Welcome Home!

"Welcome home." Yep!.....it sounded just like something June Cleaver from 'Leave it to Beaver' would say, or something Laura Petrie would say to her husband Rob from the Dick Van Dyke show, or something I Dream of Jeanie would say to her master. You get my drift! One evening last week, after I ran down the stairs to greet my husband hello with a kiss, after he had had a hard day at work, and I asked him how his day was, then out of nowhere came, 'Welcome home'. I said that! How corny is that?!!! I didn't plan it. I hadn't prayed about it. But, I must admit, it actually felt good after I said it and I think my husband liked hearing it though it was obvious that he was as surprised to hear it as I was surprised to say it. See, what had happened was......a couple of weeks ago I went to this website called 'www.habitforge.com' where you can plug in any new habit you want to create, and for 21 days you will receive a daily e-mail asking you if you achieved the task. The new habit I want to create is 'Stopping whatever I'm doing when my husband comes home from work and going to greet him'. (I'm absolutely horrible at this.) So, now, every day I get an e-mail that says ' Did you succeed yesterday at stopping whatever you were doing to greet your husband when he came home from work?' Well, that competitive side of me, wants to be able to answer 'YES' to that question every day. I want to win! So far I have been able to say, Yes, every day, and by the sound of my 'unexpected' "Welcome Home" invitation to my husband, something must be happening on the inside that I had no idea would happen. Isn't that just like God?! All He needs is a 'Yes' in our spirit, and a step of obedience as we walk in faith, and then He will help us right where we are; where ever we need him. What if I stopped doing what I was doing to greet my husband each day simply because it is what he needs and because it makes him feel good RATHER than just so I could be able to say 'YES' when I receive the e-mail asking me if I achieved my goal for that day? What if I stopped doing what I was doing to greet my husband each day simply because I wanted to? WHAT A CONCEPT! The creators of the 'habitforge' website are basing their concept on the belief that all it takes is 21 days of consistently doing something to create a new habit. I'll see what happens after the 21 days are over. Without an e-mail to check up on me, will I or won't I continue to stop what I'm doing and greet my husband when he comes home from work daily? I believe that my corny 'Welcome Home' salutation is a sign that I can be confident that He who started a good work in me, will perform it. How about you? Are there any areas of respect, honor, and/or encouragement for your husband that you need a daily reminder of? Try www.habitforge.com and join me in letting God use this tool to help us be the wives that our husbands need.

31 Days

January 13th. Day 13 of a month long assignment to daily write down one reason why I respect my husband; must be a different reason each day; must be why I respect him for 'who he is', not for 'what he does'...HELP ME JESUS!!!! This has been more challenging than I expected but also more fulfilling than I expected and also kind of fun. It's so easy to 'love' our husbands for what they do; or 'respect' them for what they do, but what about respecting them just for who they are? If I only respected my husband for what he did, what would happen if he stopped doing the things I respected him for? Hmmm...not a pretty picture. So, for the past thirteen days I've been reminded of his sensitivity to my needs, his genuineness, his integrity, his wisdom......HEY!...those are some of the reasons I married him! Look at God! Has it been easy these past thirteen days to see a different reason why I respect my husband? No; not every day. One day last week, it was 7pm, and by that time nothing had 'jumped out' at me yet. I started to panic. Then I received a lovely text message from my husband thanking me for making his birthday so special a few days previous! Thank you Lord! This, to me was really not necessary because he had already thanked me sincerely in person. So, I respected his sense of gratitude and his diligence because both of us are lousy texters! It takes us forever to send text messages! I'm so glad that I asked God to help me with this assignment! Oh, Yes! Don't get it twisted! I DO know that there is no way I could do this task without God's help. But what else is new? I can't do anything well without God's help!

So, why not join me!? Come on! We've got 18 days left! You can do it!

Remember, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!