Pray for Your Beloved ~ Generosity

Generosity is not an option for a believer. Time and again, in both the Old and New Testaments we are told to lend, to give, to be generous. God, Himself, sets the bar, “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8 God gave His only begotten Son.

In Psalm 112:5 we are told, “It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.” That Psalm goes on to say in verse 9, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his horn is exalted in honor.” This entire Psalm talks about the righteous man, and being generous is mentioned twice in the 10 verses that make up the Psalm.

A righteous man does not hold tightly to his possessions, but freely gives of them to those that have need. “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” Proverbs 14:31 A righteous man desires to honor God with his actions.

I often find at our house, that my Beloved is the one who is truly has the generous spirit. I love to give, and often am generous, but my tendency is to look at the checkbook and decide that we can’t afford it. But my Beloved would give the shirt off of his back if someone was in need of it. When he worked at our local grocery store, he often would loan money or pay for someone’s groceries if they were short on cash. People knew that if they were in need, they could go to him and if able, he would help them. As wives, we should be careful not to curb the generosity of our husbands.

We need to lift our husbands before the Throne and pray that they would be godly, righteous men. We need to pray that they will be generous. That they would give joyfully. “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And god is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” II Cor. 6-11

Some other verses that deal with generosity are:

“It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.” Psalm 112:5

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” Proverbs 25:21

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Luke 6:35

Use these verses as inspiration as you pray for your beloved this week.

PRAYER

Father God,
I lift my Beloved before You today. I ask Father that You would give him a generous spirit. I pray that he would honor You in all his actions, but especially as he reaches out to those in need. May others see You through him.
In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Recipe Share Friday ~ Savory Grilled Pork Chops

I thought it was time to get back to being regular about something! So, here is Recipe Share Friday, once again. ;-)

I found this recipe in one of those little recipe magazines you find at the check out stand. I don't remember if it was a Taste of Home, or Pillsbury, or what, but this recipe is YUMMY!!

Savory Grilled Pork Chops with Fruit Salsa
PORK CHOPS
1 (8oz) can pineapple tidbits in unsweetened juice
1/3 C lite soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 center-cut pork chops

SALSA
Reserved pineapple tidbits
1/2 C chopped fresh strawberries
1 med. Nectarine
2 Tbls sliced green onions
2 Tbls chopped cilantro
1 Tbls sugar
1 Tbls vinegar
1 Tbls lite soy sauce

1. GRILL DIRECTIONS: Drain pineapple, reserving liquid; set pineapple aside. In a 9x13 glass dish, combine pineapple juice, 1/3 C soy sauce and garlic; blend well. Add pork chops; turn to coat. Cover; refrigerate 2-3 hours to marinate, turning occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, in med. bowl, combine pineapple tidbits and all remaining salsa ingredients; mix well. Cover, refrigerate while pork chops are marinating.

3. Heat grill. When ready to grill, remove pork chops from marinade; discard marinade. Place pork chops on gas grill over med-high heat or on charcoal grill 4-6 inches from med-high coals. Cook 5-7 minutes on each side or until no longer pink in center. Serve salsa with pork chops.

Serves 6

This recipe quickly became one of our summer favorites! Once in a while in the winter, if I can get the fruit, we'll do it for a treat; cooking the pork chops under the broiler in the oven.

Being a Joyful, Intoxicating Wife

"Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always with her love."
Proverbs 5:19

Although written to a man, I thought the above verse to be instructive to us as wives as well.

"Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth..." I am the wife of my Beloved's youth, am I a wife he can rejoice in? According to Webster's 1828 Dictionary, rejoice is "to experience joy and gladness in a high degree, to be exhilarated with lively and pleasurable sensations; to exult." Sounds like something that should be happening in a marriage relationship, doesn't it? ;-) Shamefully, I know there are times that my Beloved doesn't rejoice in me. My behavior toward him or in general creates anything but joy and gladness. However, it is my goal to be the wife that he can rejoice in. I desire for our home to be full of joy and gladness.

"a lovely deer, a graceful doe..." When I think of a deer, I think of slender, quiet grace. Now, obviously, we're not all slender! Some of us are quieter than others, some more graceful. But, think of the overall impression. I *can* be gentle, quiet and graceful; it just might take some effort. My desire is that when people think of me, they aren't thinking of me per se. But they have such an impression of me that they think of my Beloved, and that he is blessed. It is another way of honoring him. I want my attitudes and actions to be complimentary to my Beloved, but more importantly, I want them to reflect my Heavenly Father.

"let her breasts fill you at all times with delight..." 'Nuff said? LOL At our house, this is more instructive to me than my Beloved. *I* need to remember that my body is for his pleasure. For me, as a woman who is often pregnant and/or nursing, it is so easy to be in Mama-mode. Which means that I get "touched out" during the day, and that I view parts of my body in a more, shall we say, utilitarian way than my Beloved does. I need to remind myself often that I am not *just* a Mama, I am a lover as well. I need to allow myself the freedom to let my breasts fill my Beloved with delight.

"be intoxicated always in her love." Do I love my Beloved in such a way that it's intoxicating to him? It seems that recently I have heard and seen a lot about the effects of certain sinful behaviors. Pornography and other sexual sins in particular create a "need" for more. I am *not* suggesting ungodliness in our marriages. However, am I doing my best to satisy him and love him in such a way that he desires more? Am I intoxicating to him? We can't always be in an "emotional high" in our marriages. That just isn't reality. But do I make an effort toward those times? Do I look for opportunities to show him how much I love and admire him? Do I make time to spend with him, to show interest in the things that interest him? Is our love relationship one that even when we're not in a "high" time, we do still "hunger" for each other? It goes back to being best friends.

Father God,
I lift up the woman reading this now. I pray Father, that You would encourage and inspire her toward being the wife You would have her be. I ask that where ever she's at in her marriage today, that You would draw her and her beloved closer to You, and in so doing, draw them closer to each other. I pray that her beloved would, truely rejoice in her and be intoxicated by her love. I ask this in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

New Look

You may have noticed that my blog has a new look! I really liked the template I started out with, however, I wanted something that looked a little different from everyone else. :-)

My niece has started playing around with her blog templates, and she uses LeeLou Blogs. So, I clicked on through from her blog, and found this beautiful template! The colors are very "me", and I think they look welcoming. The gal over at LeeLou Blogs has lots of fun and funky templates over at her site, they are easy to install, and best of all, they're free!

If you are interested in what she has to offer, you can scroll down and on the left is a button that you can use to click through to her site.

Let me know what you think!

A Romantic Hideaway

I have already shared about making our bedroom a retreat. You can view my post on that here.
When I posted that devotion, I intended on getting some pictures of our bedroom up so that you could see what I was talking about. Well, several months later, I am finally getting around to it! These are pictures taken while we were waiting for labor to begin with Ezra, so there are a few things that are not typical to our bedroom in the pictures.



Here is our bed. While this doesn't show the whole thing, you can get an idea of what it's like. I have a double layered bed skirt on it ~ which does not match the quilt. However, it goes well with the coloring in our bedroom, and it was a bargain! The netting you see is a canopy of mosquito netting that hangs from hooks in the ceiling ~ our ceiling is a bit low for a true 4 poster or canopy bed. Around the top of the canopy, I have the small Christmas tree lights. They are amber colored ~ we found the clear ones were too bright. To the majority of the lights I have added roses and or leaves (the light is the center of the rose or leaf set), so it appears that our bed is garlanded by flowers. The bed is set cross-wise in the corner, and behind the headboard, I have a fairly rough pedestal that Mike made (which I have covered with a floral fabric), and that is what the candelabra is sitting on. I have multiple pillows on the bed, and in the winter there is also a brown plaid blanket that lays across the foot of the bed.

This is the corner opposite the bed. Normally next to the rocking chair there is a small black kidney shaped table. On the other side of the little table sits another chair. This gives us an intimate little spot for a quiet cup of tea and conversation. The little shelves you see are a recent addition and are holding layette items. My plan is to paint the shelves black (my "shabby chic" color), and use them in some other way when Ezra's clothing is too large for the little baskets. On the wall, you can see just the lower part of one of our pictures, and then next to that is a 5 arm candelabra ~ for a little added romance!

You can see that I use fairly bold colors in our bedroom, and I do try to accent with plaids because they are more masculine. I decorate our room with things that are meaningful to us. The rocking chair was my great-grandmother's, there are portraits of our children on the walls and dresser tops. I have heard different people recommend not having pictures of your children in your bedroom; after all, it's supposed to be a retreat! However, part of who we are is our children's parents. God has blessed us tremendously with our children ~ why would we want to keep our bedroom devoid of reminders of them? You will also find in our bedroom ~ for the majority of our 19 years of marriage, a bassinet or cradle or a crib. This does not diminish the romance or retreat "feeling" of our room. Rather, for us, it is a reminder of how abundantly blessed we are; and for me, it brings feelings of joy and contentment to see them.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, and perhaps gain some inspiration if you're struggling with infusing your room with romance.

Lost Post

If you'll scroll down a bit ~ 2 posts, you'll find a new one. It's one I started back in June, and so that is where blogger plugged it in. I don't know how to move it! So, if you'll bear with me, I did post this week, it's just a little lost. :-) The title is: Thoughts on Servanthood.

Frustration

These last 3 months or so have been a learning experience ~ and not one that I have been particularly joyful about learning. ;-)

For 2 weeks before Ezra was born, I couldn't do any lifting or anything like vacuuming. He had been breech, and although we had gotten him to turn (thanks to the Webster technique!), my midwife didn't want him to turn breech again, so no lifting. Then we ended up with a c-sec. So, no lifting for 6 weeks ~ in addition, I had lost a lot of blood at delivery, so I tire more easily than normal. While I have older boys who are very capable, and willing, they are not home very much. (NOTE: When you have young men with a good work ethic, they are rarely home because people want them to come work for them!)

So, now I can lift. Now I am feeling up to getting something done ~ and there is plenty to be done! Well, now I have a fussy baby. He loves to sleep on me, and during the day will not sleep much if I am not holding him. While he does have happy times, he fusses more than any of our other children did as babies. And, he will cry and cry and cry ~ he won't cry a little and then sleep. He also gets very wild-eyed when he cries, and I just can't stand to let him for very long. So, now that I feel up to getting something done, I sit and hold a fussy baby, or nurse a toddler.

I know I'm desperate for a feeling of accomplishment when my Beloved comes home and I say, "Look honey, I got that corner straightened up." "Look honey, you can see the top of my desk." LOL Sad, but true!

In the midst of this, what am I learning? First off, I haven't trained my children as well as I should have! They are (apparently) blind to toys left out, garbage that hasn't "found" it's way to the garbage can, clothes not taken to the laundry room, etc. My younger children haven't been trained as well as they should because I have had older children who already did things. That needs to change! My older children are not that far away from being gone from home, and I need to get busy training the younger ones ~ they need to learn how to be responsible too.

Secondly ~ and I am *not*advocating letting everything go! But, in reality the housework will still be there tomorrow, it'll probably be there 15 minutes or so after I get it done. My baby will only be a baby for a short time, and the time I invest in my children is time invested in eternity. I may get frustrated now because it seems that all I do is sit and rock and nurse, but someday, much too soon, I will be missing these times. While I need to get done what I can in the short snippets of time I have, I also need to relax and enjoy my baby ~ and toddler! ~ and the rest of the children, some of which aren't really children any more.

Are you a young mama, in the midst of little children? Enjoy them! Love on them, and don't wish this time to go any faster than it is. Our oldest will be 18 in September, and I can't believe it's been that many years since I was rocking him and nursing him to sleep. The time goes so quickly, and it is all too easy to lose sight of that. We yearn for the next thing, and when it comes, we begin to yearn for the next. When will we learn to be content where God has us now?

So, in the midst of frustration, I am learning, and trying to be content ~ difficult with everything that needs to be done, staring me down. Well, I have a tired, grumpy toddler who needs to nurse, so I'm going to go ~ and enjoy him. ;-)