Lessons from Game Night

For probably just over a year at this point, the Mr. and I have been a part of a home group at our church. While growing up, my parents were part of a home group...but trust me. This isn't my parent's home group. That's one of the things I love about it.

Jenga inspired coasters. $4 "Tumbling Towers" and hot glue. Oh my!!

In the group, there are other couples at or around our age. Everyone's circumstances are different, but at the same time we can all relate to one another. It's taken me almost until now (I'm ridiculously shy at times) to get out of my shell, but truly...they have become like family. Considering neither my family or the Mr's family live in our city, our home group family has become that much more precious. We love them dearly.

Nostalgic snack and candy bar. Peanuts, Gummy Bears, Dum Dum's, Jelly Beans, Ring Pops, and more. Oh my!

Press pause because there is something else you should probably know.

The Lord has been working on my heart about hospitality. Weird, right? Well, at least I thought it was. It was so unexpected. Anyhow, our home is awesome. My husband bought it while he was still a bachelor, and I am so blessed to call it home. I'm also blessed that he let me into the buying process a bit even though we were not yet engaged. (He's the best. I know. ;) The house is spacious, comfy, and open. It's pretty much everything I love in a house, except for 2 things. 1. It doesn't have a linen closet (so odd!) 2. We have no idea how to decorate it. (Pinterest has given me some ideas, but finding the time and money is difficult.) We have no curtains up. An old yet exceptionally comfy couch purchased from Craig's List adorns our family room. Likewise an old yet exceptionally functional pool table purchased from Craig's List sits in our informal dining room. Our home is wonderful. Our home is just plain awesome. Our home is a blessing. Yet it is still a bit....beige.

Yum!

I am the girl with BIG hair and BIG earrings who loves making BIG statements (on occasion) so our "beigeness" sometimes gets under my skin. For a while now, I've been nagging talking with the Mr. about making some changes. We've painted the front door, put a few things on the walls, but yeah...our home is still a bit "beige". Once that changed, we could THEN start to entertain others and host more stuff in our home. Right? It sounded like a great plan to me, but then it started. The Lord started getting my attention in this area. I don't remember how it started, but I remember when it became too much for me to ignore. Leadership Class at church. I simply remember this. There is a difference between entertaining others and hospitality. Hospitality has little to do with the decoration of our home, and more to do with the condition of our hearts. Ouch!

That's when I started to get it. I put it that way because I don't think I fully get it. yet. God will help me with that. It's just that I'm starting to see that welcoming loved ones into our home is about the time we spend with them and how good they feel while they are there. It's not about the colors on the wall or how large our television is. Frankly put, it's not about me.

One of the couples brought the AMAZING goodies above.

It's not to mean that all of our walls will stay beige. They won't. It's not to mean that our television won't be any bigger. Trust me. It will. It simply means our heart is changing, and because of that our motives and actions will follow suit.

Okay. Now back to our home group family. What better way to step out in this area than to have everyone over for game night? This is exactly what we did.

It was one of the girl's birthdays so another friend made some DELICIOUS cupcakes to celebrate. Chocolate chip cookie on the bottom. Chocolate chips in the batter. Chocolate cookie dough filling. Mmmm...

All of the pics are of the little details. We didn't get any pics of the group because well...we were too busy laughing and playing games to stop and take pics during.

This one is my absolute favorite...

We so enjoyed having our amazing home group family over and the fun time spent with them. They were such gracious guests too! I didn't quite nail the hospitality part this time around, but my heart was in it. We just wanted everyone to have a good time, and I think they did. (Yay!) Here's to hoping that our guests saw our heart through the little well thought out details until we figure out how to open the door just right, how to keep the conversation going, how to walk everyone out properly when it's time to go, and all of that other stuff we have yet to learn.

A Million Little Yeses

Lately, the Mr and I have been hooked on the show "How I Met Your Mother". Yes. It's highly inappropriate at times, but gosh darn it. It's hilarious, and we can't get enough of it lately.

Truthfully, we need an intervention. ;)

On a certain episode, a certain character spontaneously proposed to his girlfriend. He was so pleased to hear a simple and elegant, "Yes."

We were with friends while we watched this episode. We all burst out laughing. Our friend's, "Yes" to her husband was excited, blissful, and extremely loud. At least that's how they tell the story.

My yes to The Mr's proposal was...well...many. I couldn't stop saying yes. I said "yes" at every pause until I finally heard those words. "Will you marry me?"

Then I said yes a few more times! lol

There's no wrong way to say yes, but this conversation got me thinking.

One HUGE yes. A million a little yeses. A successful marriage is made up of both.

The HUGE yes, is the yes said in faith. It's the yes said in confidence. It's the knowing that for better or worse, we are going to stick through this and fight for our marriage by the grace of God. It's foundational. It's beautiful. It's fruitful.

Then there are a million little yeses. It's the yes that chooses to watch the college basketball game cheerfully with her husband when she rather be watching The Voice. It's the yes that orders pizza for dinner, though the fridge is full of food, because the wife is exhausted and needs a break from cooking dinner. It's the yes that folds laundry, washes the car, or sends an encouraging text during the day just because.

Continue to choose yes. It will do your marriage good.

The Mr's Devotional

The Mr. has a strong presence and a deep (I mean DEEP) sexy voice, but he is also the most easy going quiet man that you will ever meet. True story.

It's one of the characteristics that I love most about him. The moral of the story is that when he speaks, I listen. He doesn't speak for the sake of talking. He speaks with a purpose. For this reason, I was super excited about the devotion he had prayerfully prepared for us while we were on our marriage retreat. God is so awesome. I was asking God to reveal some things to me about submission and He did that, through my husband. It was so amazing! So without any further ado, here are the notes I took from that power packed devotional about marriage. I am praying that you get what God wants you to get out of it.

Ephesians 5:21-33

:21 Submit to each other. Husbands submit to their wives in the sense that they don't lord their headship over the wife. They lead to also benefit their wife.

Wife is to be subject to husband, adapt herself to her husband; be submissive; IN EVERYTHING, as to the Lord; in the same way that the church is subject to Christ.

Husband's role is to love wife unconditionally, give himself fully to wife.

:26 building wife up spiritually
:27 final goal in mind
:28 Husband, take care of wife as if wife was himself; in marriage 2 become 1, wife is an extension of husband.

Marriage isn't about the legalities of should we must have separate or joint accounts. It's about fulfilling our roles in marriage. Wife subject to husband. Husband taking care of wife.

:31 is a quote from Genesis 2:24

Genesis 2:23-24
Eve was Adam's rib, extension of self, member of his body. I am The Mr's rib.

Ephesians 5:31-32
the church is to leave where we came from (sinful nature and the world) and become one with Christ.

A Godly marriage is representation of the Gospel. 

Co-heirs with Christ. Example = our tax return. Filing separately my work equated to having to pay $500 back in taxes. However, we tried filing together. Because of The Mr we got back multiple times over the $500 that I would have had to pay with out him. We will receive what Christ has, but it's not because of our works. It's because of what Christ has done for us.   

Unplugged and Connected

Tweet. Tweet. Tweet.

Send.

Buzz.

Update. Tag. Click.

Click click.

That about sums up a few hours of an average day, and I like to think that I'm not alone in this. Truthfully, we are a technology loving family. The Mr. is a software engineer for a top firm in the country and he is the technology guru around here. We love smart phones, televisions, computers, and anything Google. (We actually have a goldfish named Google. Enough said.) Thanks to The Mr I can use all of the above much more effectively than I used to. I, for one, am a social networking nerd. I love to blog, tweet, update, and everything in between so much so that I also handle social networking at the community center that I am employed with. It's one of my favorite tasks.

This is all good, and I have absolutely no problems with it. As a matter of fact, it's technology that connects us right now through this blog and keeps us connected with our family in other cities, states, and even countries.

However, it can be distracting at times. Some times it's good to getaway. It's easy to see marriage as a physical thing, and physical thing alone. The problem is that it takes more than a physical presence to do marriage right. It's deeper than laying in the same bed, having joint accounts, and seeing each other daily. So, yea it's easy to get complacent.

A couple months ago, The Mr and I decided to take a little time away to get unplugged to stay connected. It happened this past weekend, and it was perfect.

We drove a couple hours or so to West Palm Beach where we checked into an adorable boutique hotel. With the exception of Google Maps, we went unplugged. There was no Twitter, ESPN mobile, Facebook, or etc. It was me and him, enjoying each other and focusing on our marriage. We brought along materials from  the pre-marital workshop we completed prior to our wedding just under a year and a half ago.

While stuck at a draw bridge, we tackled the Communication section. As God would have it, that section was about communication bridges. I'll never look at a draw bridge the same.

We discussed our goals as individuals, a couple, and as a family. We prayed together. We laughed together. We drank fresh sugar cane juice at the farmer's market together (SOOO yum!).

Honestly, it was perfect.

Sunday morning, The Mr. led us in a devotional. It was so powerful. It was a God sent reminder of our roles in marriage, and how God intends marriage to be.

It was a game changer, in the best way possible. A blog post of my notes from that devotional is soon coming. Look out for it.

I have a purpose in sharing this. It's to encourage you to take time to get away, but also consider this. Decide to getaway for more than the sake of getting away. Prayerfully consider getting away to get unplugged and stay connected.

Stay connected with Christ, first and foremost. Everything else is secondary, EVERYTHING. Let Jesus have His way in your life. He has a way of perfecting everything else.

Stay connected with your husband. Listen to what he has to say. Respond to it. Pray for him. Dump the details every once in awhile. Respect him always. Build bridges in your marriage.

Listening

 "Huh?"

"What?"

"Can you repeat that please?"

I say that a lot. A LOT. Quite frankly, I can be a horrible listener. So when God started working on my heart to take a step back from blogging and twitter I was all like, 

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Can you repeat that please?"

Unfortunately, I heard right the first time. God did not speak to me audibly per say. My Pastor often says that God speaks primarily through His Word. Through my daily Bible reading I ran across verses such as these.

 

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.  James 3:1

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

And 1 Timothy 6

These scriptures spoke to my motives. YES I want to help and encourage. It's my heart's desire, and it is a good and Godly desire. The thing is I was seeking other things too, on top of that. In other words, being a social media mini-celebrity seemed pretty appealing to me too. And while I'm being honest, the thought of bringing in some extra cash somehow through all of this also sounded very appealing. 

Hear me. 

I'm not saying that making money online is evil and becoming well known online is sinful. Not at all. Here's the thing though. As Christians, Christ followers, we should be following Christ and what He values. 

Check out Philippians 2

It's about humbling ourselves, not seeking our motives. Even Christ humbled Himself and took up the cross for our salvation. In the same way, we should humble ourselves and through our motives by the wayside. Understand that it's for no other reason than to bring others to Christ. It's not about bringing others to our Twitter Page or Facebook Wall. It's about pointing others toward our Lord and Savior and praying that they come to know Him in that way in each and every area of their life. 

And how about the whole getting extra cash thing? 1 Timothy 6 addresses that beautifully. What caught my attention was the fact that some have been lead astray by that lure to seek riches. Scary, right? Riches may come. Working is good. (The Bible encourages working) Sales may come, but what are we seeking? That's what God wants to straighten out. It's about our motives and hearts. 

So yea, I shut up for a little while and let God lead me through His Word. During this time, God has been teaching me lots about the beauty of submission, leadership, and life. He's brought me hobbies beyond cooking in the kitchen which is HUGE. I've put on some weight since the holidays so learning to enjoy myself without packing on more lbs is a God send. He's delivered me from fears and anxieties that have bound me for years. He's teaching me how to grow as a child of God and as a wife. He's teaching me the power of contentment.

And yes, He is releasing me back into the wild (aka blogging and Twitter). lol 

My hope was to come back with some sort of hard core strategy and be back with a vengeance, but ummm...it's not really that way. This is what I know. I want to share all that God has done so my posts will probably have a lot to do with what God has shown me these last several weeks from money saving fashion to managing the house to Biblical truths.

Also, know that I know that I am still a work in progress. There's much I'm still learning. If at any point, social media becomes too big in my life I'm going to have to pause again and re-focus. Don't worry. I'm also going to work on notifying you a bit more gracefully. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking I will try to stick to posting once a week. This will help.

Love you ladies! Thanks for praying and hanging with me.