Affirming Words

I've been working my way through "Unglued". It's the Bible Study I'm doing with my ladies this winter. The crux of the book is about learning to get ahold of yourself when dealing with raw emotions. It's a book that is full of honest, gut-wrenching questions and thought provoking text. I'm not sure that I even realized how "emotional" I am until I began answering some of the tough questions.

One of the things that the book deals with in large is negative self talk. I've blogged about this before. It's one of the most detrimental things I think women (myself included) deal with. We talk about each other, we talk about our kids, our spouse, our parents, teachers, politics, money and yes, we talk about ourselves. Talk, talk, talk. And a lot of that talk is negative. Hurtful to others. Hurtful to ourselves.

I recently sat and listened to someone complain, complain, complain. I walked away from the conversation drained, defeated, exasperated and frustrated. I wondered why they couldn't find anything good to say, anything positive, anything good, true, lovely...

Just a couple of weeks later I sat across the table from a seasoned man of God who spoke words of encouragement into my husband. I watched Bruce go from feeling somewhat unsure of himself to feeling encouraged, invigorated, energized and motivated. The transformation was unreal.

The power of affirming words....remarkable. In our Bible study this week, we've been challenged to focus on the instructions given in God's word regarding our thoughts and speech. I've been working on this and have noticed when you concentrate hard on thinking and speaking thoughts that are of good report, kind, lovely, pure...it's hard to be able to say those complaining thoughts that really don't do anything but tear down.

Sure life is hard...even overwhelming sometimes, but if we rise above the way we feel (our flesh) and obey God's word regarding how we act and think....maybe we will see life a little differently. Maybe we will see it through the truth of God's Word rather than through the lies our feelings try to talk us into believing.

My Valentine

Last Thursday Bruce and I celebrated our 20th year as valentines. 

20 years of joys and sorrows

20 years of ups and downs

20 years of successes and mistakes

20 years of good and bad choices

20 years of selflessness and selfishness

and 

20 years of God's 

Amazing blessings pouring over us

Gentle hands leading us

Perfect love teaching us

Thanks to our Savior for modeling to us the greatest love...

giving yourself to another, for another. 

Without this love...

our 20 Valentines would mean nothing 

but clanging

 and clanking

 and crashing 

Thanks to our Savior for this amazing gift of love.