before they arise.  Breathe Your life into this marriage.

            Make me a new person, Lord.  Give me a fresh perspective, a positive outlook, and a renewed relationship with the man You’ve given me.  Help me see him with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion, and new acceptance.  Give my husband a new wife, and let it be me.

Gossip is one of those things that almost every woman has somehow been involved in, whether it is has been on the giving end or receiving end. Because we live in a culture and society that thrives on gossiping, bad-mouthing, and making fun of others, it is extremely easy to be influenced and participate! With military women especially, gossip happens all the time. There are many reasons why we women gossip – sometimes it’s just for fun, sometimes it’s to make ourselves look better, and sometimes it’s not done for the purpose of bad-mouthing but out of a concern for someone else. However, as Christians, the Lord desires for us to speak words of healing, encouragement, love, and kindness - those that build up, not put down. So how do we keep from gossiping, and what does God’s Word say on the subject?

Well, a few of our brave CMW ladies have tackled this sticky subject by sharing their hearts, experiences, and what the Bible has to say! You can hear what we have to say by clicking HERE. All of CMW's podcasts are located under the CMW Media tab; you can also download the podcast or share it with someone else.

*For reference purposes, here are the Scriptures that were shared during the show:

Proverbs 16:24 - "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

Proverbs 20:19-20 - "He who goes about as a slanderer   reveals secrets, Therefore do not associate with a gossip.
       He who curses his father or his mother,
   His lamp will go out in time of darkness."

Proverbs 31:26 - "She opens her mouth in wisdom,
         And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." 

Proverbs 18:21 - "Death and life are in the power of the   tongue,
         And those who love it will eat its fruit."

Romans 12:14 - "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do  not curse."

James 3:5-10 - "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a  forest is set aflame by such a small fire!

 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles  the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and   is set on fire by hell.

 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.

But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;

 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way."

Romans 14:4,10 - "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. ...But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God."

Romans 12:16 - "Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation."

Proverbs 15:1 - "A gentle answer turns away wrath,
         But a harsh word stirs up anger."

(*All verses are taken from the New American Standard Bible.)