Marriage is about...

"Marriage is about choosing to allow the strong points of your marriage to be the dominant points, the areas you choose to focus on."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Influence)

Obsess Beore You Say "I Do."

"The time to obsess over your husband's character is before you get married, not after. Once you exchange vows, you should focus only on your obligation to love."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Influence)

Don't Worry About...

Don't worry about what you do not understand... Worry about what you do understand in the Bible but do not live by.

~ Corrie Ten Boom

Marriage is about Sacrifice

"Whether your husband is spiritually mature, immature, or in between, your heavenly Father likely will call you to love him and to sacrifice on his behalf. Whether you feel frustrated by his apathy or burdened by his zeal, in the end it all comes down to the same thing: marriage is about sacrifice."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Influence)

What if Your Husband is Spiritually Weaker...

"If your husband is spiritually weaker than you are, your job is to bear with his failings in such a way that you build him up, not tear him down. Instead of assuming the worst, call him to his best."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Influence)

Satan's Plan for You

Satan has in fact a plan against the saints of the Most High which is to wear them out. What is meant by this phrase, "wear out"? It has in it the idea of reducing a little this minute, then reducing a little further the next minute. Reduce a little today, reduce a little tomorrow. Thus the wearing out is almost imperceptible; nevertheless, it is a reducing. The wearing down is scarcely an activity of which one is conscious, yet the end result is that there is nothing left. He will take away your prayer life little by little, and cause you to trust God less and less and yourself more and more, a little at a time. He will make you feel somewhat cleverer than before. Step by step, you are misled to rely more on your own gift, and step by step your heart is enticed away from the Lord. Now, were Satan to strike the children of God with great force at one time, they would know exactly how to resist the enemy since they would immediately recognize his work. He uses the method of gradualism to wear down the people of God.

~ Watchman Nee

What is Joy?

Joy is not the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God.

~ Robert Schuller

Where do you run for help?

Where do you run for help? When you are in trouble, what is your first instinct? Do you run to others or to God? Is it usually the counsel of another rather than the counsel found in waiting upon God in prayer? Why is this the way it is? Why do we run to man before we run to God?

~ Kay Arthur

When do you smell the sweetest?

Just as torches burn most brightly when swung to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of adversity and suffering. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance God loves to smell.

~ Anonymous

Tools Used by God

The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Children Learn from Parents

Take heed that the misdeeds for which thou correctest thy children be not learned them by thee. Many children learn that wickedness of their parents for which they beat and chastise them.

~ John Bunyan

What are you hungry for?

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.

~ Leonard Ravenhill

Why are we negligent?

Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.

~ R. C. Sproul

God's Soldiers are trained...

God trains His soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers and climb mountains, and walk many a weary mile with heavy knapsacks on their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the troubles through which you are passing? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you?

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon