All previous posts and comments are there. It should look the very same.

Have a great day!

“I’m issuing my own personal Kiss Challenge for myself. For 30 days, starting Feb. 1st, I’m planning to passionately lock lips with my hubby.  To block out all distractions for a few minutes and lay one on him.

I think just this one simple act will speak volumes to my man.

{You can secretly join in too if you are up to some serious smooches}

The days leading up to Valentine’s Day (Feb. 11-13), I will be having a little S.W.A.K. carnival. I want you to link up a post honoring your hubby anytime during those three days. It can be how you met, your first kiss, what you’re doing to celebrate Valentine’s Day, or about your own personal Kiss Challenge.”

From In The Dailies blog:

“When I started Mama Loves a couple months ago, the initial focus (for me) was on positive aspects of parenting. It’s so easy to get lost in the exhaustion and frustration of parenting that moms sometimes forget or maybe just overlook all the good stuff. But wives often do the same about marriage. I love women’s groups, moms groups, girlfriends, all kinds of female bonding, but, if given enough time, these groups almost always turn into bickering sessions. Each woman there wants to out-do the rest with her sob story of how fat she is, how difficult her life is or how her husband is worse than everyone else’s. We claim we’re just “sharing” and that it’s all in good fun, but I hate it. Today I want to focus on marriage and how wonderful my husband is. No, this is not in honor of that Hallmark holiday later this week, the one we never celebrate in this house. It just happens that this week God reminded me how good I have it in the marriage arena.

What are you grateful for this week? What has God given you as a show of His love for you?”

My response:

My husband and I had a communication problem that came to light this week.  Do you ever just keep plowing ahead even when you know something isn’t quite right?  Even when you can tell things are askew?

I could tell we were missing each other in our conversations for the past few weeks, but I kept forging ahead.  Talking and chatting about what was going on with me and accepting his short replies to my questions about him.

Finally, I asked him if he thought we weren’t as close as we could be and he said….a lot. More than I cared to hear.  So I shut down, embraced my hurt feelings, and didn’t want to talk.

Bless his heart!  He stayed with me, wouldn’t let me crawl off to my little hovel and insisted we talk it through.  Eventually, I saw through my hurt to his outstretched hand and gingerly took the love and forgiveness that he offered to me.

I am so thankful for his love for me.

What are you thankful for today?

However, good communication is only part of a healthy marriage.  What we communicate is more important than that we communicate.  Unless we communicate forgiveness, our marriages will be stunted from the growth that is possible.

We need to offer our spouses continual forgiveness.  Jesus talks about this in Matthew 18:21ff.

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Friday night we went to the church surrounded by family and friends for Meredith’s baptism.  She’s been wanting to be baptized for years now and she finally decided that she would do it on her 12th birthday.  It was a beautiful evening.

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” 

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

from Barnesandnoble.com 

Excerpts:

“…as his writings have made me his friend.”  Dawsey Adams concerning the author Charles Lamb.

“He’s got that way of believing his opinion is the truth, but he’s not disagreeable about it.  He’s too sure he is right to bother being disagreeable.”

“‘Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done, to have advanced true friends?’  It isn’t.  I hope, wherever she is, she has that in her mind.”

“I suppose I do have a suitor, but I’m not really used to him yet.  He’s terribly charming and he plies me with delicious meals, but I sometimes think I prefer suitors in books rather than right in front of me.”

“Excuse my unburdening myself.  My worries travel about my head on their well-worn path, and it is a relief to put them on paper.”

“I argue myself all the way to one end of the question and back again several times a day.”

Enjoyable book!

She didn’t get through what she wanted to share, so she is coming back on Feb. 11 to finish.  If you missed it, we would love for you to come be a part of part 2.

In talking about her life, one thing she mentioned was that we live life forward, but we understand life backward.  Looking back on life allows for understanding that escapes us looking forward.  

What do you think?

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary says rude implies ignorance of or indifference to good form, it may suggest intentional discourtesy.

If love is not rude, then…

Love never turns a cold shoulder.  Love never replies with the intent to hurt feelings.  Love never refuses to look someone in the eye.  Love doesn’t ignore another person.  Love doesn’t roll her eyes.  Love doesn’t embarrass another person.  Love doesn’t interrupt.

Love seeks to honor the other person.  Love puts the other person at ease.  Love minds her manners.

Can you add to this list?

cruising in Hot Springs

I couldn’t resist taking this on Saturday, January 31, 2009 in Hot Springs.  Don’t you love it?!