Visit The Provision Room

Two amazing friends with one mission in mind.  Come check out their blog at The Provision Room and learn more about eating healthy, natural remedies, and  preparing yourself for incase of an emergency. This week is there final week of their launch party. Their 3 great gifts are Urban Homestead from a local store here in Pasadena, second gift is a 60 minute Swedish Massage from Samantha Lawrence and their last gift is from Venice Premium Biscotti (YUMMY). Don't miss out go to theprovisionroom.com.

Crown of Her Husband

Today my wife and a group of ladies are starting a 30 day husband encouragement challenge. What an amazing gift for us men to have our wives speak life into us. Proverbs 12:4- “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.” Crowns relate to wisdom, they encircle the head. Wisdom, in effect, surrounds and protects the mind and brings honor to the “head” of the one who has it. This verse declares that the godly woman is a crown to her husband. She is God’s gift to her husband and he will benefit from God’s wisdom through her. This 30 day challenge is just that, a challenge. It is not always easy to encourage, withhold negative talk, to honor, or to even show love when we as husbands don’t fulfill our part as husbands. Or the wife can be just tired of having to do everything. I write this because I was there at one time when I was not engaged in the day to day thing called life. I did part by providing financially for my family, but after that I was basically a no show. It was my wife who chose to take the high road in a sense and didn’t necessarily start encouraging me, but she decided to stop saying negative things towards my lack of leadership in the home. This made a difference in me over time. Then when she started to encourage me, I started to respond by stepping into my roll as husband, father, and child of God.

There is something about our wives encouraging us as men. When my wife says she loves me, it’s special, but when she tells me how proud she is of me, my chest puffs out and I feel like I can conquer the world.  I know there are times we as husbands don’t deserve what you as wives do for us, but I just want to encourage you, that it makes a difference. See your husbands as God’s son, before you see him as your husband. Remember when you honor your husband, you honor God first. So I pray that God gives you ladies the strength, the patience, the grace, the respect, and the love you need for the next 30 days. And may it continue beyond and make a radical shift in your marriages.

On the lighter side I found this prayer to help encourage the wives:

                                    Dear Lord,

                                    I pray for: Wisdom, to understand a man.

                                    Love, to forgive him and; Patience, for his moods.

                                    Because Lord, if I pray for strength, I’ll just beat him to death.

Mark

Change Your Mind, Change Your Marriage

by Mitch Temple

Thoughts and attitudes are like the engine of a train and our emotions and behavior are like the caboose.

Thoughts help form and determine your attitudes toward marriage. They determine how you feel about your mate as well as how you feel about being married in general. Thoughts can inspire hope – or take it away. Changing the way you think is like a locomotive that switches tracks and heads in a new direction, taking the rest of the train – behavior, actions, and habits – right along with it.

Paul obviously didn't have a train in mind when he offered his heart-felt instructions to the Christians in Rome – but it's still a useful metaphor. Pleading with the Romans to change their thoughts and actions, he said, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. . . . Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. . . . Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment" (Romans 12:1–3).

The apostle is speaking about a major mind shift here. The word transform comes from the same basic root for the English word metamorphosis. As larvae go through a radical change to become butterflies, so must we sometimes radically change our minds in order to have a healthy faith and marriage.

When we do make this change, we will not think of ourselves higher than we should (v. 3), and our judgments (perceptions, beliefs, conclu­sions, attitudes) will be sober, clear, and accurate. Transforming our thinking can lead us to the right behaviors (vv. 9–21). The right behavior will then lead to the outcomes we want such as peace, intimacy, and oneness. The more we understand this principle, the more positive impact it will have on our relationships.

One of my good friends, Dr. Gary Rosberg, is one of the most spiritual men I know. When I grow up I want to be just like him. Whenever we're together, talk on the phone, correspond by e-mail, or chat after I finish a radio interview on his show, the last thing he always says to me is, "Hey Mitch, guard your heart, brother." This is another way of saying, "Be very careful to protect your mind from the wrong stuff. Put the right things in your mind. Protect it. Shield it from the bad influences." Just recently, after the birth of my first grandchild, Gary's message to me was: "Mitch, guard your heart, brother. The stakes just got higher."

I know Gary means for me to guard my heart in every area of life, including my relationship with Rhonda. Like a computer, if I put the right things into my mind, the right things will likely come out. Gary understands this. He knows that if my thinking is on track, then the rest of my life will be too.

Our Creator commands spouses – particularly husbands – to guard their hearts and thinking so that they do not forsake the wife of their youth (Malachi 2:14–16). God is serious about how we think and behave in our marriage. We should be too.

Sure, our actions may be due to "unthinking" habits we've fallen into. You may leave the bathroom messy every day without even thinking about it. Just part of the routine, right?

But if you really reflect on that habit, you may discover that there was a particular thought, belief, value, or idea that led you to the action – or at minimum maintained it. Maybe you thought at some time previously, I did this before I was married, so I should be able to keep on doing it. Or, What's the big deal? I'll clean up later, but now I'm in a hurry.

Sometimes, though, our distorted thinking can lead to consequences much more severe than squabbles about bathrooms.

From The Marriage Turnaround: How Thinking Differently About Your Relationship Can Change Everything