Some Great Nuggets from Hearts At Home

My first Hearts at Home conference.  A day of refreshing information to better your marriage, family, home, self and friendships.




My First Workshop:  Get R.E.A.L In Your Marriage 

Yvette Maher has served at Focus on the Family for 20 years and is currently the Sr. Communications Specialist and host of Your Family Live!, a Web-based television program for families.

Get R.E.A.L in Your Marriage (Radically Embracing Authentic Living) in your marriage requires that you remove your various masks.  When we suppress our true selves, we grow further away from our spouse, our friends, our calling, and the fullness of God's plan for our lives.

In this illustration we see God at the top of the triangle, wife at the bottom left and husband at the bottom right.  Notice the distance between wife and husband.



When wife grows closer to God and when husband grows closer to God, wife and husband grow closer together.  Isn't that cool??  When we draw closer to God individually, we automatically draw closer to one another.  That really is the number one key to a successful marriage!  Ta-Da and end of story!

I loved that illustration, and although I couldn't figure out how to convey it more artistically, I settled for this very elementary illustration.  So my apologies for that.  But I thought it was such a good visual.

The following information comes from my notes, so hopefully I can translate it appropriately. :(

*Obedience precedes emotion-Before acting out emotionally, how does God tell us to handle the situation? 
 Are we being stubborn?  Are we being prideful?  Are we withholding an apology, sex, affection,
etc.?  Obedience precedes emotion.  The example given was withholding an apology and sex.  Going to bed angry (back to back) even though you know you can fix the situation by a simple apology followed by great sex.  Are we being obedient or are we acting on emotion?  Obedience is hard for me when it comes to apologies.  I'm so bad at it.  But I'd rather obey God and what He asks me to do than act out in my usual stubborn way (because Lord knows where that gets me...).  I dislike apologies so much, because it proves that I made a mistake...ugh.  Since this class, I've been repeating in my mind, "Obedience precedes emotion," any time I feel I'm upset about something, like the trash.  If I don't, then my emotion wins and ultimately I lose and then I have to apologize...ugh.  So since I dislike announcing my mistakes by surrendering to an apology, I try soooo hard to walk in obedience..lol! 

Okay...I'll let that sink in for a bit.  Remember, an individual relationship with God brings you closer to your spouse.  Also, if the trash piles up or you trip over dirty clothes thrown here and there, repeat "obedience precedes emotion." 

To Be Continued...