Choices

Do You Reject Your Spouses Feelings?

Couples who reject each other’s feelings are probably not very good communicators. Part of the communication process is to accept what our spouse has to say, whether we agree with them or not. It is perfectly okay to disagree with your spouse but to do it in a way that doesn’t put them down in the process. Understand that acceptance is not the same thing as agreeing. For instance, you can accept another person’s faith but that does not mean you have to agree with it.

Do You Reject Your Spouses Feelings? Read More »

Tension

When you pull on opposite ends of a rope, you create tension. Same thing with life.

Tension’s mostly a good thing. In my experience, a lot of bad events occur when life gets out of balance and I operate at one extreme or another. Tension maintains some sort of healthy equilibrium.

We push to accomplish great things while we pray for patience to seek God’s timing.

We seek to understand as much as possible while knowing we’ll never really understand on this side of eternity.

Tension Read More »

Learning Not To Take Offense

According to John Bevere in his book,The Bait of Satan, the bait of taking offense is the number one trap that the enemy – Satan – sets for Christians. And the closer the relationship between the people involved in the offense taken, the deeper the wound and the deeper the offense, as seen in the depth of David’s suffering when he expresses his suffering after being betrayed by one near and dear to him in Psalm 55:

Learning Not To Take Offense Read More »

Are You Choosing to Serve a Second Master?

When I was growing up, there was a TV show that my family watched called “I Dream of Jeannie.” In this show, an astronaut (Tony) found a bottle and in it was a blond-haired genie named Jeannie. Tony would wish for something (or Jeannie thought he did), his wish would be granted, and then the problems began. Of course, like all Hollywood sitcoms, all came out well in 30 minutes (or less). But I wonder how many of us wish we had a genie’s three wishes . . . and if we did, what would we wish for?

1 John 2:15-17 NRSV

Are You Choosing to Serve a Second Master? Read More »

What it Means to Detach From the Alcoholic

Ask Angie: What can I do as a Christian woman to stop my husband from drinking too much beer? He doesn’t think it’s a big deal because he is not drunk and because in his eyes he is a good man.

Ask Angie:What about love? I get the detachment thing, but will the love I still have in me disappear too? That is a fear.

**This marriage column has three marriage videos that go along with it. Listening to these videos will help you get a better understanding about what detachment from addiction really means for you and for the alcoholic. These videos talk in more detail about how to detach with love and to let go…<.em>

What it Means to Detach From the Alcoholic Read More »

Detaching From the Alcoholic

Ask Angie: Hi Angie, I was reading your article titled “Do You Love an Alcoholic – Setting Boundaries for You”. I’d like to follow these suggestions, but I have some questions. How long should I detach myself before I should move out? We have two kids (3 and 5). How do I go about detaching when we all live together? Should I move me and my kids out for a while? How do I explain to them what’s going on?

Marriage Guidance:

How Long Should I Detach Before Moving Out?

Detaching From the Alcoholic Read More »

Can You Love in the Midst of Hate?

1 John 2:9-11 NRSV
Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

Can You Love in the Midst of Hate? Read More »

Tired of Being Sacrificial?

1 John 2:4-6 NRSV
Whoever says, “I have come to know Him,” but does not obey His commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys His word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in Him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as He walked.

Do you ever get tired of being sacrificial? Of feeling like you’re the only one who gives in, who ministers, who forgives? I do. I have even wondered why God refuses to take up my cause and make things happens the way that I want them to happen. Which, of course, is the problem. Because the Lord Jesus never demanded that things happen in His own way.

Tired of Being Sacrificial? Read More »

Do You Rely On the Lord?

2 Chronicles 16:7-9 NRSV
At that time the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah, and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with exceedingly many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to Him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”

Do You Rely On the Lord? Read More »

Copyright © 2024 Christians in Recovery