"Date Your Wife", FamilyLife Today Podcast with Justin Buzzard

From FamilyLife Today radio broadcast/podcast.

What is your assignment as a husband? To provide? To protect? To pursue? Justin Buzzard, author of "Date Your Wife", talks honestly about a man's mission to love his wife like Christ loved the church, which includes continuing to love and pursue her long after the ink on the marriage license is dry. Justin encourages husbands to come up with a plan, as he did, for continuing to date their wives throughout the year.

Listen to the podcast.

Careful about what you pray for...(Family Fitness)

I had one of those moments this morning where I was admiring how muscular my legs are. (Hey, I don't have much else, so let me have this!) Last week, I had an opportunity to practice baseball with some other men while my son had baseball practice. I was fielding ground balls, line drives, and short dribblers at 2nd Base as Ruben tested me out. While I still had the skills, especially while wearing slacks and casual shirt, I definitely did not have any stamina. After the sixth ground ball I fielded at my old position, I was ready to quit. My pride wouldn't let me, so I depended on the mercy Ruben and Carlos to intervene when they heard me sucking wind.

This morning in my moment of narcissism, I thought about that lack of stamina, looked at my gut and chubby face, and said a short prayer to God, "God, I definitely see a need to get back into shape. I'm not ready to commit the time and effort to actually do it, but I do see the need for it." Stupid me, God will fulfill my every need even before I know I have that need.

Our family was watching a new show "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition" when the trainer, Chris Powell, challenged the Couch Potato Audience to do 15 push ups, 15 squats, and 15 sit ups at every commercial break for an hour. We did it, no hesitation or procrastination just an immediate, spontaneous, "Just Do It!" decision. Turns out that both Liv had been thinking about getting fit as a family, and I have also been thinking about it ever since that day of huffing and puffing on the baseball diamond. It was during our second set of push ups that I realized that God had once again supplied one of our needs in a way I had not expected. This was just the first day, and I hope to write another post in the next year about how our family shed off the pounds and got into shape (well, Emma is already the dancing queen and in the best shape of all of us.) Our plan right now is simple, continue the Couch Potato Challenge, portion control on our food intake, and I am so darn tempted to do the Subway Challenge. Hey, after all, What-Would-Jerry-Do, right?

I'm looking at footage and images of the Venus passover, and I can't help but be amazed. There's a BIG burning ball outside our planet and it operates 24/7 to provide us with energy. How cool is that?! How does this video not inspire you to look up into the heavens and be amazed at God as Creator?

There is a giant ball outside our planet that provides us with energy. There are billions of these out there in space, but this one is ours. It's not even the largest! It's just perfect for us.

"Indescribable" sermon by

Louie Giglio

Real-Life Comments Corpus Christi Weekend to Remember Getaway

Some people think that you need to have a hurting, or even failing marriage, to attend a marriage conference or retreat. Sadly, that is one of the worst myths I have every come across. Physicians around the world firmly believe with evidence-based research that preventive medicine is the best and cheapest medicine when it comes to the health of individuals. When you consider that the top two causes for divorce are money and infidelity, with reasons listed such as "we just grew apart" & "irreconcilable differences", logic dictates that preventive measures would have been the best and cheapest measure to begin with. Marriage resources such as A Weekend to Remember, The Art of Marriage, and so on, are not only meant for couples that are struggling. They are meant for good marriages as well. Why have a good marriage when you can build a great & strong marriage.

You can learn more about a Weekend to Remember by clicking here. Use Group Name "CorpusChrist" to save when you register to attend a WTR event.

Here are the Top Ten Comments that came from the Weekend to Remember in Corpus Christi, June 1-3, 2012 at the Omni Bayfront Hotel.

MILITARY COUPLE:

WIFE: We came in a state of distress. My husband is military and since we have been married, we have lived together about 6 months total of the two years since our wedding. I found out this past Christmas that my husband had been unfaithful. This weekend gave us hope for a brighter future, no matter how painful it might be to get there. It helped me see that God’s plan is not 50/50 but unconditional love that will make us successful. Married 2 years

HUSBAND: Brought my wife and I closer together and made me realize that I have been a jerk. Married 2 years

Before the weekend I was looking for a way out of our marriage. This Getaway made me excited and hopeful with the possibilities of our marriage. Married 8 ½ years

This weekend was our first time away since our boys left home and graduated from college. As “empty
nesters”, we are enjoying focusing on our marriage anew and establishing depth and intimacy that parenthood did not easily provide for. It’s given us a renewed desire to finish strong! Married 30 years

The Getaway helped me get my focus back on Christ. It affirmed that it is OK to not be perfect and reminded me to put our marriage relationship before work, hobbies, etc. I need to show my husband respect NOT based on his performance. Married 1 year

This weekend was a “slap in the face reality”. I’m not here to have a mediocre life and marriage and
fatherhood – but an awesome journey in this chapter of life. Married 8 ½ years

It opened my eyes to the way my spouse was feeling. It taught me what spiritual roles that we are both
responsible for in our marriage and offered a useful guide to work on creating the relationship we both desire. Married 2 ½ years

There were great questions to assist our conversations, excellent teaching to help us understand the opposite
gender, and a renewed motivation to make our “good” marriage, a “great” one! Married 1 ½ years

This Getaway renewed my faith and taught principles I wish I had been exposed to much earlier in our
marriage. It also taught me to accept what I can’t change and be appreciative of what I have. Married 37 years

We opened up and became totally vulnerable to one another…we were able to go deeper in our intimacy with one another. Thank you for the tools you gave us to get there! Married 11 years

Moving Forward in Faith Knowing that God is in Control

Olivia and I have been Directors for A Weekend to Remember in Corpus Christi for three years now. This is a calling that we felt God placed on our hearts, and we still believe that we are called to help couples strengthen their marriages through learning more of God's plan for marriage. We primarily have done this through promoting A Weekend to Remember, a 2 1/2 day marriage conference and getaway that comes to Corpus Christi every year.

Every year, our location is on the chopping block because attendance is consistently low in Corpus Christi. That is a real shame considering the hundreds of couples who have attended and stated their lives have been changed because of the weekend. This year was meant to be different. Our team boldly latched onto the scripture Luke 14:23 to remind ourselves to boldly go forward and invite people left and right to attend this event. We were excited and fired up.

Then, a series of setbacks began to add up ranging from marketing gaffs, volunteers backing out after years of service, close friends falling into infidelity in their marriages, and a tragic accident involving one of our core couples. The end result so far is the lowest attendance we have ever seen. It was very easy to be discouraged and frustrated by this, and in some ways I still am. Satan was definitely on the attack in our efforts. In many ways, he is coming after each one of us (Luke 22:31-32).

Despite all this, I believe that God has brought us the successes we do have. He is in total control of the outcomes, and He can build something big out of what seems like a failure. Even when it seems we have been derailed, God has purpose in that (Acts 16:6-15). We look at the single event and say to ourselves, yup, that was a total failure. God looks at us as a work in progress, and what we would consider a failure is simply one step in the entire journey God has for us.

Isaiah 64:8, "...We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." (NIV)