One of the most beautiful things in life is to keep a soft heart—
A soft heart toward God.
A soft heart in responding to God’s word.
A soft heart to people who speak against us.
A soft and tender heart toward our husbands.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:8 that “hardness of heart” leads to divorce. Those are very strong words, but everything begins with our heart attitude.
The only way we can keep a soft attitude is by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Our fleshly nature gets offended, hurt, bitter, and then hard. We must guard against these evils.
Instead, we must yield to the Holy Spirit to flood our hearts with His forgiveness and love. But what do you do when your love flies out the window and there is none left? You still have God’s love—His agape love that loves in the face of opposition and hatred.
Romans 5:5 says: “The love of God is shed abroad (poured into) our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Offense leads to bitterness, bitterness leads to hardness, and hardness leads to divorce.
Stop the downward path to destruction now. Dear lovely wife, if you are offended by your husband, get on your knees before the Lord. Forgive—there is no other option. Unforgiveness not only hurts your husband, but you, and your family—but mostly YOU.
Every time your husband sends another arrow into your soul, retaliate with a blessing. That’s God’s way. Of course, it is the opposite to our way. But our way doesn’t work; God’s way does.
1 Peter 38 (NLT): ‘Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, PAY THEM BACK WITH A BLESSING. This is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.”
The Knox translation says: “Not repaying . . . hard words with hard words, but blessing those who curse you,”
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
Love to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: Brian Kershisnik
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This is my husband’s message to fathers today which he posted on MEAT FOR MEN, his Facebook page. I thought you may like to share it with your husband.
1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us to ABOUND in the work of the Lord. Motherhood is the great work God has given us to do, so why not do it with right attitude?
I hope they’ll say she looked straight in our eyes,
My husband was talking with a young father yesterday. He commented on his lovely family around him and asked if he planned to have more children.
God is the creator of the home, and it is meant to be the most beautiful place on earth. It is meant to be a replica of God’s home in heaven. Jesus asked us to pray: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
Does Jesus Christ have the preeminence “in all things” in your life and in your home? That means all the little things as well as the big things. I think that if we get into the habit of giving Jesus the preeminence in the little things it will be the norm to give him the preeminence in the big things, don’t you?
The church is filled with tolerating people today, tolerating things that God hates, often because they do not know the truth.
From J. R. Miller (written in 1882).
How is your soul today? Downcast? Reveling in self-pity? Or even dead? I have answer for you. It’s God’s living Word.
I have often shared the following truth with mothers over the years. I believe that it is not enough to love our children; we must also love motherhood. Of course, all mothers love their children, but not every mother loves motherhood. Perhaps the majority don’t. Especially in our humanistic society young women have been brainwashed negatively about the career of motherhood and have been programmed instead for careers outside of the home.
Don’t you like these words? TWO OF YOU—that’s you and your husband. God gives a great promise to the two of you. It’s found in Matthew 18:19 where Jesus said: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
God’s word gets to the nitty gritty of life. It’s not only theological doctrine but that which pertains to life. To love our husband is sound, biblical doctrine. To not love them is not disobedience. Are you sowing love to your husband?
What great advice from my friend Rosa Brandt. To hang on to hurts and bitterness will destroy your soul and those around you. Let them go! Yield to the life of Jesus who dwells in you to flow from you, His love and forgiveness.
A cheerful heart will make such a difference to your home atmosphere. But you don’t FEEL cheerful? That’s not the point. I hope you don’t live by your feelings. It’s such a miserable way to live, isn’t it? In fact, it is a false way to live. Feelings are deceiving. They come and go. But truth is real. And the truth is that if you have received Jesus Christ into your life, you have living joy bubbling up within you. Jesus, who lives in you, is JOY. Hebrews 1:9 tells us that Jesus has more joy than anyone else in the world—and He lives in you!
It’s wonderful to gather your family together morning and evening to pray. Pray for one another, pray for the nation, and the countries of the world. Imagine what could happen if every God-fearing family began to cry out to God for this nation each day.
Deception is such a subtle thing, isn’t it? It is so subtle that we usually don’t know we are deceived. We can not only be deceived by the encroachment of our humanistic society, but we can be self-deceived. William Barclay’s translation of James 1:22 says: “You must not only listen to the word, you must act on it. Otherwise, you indulge in self-deception.” This is very challenging to me. To daily read God’s Word and yet not put it into action is self-deception. The more I do this, the more I deceive myself. I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit working within me will keep me from this deception.
Our power and influence as mothers not only affects the destiny of the nation, but future generations. It is easy to get bogged down with the grind of daily activities in the home, isn't it? There can be times when you feel you are stuck in the mire with no hope of accomplishing anything. But dear Mother, you are not only training children for today, but for the future.
Are you nestled in your home? God wants you to nest, rest, and invest in your home. He made the home for you. He created the home for you to raise your children. Before God created Eve, He first prepared the home for her. When she woke up to life, she was in her delightful home of Eden. Adam had already been created before the home, but not the woman!