Just sayin', Life experiences, Life Goals

ON TURNING 55

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This week I turned 55.

So I have been doing a little inventory regarding getting a little older.

Yes, I realize 60 is the new 30 but still…I am on a quest for aging well .

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I want to borrow from writer Brenda Smith who  learned the following lessons from observing her aging parents:

(1) Aging isn’t optional, being ‘old’ is. Keep making plans or you’re subconsciously giving yourself permission to die. Dad believed he owed rent on his earthly space and he paid it by giving back to others.

(2) God is real. Mom struggled with depression as her Parkinson’s disease progressed. However, she looked for God’s hand in everything, and a lifetime of believing helped her to see His sufficiency even more in her final years.

(3) Time is a gift. David said, “Teach us to use wisely all the time we have” (Ps 90:12 CEV). Dad told a friend of his, “When you’ve so little time left, you can’t spend it doing stupid things. You learn to invest in things that count.”

(4) Sickness doesn’t create sainthood. It’s a test of patience, emotional restraint and maturity. When Dad was incapacitated he discovered that old age and sickness don’t automatically draw you closer to God. He still had to discipline his mind to delight in the Lord and to find true joy in Christ.

(5) Laughter revives the soul. After her father became ill, Smith writes about how this revered writer, speaker and consultant, “ended up smiling as he stared down at his size 46 waistline that took a dive each time he stood up from his wheelchair!” When Mother Nature and Father Time get through with all of us, we’ll gaze into the mirror and either laugh or cry. Since “Laughter doeth good like a medicine” (See Pr 17:22), and since God’s prepared a wonderful new body for us in heaven, make up your mind to go out with joy!

And I would like to add a 6th.

(6th) Forgiveness plus good family and friends = hope for tomorrow. – There is so much talk these days about “sustainable living” without a lot of sustainable relationships.

Life without a lifetime of forgiveness is no life at all.

Here is a good quote to end this blog post tonight. “A good marriage is made up of two forgivers.”  – Ruth Graham Bell

Oh and why not just throw this one in too.

(7th)  Get outside and explore while you are able. Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the wind. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Live long and prosperous my friend.

Steve

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“I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is…God’s applause!” 2 Timothy 4:7 TM

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Marriage Adventures, Ministry

Communication In Marriage

Tomorrow Brenda and I are teaching a couples get away in Sedona.

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One of our introductions will be this .

The six interpretations of spoken communication are:

1. What the speaker intended to say.

2. What the speaker actually said.

3. What the speaker thought he or she said.

4. What the hearer needed to hear.

5. What the hearer actually heard.

6. What the hearer thought he or she heard.

Also, here are 13 Bible verses on Communication In Marriage
Peter 3:1-9 ESV /
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, …

Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV /
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, …

James 1:19 ESV /
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Proverbs 25:11-15 ESV /
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters. Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give. With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.

James 1:5 ESV /
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Ephesians 4:15 ESV /
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Mark 10:9 ESV /
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Ephesians 5:22-25 ESV /
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Ephesians 4:25 ESV /
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: …
Matthew 19:3-9 ESV /
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” …

Mark 10:6-8 ESV /
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Genesis 2:18-25 ESV /
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. .

Looking forward to this couple event.

Pastor Steve

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