4 hours ago
The bargain book section is irresistible to me. I love searching through the rows and rows of books at my local Christian bookstore and seeing if I can pick up anything good for under five bucks. Sometimes you end up getting what you pay for, but occasionally you find a gem hiding between the Christian chick-lit and the reference books.
The latest gem I've found is a book called "When Two Become Three: Nurturing Your Marriage After Baby Arrives" by Mark E. Crawford.
A new baby can sometimes be a challenge to a marriage, just because it's a change. It's completely normal for a baby to change your relationship - but you have to learn to work through the change together. I'm definitely up for improving our marriage relationship, so I snagged this book to see what it had to offer.
So far it's really good - I think it's completely relevant for any married couple, whether you have a new baby or not. And how much did I pay for it? All of three bucks.
Like I said, I love the bargain book section.
I read something in it yesterday that got me thinking:
" . . . A soulmate is created rather than discovered. In other words, if you and your spouse make a commitment to spend years together building a family, creating a mission statement, changing and evolving as people, celebrating life's best moments and sufering through life's worst moment's together, then after many years, you may find that the person you've traveled that journey with is, in fact, your soulmate. "
I had never thought about it that way before, but as I think about that quote now, it makes perfect sense. I think it's probably the best way to look at the marriage relationship.
If you expect that a soulmate is someone that you find, when you go through rough times in your relationship, you may start to think that you made a mistake, and that you didn't marry your "soulmate" after all.
But if you expect that as you travel through the hard times with your spouse, working through the issues in your relationship, going through all of life's changes, building your life together, that you will gradually grow to become soulmates . . . it makes every hard time and every conflict a challenge to overcome together, instead of a trial that can tear you apart.
All of a sudden, the status of being with your "soulmate" isn't something you may or may not find, but something you work toward together, something you achieve when you stick it out through every difficulty, something you can aspire to and reach someday with alot of prayer and effort and God's grace.
There is something precious and beautiful about that.
What do you think? Have you ever thought about the concept of "soulmates" in this way before?
The latest gem I've found is a book called "When Two Become Three: Nurturing Your Marriage After Baby Arrives" by Mark E. Crawford.
A new baby can sometimes be a challenge to a marriage, just because it's a change. It's completely normal for a baby to change your relationship - but you have to learn to work through the change together. I'm definitely up for improving our marriage relationship, so I snagged this book to see what it had to offer.
So far it's really good - I think it's completely relevant for any married couple, whether you have a new baby or not. And how much did I pay for it? All of three bucks.
Like I said, I love the bargain book section.
I read something in it yesterday that got me thinking:
" . . . A soulmate is created rather than discovered. In other words, if you and your spouse make a commitment to spend years together building a family, creating a mission statement, changing and evolving as people, celebrating life's best moments and sufering through life's worst moment's together, then after many years, you may find that the person you've traveled that journey with is, in fact, your soulmate. "
I had never thought about it that way before, but as I think about that quote now, it makes perfect sense. I think it's probably the best way to look at the marriage relationship.
If you expect that a soulmate is someone that you find, when you go through rough times in your relationship, you may start to think that you made a mistake, and that you didn't marry your "soulmate" after all.
But if you expect that as you travel through the hard times with your spouse, working through the issues in your relationship, going through all of life's changes, building your life together, that you will gradually grow to become soulmates . . . it makes every hard time and every conflict a challenge to overcome together, instead of a trial that can tear you apart.
All of a sudden, the status of being with your "soulmate" isn't something you may or may not find, but something you work toward together, something you achieve when you stick it out through every difficulty, something you can aspire to and reach someday with alot of prayer and effort and God's grace.
There is something precious and beautiful about that.
What do you think? Have you ever thought about the concept of "soulmates" in this way before?
My mom found a receipt in my kitchen cabinet the other day.
I was about to tell her to throw it away when she mentioned that it was from September 8, 2008. Two and a half years ago.
I was kind of curious to see if my buying habits have changed since then, so I grabbed it from my mom and took a look. Only four things were on the receipt.
A ball of yarn. Facial cleansing wipes. Knitting needles. And finally, a knitting "How To" book.
Those things may not seem particularly significant, but in an instant I remembered the day we bought those items.
Derek and I were newly married. It was an exciting time, but it was also a stressful time. We were both unemployed in September 2008.
Derek had resigned from his previous job because he was about to get a really good job as a financial analyst, but then the stock market did it's thing in 2008, and the company that was going to hire him started a hiring freeze and the job fell through.
I was fresh out of hygiene school and working for a temporary agency, when I had a needle-poke incident at one of my temp jobs. The lady who ran the agency became angry at me and acted like I did it on purpose, and didn't give me a single job after that.
Those four items were a huge treat for me, because we really couldn't afford them. But after several weeks of not working, I was getting bored and needed a project. I told Derek that I might like to start knitting again, and he took me to Wal-Mart to get some knitting needles, instructions, and yarn.
He was also very sweet and let me get the facial cleansing wipes. It's just nice to be able to remove all the makeup from your face, and something so simple was pretty exciting to me at the time, because we really didn't have money for things like that.
As I sat in my kitchen and looked at that old receipt, I realized again how far the Lord has brought us.
Two months later, Derek would get a job in a very difficult market that would pay the bills for almost two years. It was also a job that opened the door for the treasurer position he holds now.
I got a temporary job for the month of December that helped us through the holidays, and a few months after that the Lord led me to my current position, in an office that I love.
Those days of unemployment are a distant memory. I almost forget that they happened. But I shouldn't, because the Lord used that time of financial difficulty to bring us closer to Him, and to strengthen our newly formed marriage. And ultimately, He brought us through.
Sometimes it's hard to see the good in a situation, but hindsight really is twenty-twenty. As I look back on every major difficulty we have faced, though I may not have been able to see it at the time, I can truly say that the Lord really does work out everything for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)! What an amazing assurance!
How has the Lord taken a difficulty you've faced and worked it out for your good?
Oh, and as a sidenote, I never did finish that blanket that I started that September. It was a good distraction for a while, but then I got into a much more addicting hobby.
On September 18, I wrote my first blog post in over a year, followed by 585 more blog posts . . .
And the rest, as they say, is history.
I was about to tell her to throw it away when she mentioned that it was from September 8, 2008. Two and a half years ago.
I was kind of curious to see if my buying habits have changed since then, so I grabbed it from my mom and took a look. Only four things were on the receipt.
A ball of yarn. Facial cleansing wipes. Knitting needles. And finally, a knitting "How To" book.
Those things may not seem particularly significant, but in an instant I remembered the day we bought those items.
Derek and I were newly married. It was an exciting time, but it was also a stressful time. We were both unemployed in September 2008.
Derek had resigned from his previous job because he was about to get a really good job as a financial analyst, but then the stock market did it's thing in 2008, and the company that was going to hire him started a hiring freeze and the job fell through.
I was fresh out of hygiene school and working for a temporary agency, when I had a needle-poke incident at one of my temp jobs. The lady who ran the agency became angry at me and acted like I did it on purpose, and didn't give me a single job after that.
Those four items were a huge treat for me, because we really couldn't afford them. But after several weeks of not working, I was getting bored and needed a project. I told Derek that I might like to start knitting again, and he took me to Wal-Mart to get some knitting needles, instructions, and yarn.
He was also very sweet and let me get the facial cleansing wipes. It's just nice to be able to remove all the makeup from your face, and something so simple was pretty exciting to me at the time, because we really didn't have money for things like that.
As I sat in my kitchen and looked at that old receipt, I realized again how far the Lord has brought us.
Two months later, Derek would get a job in a very difficult market that would pay the bills for almost two years. It was also a job that opened the door for the treasurer position he holds now.
I got a temporary job for the month of December that helped us through the holidays, and a few months after that the Lord led me to my current position, in an office that I love.
Those days of unemployment are a distant memory. I almost forget that they happened. But I shouldn't, because the Lord used that time of financial difficulty to bring us closer to Him, and to strengthen our newly formed marriage. And ultimately, He brought us through.
Sometimes it's hard to see the good in a situation, but hindsight really is twenty-twenty. As I look back on every major difficulty we have faced, though I may not have been able to see it at the time, I can truly say that the Lord really does work out everything for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)! What an amazing assurance!
How has the Lord taken a difficulty you've faced and worked it out for your good?
Oh, and as a sidenote, I never did finish that blanket that I started that September. It was a good distraction for a while, but then I got into a much more addicting hobby.
On September 18, I wrote my first blog post in over a year, followed by 585 more blog posts . . .
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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