Chapter 7 - Managing Your Marriage

When something is wrong with my priority relationship, my marriage, then all is wrong.

God's guidelines for Marriage
1. Help your husband (Gen 2:18)
- set aside self in order to make helping your husband a priority (really hard for me) with his responsibilities and his stewardship of family

2. Follow your husband's leadership (Eph 5:22)

3. Respect your husband (Eph 5:33)
- look at him
- never talk bad about him, only speak blessings
- as him (about decisions, etc.)

4. Love your husband (Titus 2:4)
- make your home life attractive and beautiful
- this is my beloved, my friend (Song of Sol 5:16)

10 Disciplines for a Meaningful Marriage
1. You shall center your life on the Lord
- Duet 6:6 - His Word in your heart
- Prov 4:23 - keep your heart with all diligence
- be a vessel God can work through

2. You shall pray for your husband - refresh your commitment to your marriage and your husband daily

3. You shall know your roles (see the guidelines above)
- fresh/daily commitment to live by them

4. You shall study your mate
- this is a way to demonstrate respect
- know his likes/dislikes

5. You shall be a servant (this is probably the toughest for me)
- marriage is more than finding the right person, it is being the right person
- don't get caught up in expecting his help, be like Christ

6. You shall follow your husband's leadership - do what God is asking, submit, so that He can work in your husband's life

7. You shall make sure your husband is #1 - in your life, your heart and your time

8. You shall talk things over

9. You shall heed a few "don'ts"
- Don't be contentious (Prov 19:23, Prov 27:15)
- Don't nag (Prov 27:15)
- Don't embarrass (Prov 31:11-12)

10. You shall make each day fun

Are you too busy to manage your marriage God's way?

I know that this is a touchy subject, remember I am just the messenger here. These are things that I wrote down that struck me as I did this Bible Study. Marriage is hard, and it is getting harder. Just like anything else, when we try and do it "our" way, it makes it harder than God designed it to be. The world tells us, that if we do these things, we are less of a person, that we are a doormat and I just don't think that is the case. Sure, there are men who take advantage of a situation like this and women who take it too far. But in my experience, when I try to put any one of these in practice, BG responds in a loving way, he does not take advantage of it. I also think that when you are obedient to God's Word, He protects you and blesses you. Like I said, these are things that stuck out to me, probably because they are things that I have trouble with! So, give it a try, what can you change?

Chapter 3-6 and some Explanation

I totally fell off the band wagon on this Bible Study after the first two posts! I am so sorry! I think once a month is really not often enough to do it. I am going to try to do it once a week, and have it become more of a habit, because God is really pressing it on my heart to do it! So, here goes...

Chapter 3 - Develop a Passion for Prayer

• I didn't really have anything from this chapter, the title pretty much speaks for itself!

Chapter 4 - God's Guidelines for Your Body

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit - 1 Cor 6:19

1. Your body is a temple

- the secret to discipline is motivation

a. guard yourself (Prov 4:23-37)

b. Walk in righteousness (Prov 4:14-15)

c. Avoid Sexual Sin (1Cor 6:13)

d. Fill your "temple" (Psalm 29:2)

2. Your body is not your own, it is designed by God for His purpose

3. Your body is bought with a price (1 Cor 6:20)

4. You are to glorify God in your body

Chapter 5-6 - 10 Disciplines for Managing Your Body

1. Pray for a healthy body (1Cor 9:27)

2. Acknowledge Sin - the physical body is affected by the spiritual condition (Psalm 32)

3. Walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) - we are meant to live a life of self-denial, self-restraint, self-control, so that God's plan for our life is realized

4. Discipline your Body (1Cor 9:27) - the goal needs to be to please God, not others (total issue for me)! nothing is to have control over us

5. Exercise Regularly

6. Seek Proper Sleep & Rest (Mark 6:31) - this is definitely something that I struggle with, I just don't sleep all that much, but "When your output exceeds your input, then your upkeep will be your downfall."

7. Watch what you eat

8. Keep a schedule - develop a routine based on God's priorities for our life

9. Take care of your appearance

10. Commit to a lifelong pursuit of discipline

So, that's it for this week! Hopefully I will stay on top of this and get it out each week! Have a great week!

Chapter 2

To read about Chapter 1, click here

One thing I love about this book is that she gives lists and I love lists! She always gives a practical list for applying what she has talked about. So, here is the first of the lists...

Chapter 2 - 10 Disciplines for Developing a Passion for God's Word

I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. - Job 23:12

1. Refuse to miss a day (this is important because once you start missing, it becomes much easier to miss next time)
2. Pray as you approach God's Word
3. Consume God's Word in various ways (she suggests playing tape and videos, memorizing and meditating and singing it) I am not very good about memorizing scripture, but I have been very convicted of it lately and have been trying to memorize some verses
4. Find a rhythm or pattern that fits your lifestyle (this will help you to keep doing it)
5. Be a woman of one Book, The Book
6. Be accountable (BG really helps me with this. He gets up in the morning and does his Bible Study as well. Sometimes when I am not feeling like doing it, BG doing his Bible Study gets me motivated)
7. Beat the Family - get up before they do
8. Teach your children - this has been really cool for me to see how SD knows what we are doing. She knows that we are reading our Bibles and wants to mimic us. Sometimes we get her Bible out and let her thumb through the pages while we continue reading. We also make a point to not let her distract us, she has to let us finish our Quiet Time (sometimes this is more successful than others)
9. Purpose to get up
10. Aim for more time (start with what you can and strive to add to it)

Chapter 1

As promised, only a little late! I was a little under the weather unfortunately! So here is the start of this Bible Study, I hope that you have enjoyed reading it! I am just going to put my thoughts and observations down and hope that you will do the same in the comments. The book is Life Management for Busy Women by Elizabeth George. Okay, here goes!

Developing a Passion for God's Word

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

• We must be women who wait on the Lord

How do we do this?

1. Daily time in the Bible
2. Give the first minutes of every day to reading God's Word (Prov 3:9), I think this is really important because for me, it sets the tone of my day
3. Early Time - I have been trying to get up before the kids and my hubby each morning so that I have early, quiet time to spend with Him. One note in the book that I loved talked about other predators that come to compete for our time and energy. I had never thought about all of the other stuff in my life as predators, but even though they are good things, they can be predatory of our time and our energy!

The book then describes God's Word ...it is the heart of God; a good use of your time; teaches you; reproves you; corrects, mends and instructs; equips, guides and cheers us. One thing that my pastor said this weekend, was that unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit the Bible only seems like a history book. Once we accept Jesus the words jump off the page and mean something to us. The cool thing about reading the Bible is that at different times, different passages jump out at you depending on what is going on in your life.

So, what were your thoughts on Chapter 1? The first couple chapters for me were more foundational, I think the real meat of the book comes later!

Have a good day!