week end musings

saturday was J's eighth birthday...we celebrated it sunday evening.

such excitement!

we took A and S along.

i used a turned-inside-out grocery bag for gift-wrap and they decorated it.

  a nice, comfortable evening!

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we joined an elective SS class taught by Pastor Mark and his wife on 'Different, Unique and Married.'

this class will run three months and i'll be sharing in a nutshell what is taught in class.

Stages of Marriage

• romance - wearing rose-tinted glasses
• transition - what was i thinking?!
• reality - when the ideal becomes an ordeal
• retaliation - when the ordeal becomes a new deal (changing the other person)
• resignation - accepting the truth that God has made he/she this way

B. Three Major Sources of Conflict

• money
• sex/intimacy
• in-law relationships

Our Dilemma

A. Reactions to Differences

• before marriage what we think is cute is no longer cute
• a strong desire to change the other person
• we challenge
• we criticize

B. Results of Differences

• loss of respect
• creates resentments
• no one takes responsibility
• wedges are created and walls go up

What it Takes

• acceptance - to endure without resentment
• right responses and attitude
• selflessness

Wrap Up

We have a choice: we can allow the dilemma to create conflict

 or we celebrate the differences and blend them together to form a winning team!

...blessedness!

GIVEAWAY closes at midnight tonite!