Are You Too Dependent On Your Spouse?

We see it so often in movies and books; a couple meet and their romance is culminated when they express their feelings in a “you complete me” or “you are the world to me” moment followed by a life of bliss. While I’m sure we all realize this is unrealistic (the technical/historic definition of the word romantic is exaggerated liar) I think many of us still live in view of the idea that our needs will ultimately be met in our spouse. I definitely bought into that idea and never knew it was wrong until many years into marriage. But why is this not true?

Embrace Humility

Humility is not natural to anyone. It goes completely against our nature to put others first, to yield in any way, to deny our right to promote ourselves. Our society, especially, encourages us to live contrary to humility. We are pushed to seek our own good, to climb that ladder at all costs, to fight for our rights, to defend ourselves against any offense. Indeed, in our culture those who exhibit humility are looked down upon as weak, and often our Savior who is the epitome of humility is viewed in a negative light in some ways. It begs the question, is humility that important? Is it just one of those old fashioned ideas or mannerisms that do not apply to modern Christians? What is the benefit of it anyway?

Light-hearted And Solemn

Elves. They have often been a puzzle to me, for even when reading tales by the same author, there seem to be inconsistencies in their nature. Some stories depict them as quite light-hearted and cheery, who even make up the silliest songs and make jest of those who are more serious. Yet others show them as being quite grave and somber, though wise. I have wrestled with these accounts (some even in different parts of the same story), but at last I think I have discovered their secret, and if you will humor my trail into fantasy I will even draw some spiritual insights from the study.

A Bad Attitude Will Make A Bad Situation Worse

I had this problem yesterday. My daughter’s birthday was that evening, with all the grandparents coming over. I was busy in town until after noon and had a lot of cleaning and prep to take care of in just a few hours. Knowing this, I had asked my husband the day before if he would help me since he wasn’t working. When I arrived at the babysitters to pick the kids up, he was there but obviously had no intention of coming home with me thinking that sweeping that morning was enough. I wish I could say that I calmly asked him to help me with other chores, or just went home without getting upset…but I didn’t.