Good morning, Sweet Sisters!
As Easter is approaching, we are beginning to reflect on the life of Jesus and the truth of His death and resurrection. It seems so fitting then, to find ourselves reading in Mark. I'll keep this short and get your reading plan out for the week. Monday - Mark 3 Tuesday - Mark 4 Wednesday - Mark 5 Thursday - Mark 6 Friday - Mark 7 Keep reading God's Word! Joyfully His, Andrea
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Prior to becoming a full-time, stay-at-home mom, I was a florist. Our shop's specialty, was weddings. We decorated many, many weddings every year, so when it was my time to get married, I knew exactly what I wanted. Because I'm frugal, and always have been, we were married on a pretty tight budget, but our wedding was perfect! It was exactly what we wanted and it turned out better than I dreamed. I remember the excitement as we prepared for our wedding. I could not wait to be married! In fact, we moved our wedding date up a month and tried to move it up two months, because we were just ready to be husband and wife. We weren't just awaiting our wedding day, we were excited and looking forward to our marriage.
That's where we begin in Song of Solomon: the courtship, the time of excitedly waiting on the marriage itself. If you are married, take this time to think back of that special time of engagement. Be truthful as you look at these passages and ask yourself if you still have those butterflies for your husband the way you did before you were married. Think of all the things that drew you to him, and ask God to awaken those thoughts again. The Shulamite maiden is very open about her feelings for her man. She names the things that attracted her to him: his lips, his love, his lotion (fragrance/smell), and his pure lifestyle. (chapter 1, verses 2-3) What is it that attracted you to your husband? Don't forget those things and let your hubby know how much you love him and share with him the things that still attract you to him. I was captured immediately by my husband with his sense of humor, determination, musical talent, his blond arm hair and strong calf muscles. Yep, you heard me correctly. Physically, I looked for blond arm hair and nice calves, and let me tell you, I got the best! I've known my handsome hubby for 20 years and we are about to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary and to this very day he still has the sexiest calves and most beautiful arm hair I have ever seen! :) Moving on, this young woman shared the desire of her heart to become the king's wife in every way (chapter 1, verse 4). And like so many of us, she worried about her complexion, her outward beauty (chapter 1, verses 5-6). Of course we want to take care of ourselves and always be attractive to our husbands but let's remember it's not just our outward beauty that makes us attractive to him. Our attitudes, our actions, our responses and our words should be "beautiful" as well. After a few years of marriage, it can become easy to let our guard down both physically and inwardly as we become more "comfortable" with our hubbies. Let us strive to not fall into that hole. The words of affirmation were not just one sided. Solomon spoke very highly of his bride-to-be as well (chapter 1, verses 8-17). His love was so evident in the way he talked about her and how beautiful he thought she was. I encourage each of us to be very generous with our words of affirmation to our husbands. Affirming our husbands, in all areas of his life (work, fatherhood, marriage, friendships, ministry, etc.) can only bless him. Several times, the young woman urges the other women to remain pure until marriage. She shares earnestly her own desires to be with her husband-to-be, but strives to be pure for him and she does, indeed, wait until they are married. They both openly express their love for one another and their desires to be together (chapter 2). Remember how a small disagreement during your engagement could be easily overlooked, but after a few years of marriage we tend to let the small things become huge. Don't let the "little foxes" all the little disagreements, frustrations, tensions, consume you. Learn to resolve them quickly and choose to let them go so that they don't become big problems. (chapter 2, verse 15) God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman. And here in Song of Solomon we see the beauty of this union when we choose to do things God's way. Marriage is meant to be beautiful. It is intended to be an example of Jesus and the church. My prayer is that each of our marriages become that beautiful picture. May each of us wives, do our part to strengthen our marriages through loving, caring and respecting our husbands. And to those ladies who are single, I encourage you to pray for your future husband. Pray that God brings him into your life at the right time and pray for a strong, healthy, happy, Biblical marriage filled with love, grace, respect and Jesus. And, as hard as it may be, strive for purity. When we marry, we give our whole selves to our husbands: our past, present, and future. "My lover is mine, and I am his." ~ Song of Solomon 2:16a Keep reading God's Word! Joyfully His, Andrea Good morning, Sweet Sisters!
Here we are on the first day of spring and we are already heading into our 2nd week of our spring study! Aren't you just loving Song of Solomon? What a beautiful love story! I will be sharing my thoughts on this book of Scripture later this week, but for now, here is our reading plan for the week! Monday - Song of Solomon 6 Tuesday - Song of Solomon 7 Wednesday - Song of Solomon 8 Thursday - Mark 1 Friday - Mark 2 We are finishing up in Song of Solomon this week and will jump straight into the book of Mark. Keep reading God's Word! Joyfully His, Andrea Good morning, Sweet Sisters!
I hope each of you had a refreshing break last week and was able to catch up on any reading that you may have been behind in. I am so excited for our spring study! Today we will begin in Song of Solomon. This is a beautiful, real life, love song between Solomon and his first wife (unfortunately, he later sinned by adding 699 wives and 300 concubines). This song exalts the purity of marital romance and enhances other Scriptures of God's perfect design of marriage and intimacy between a husband and his wife. It's Beautiful, really. So let's begin! Reading plan: Monday - Song of Solomon 1 Tuesday - Song of Solomon 2 Wednesday - Song of Solomon 3 Thursday - Song of Solomon 4 Friday - Song of Solomon 5 Please share this study with all the ladies you know. Let's encourage each other to read God's Word daily, and seek His guidance for our lives. I'm praying for you this week! Keep reading God's Word! Joyfully His, Andrea Life is hard. Even for Christians. Sometimes we are good at hiding the hard stuff. The pain, the hurt, the sorrow, the grief, the discontentment, the real-life circumstances that are weighing us down and threatening to pull us under. Just because we are believers in Jesus Christ and have the hope of eternal life, does not mean we are immune to the trials of this sinful world. In fact, the Bible is very clear and states that we will indeed suffer in this world. Sometimes our struggles come because of our own sin, but sometimes it is because of the sinful world we live in. However, our trials are not to be lived out in vain. Oh no, there is a purpose.
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us." ~ II Corinthians 1:3-7 We are to use our sufferings to comfort others. What has God brought you through? What hardships have you carried? What trial has now been put behind you? What did you learn from these things? How has it strengthened your faith? How can you use your experience in those situations to help others? Who around you is hurting, suffering, struggling through something that God has brought you through? How can you comfort them? I encourage you to reach out to those God has placed in your path. God has called us to share the Good News of salvation with all people, and a lot of the time, it's our struggles that we use in sharing our own testimony. I am nothing without God. Every trial He has brought me through had nothing to do with my strength, it was only because of His power. I am human. I have too much failure on my own to make a difference in another person's life, but because of the Holy Spirit that lives within me, I have a means to reach others for Christ. "For God, who said, 'Let there be light in the darkness,' has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." ~ II Corinthians 4:6-7 As born-again believers, we belong to God and His Holy Spirit dwells within us. We are but a fragile clay jar, but we hold the greatest treasure: Jesus Christ. It is because of this, that we can overcome the sorrow, suffering and despair of this world and the hardships we walk through. What are you struggling with today? What burden is weighing you down? Can I remind you to whom you belong? You are held tight in the hand of our Almighty God. "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies." ~ II Corinthians 4:8-10 Are you pressed on every side? Are you perplexed? Do you feel hunted down? Have you been knocked down? In all of our suffering, may we continue to live for Christ. May He be seen in our reactions. May we keep seeking Him and His direction so that He can be glorified and others can come to know Him as their Savior. Our lives on earth are only temporary. May we continue to rest in the comfort of God, and may we persist as we go through our own trials knowing that God is in control. I pray that each of us are encouraged by these words: "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." ~ II Corinthians 4:17-18 I'm praying for each of you, Sweet Sisters. Let's fix our gaze on things we cannot see! Keep reading God's Word! Joyfully His, Andrea " |
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. " AuthorHi! I'm Andrea, wife to my handsome hubby, homeschooling mama to my 7 amazing blessings, and daughter of the King of kings. I am so glad you have stopped by my little piece of the web. My prayer is that the Lord will use this blog to encourage you in your personal, daily walk with Christ. Archives
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