Commitment

As a family we travelled to Vancouver, Washington the weekend before last and had a beautiful celebration for my parents, Wayne and Marilyn Stanfield.  They have been marriage 50 years as of June 15th.  How cool is that!  We had several family members and quite a few friends come to my sister's place for dinner.  It was a surprise and my parents loved it.  The best part of the celebration was the fact that my parents took their covenant vows seriously 50 years ago. "In sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, 'til death do us part" meant something for both of them.  They have been through a 10-year cancer scare; lost jobs; re-training, rebellious teens; temptations; stock market crashes; strokes; loss of friends; deaths in the family; and many other minor set-backs, yet they chose to lean into each other and on our Lord and have survived and thrived.  They are an amazing testimony that it can be done, even against many scary odds!  That gives me hope for lots of the couples in our culture, at such a time as this.  Thank you Lord that your message of marriage being a breeding ground for holiness, not happiness, is being heard...at least by some.

Have you ever read the Oneness Covenant that FamilyLife gives each couple as they leave the Weekend to Remember? It starts like this:

We Believe God created marriage to be holy, to exemplify the glorious, eternal marriage between His Son and His Church.

We Believe our marriage is a sacred and lifelong covenant.

We Believe God calls us to pursue unconditional love for each other as modeled by His promise never to leave or forsake us.

MAY 5 (This is the devotion for today from Dennis and Barbara Rainey's book, "Moments with You")

Rising to Pray

Where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. MATTHEW 18:20

We believe—and have learned from long experience—that the true secret to spiritual intimacy in marriage is praying together. Yet surveys from FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember conferences indicate that less than 8 percent of couples actually do this regularly. 

This really troubles me. It means that 9 out of 10 Christian couples today are resisting the number one thing that could draw them closer together spiritually. I often receive encouraging emails from couples who understand the power of this daily spiritual discipline. One gentleman said he purchased a picture frame and places it on his pillow the moment he rolls out of bed in the morning. Inside the frame is a special reminder of something very important to do before he goes to sleep each night: “Have you prayed with Janet today? It’s not too late.”

Another guy wrote to tell me he had tried praying with his wife at night before bed, “but I would always find an excuse not to. One day God really convicted me that I needed to step up as a husband and commit to pray with my wife nightly. I came home that day and told her of my conviction.” In tears the wife said, “I’ve been praying about this for months, but I didn’t want to tell you and pressure you into it. I wanted God to do the work in you.” I want to challenge you to begin praying together daily. I can promise you, on the authority of the Scripture, that if you pray together daily for two years, you will not be the same couple that you are today (see Matthew 18:19). Inviting the God of the universe into your marriage on a daily basis will change things!

Will you think about starting this essential daily routine for the health of your marriage?  Start small: "Thank you Lord for the day and the blessings that flowed from it. Please be with us tomorrow as we start our day".  OR "God, just take over, please!"  It is not so important the words you use, but the fact that you are listening to the Lord and doing something to bring both of you closer to Him.  We will pray that you try this!

Mentor Guide resource

Have you ever had someone confide in you about an issue and not know how to respond? Are you experiencing anything that you would like help with? You will love this Mentoring Guide from FamilyLife. Roger and I are so impressed with this tool that we decided to share it with everyone. If you would like to see this guide, go to www.familylife.com/ementoring. If you want to be an on-line mentor, or should you like an on-line mentor, start by going to the FamilyLife website. Have fun discovering all about this helping tool.

Dear Friends,

Janet Haskin, wife of Robert Haskin (Roger's dad), passed away on Wednesday, March 7th.  She had been battling cancer and put up a heroic fight.  She was an incredible woman and our children loved her.  She will be sorely missed.  It is a great thing to say she connected so well with us, because we actually only visited them three times and they came to us three times in the 18 years that we have known each other. She was so warm and loving, that the title 'grandma' was particularly well suited for her and my children used it with adoration.  I loved her charming personality and great sense of adventure.  The way she said, "Bob...", with her New York accent, just delighted me.  She loved him to pieces and was quite proud of her car-loving, food-making, humor-having husband. Janet leaves behind three grown daughters that were very close to her. 

This happened so suddenly that the Lord has used it to remind me to keep short accounts with those around me and to remember to tell people often how much I love them.  We were so blessed to have her in our lives for the last 18 years!

Roger returns home tonight from Florida, where he was spending some family time with his father.  We are grateful he could go and just be there for support.

My family just watched the movie 'The Grace Card' last night; a very challenging movie. A line by Louis Gosset Jr. sums up the entire movie. "Sunday is spent in the locker room. Monday through Saturday is when we play the game." 

Our first post

We are so excited to see how God might use us to help marriages and families in our area and hope this blog might be a useful tool in His hands. :)