Love is in the air!

As I mentioned in my previous post - we have a lot going on at the Shoebox home!  Eve is finally at a place where I can let her play a few minutes at a time and she will actually entertain herself!  YAY! I knew this day would come!  Okay I may be overplaying it a bit, but I gotta say that Eve is definitely a whole DIFFERENT baby than Claire was.  Let's just say she challenges me in new ways.  :)

Yesterday was Valentines Day.  As a child, Valentines day is incredible...a whole day (or hour at school) devoted to you getting cute notes, candy, and snacks that you wouldn't otherwise be able to eat during a normal school day.  Claire came home Friday super excited about all the little Valentines she received - and knew (and shared with us multiple times) which child gave her what candy/sticker. Thankfully at this age we were just told to bring 10 Valentines...and the teachers took care of distributing them (no names needed because 3 year-olds cannot read.  BRILLIANT!

Yesterday was about enjoying my family (even if one of them is a teething monster right now) and watching the peaceful snow fall.  It was about enjoying coffee drinks with Brian and Claire and talking about how delicious Dad made them (and how we could actually taste the LOVE that was put in there!)  It was about putting the sermon into practice - VERBALIZING LOVE.

Hands down - Brian did an amazing job.  Of course some of the epic compliments and comparisons had a sarcastic ring, but at the heart was a true blue genuine act of love.

With that - I will leave you with a short clip of yesterday.

Proceed with caution...

Marriage is such a complicated thing. You talk to one couple about marriage and they say it's the best thing that ever happened to them. You interview another and they say it's the hardest thing they've ever done...yet another it's the biggest mistake they ever made.

How is it that over 50% of marriages fail? Certainly an argument for having God involved in your relationship can be presented. But what about other factors?

I really think it boils down to one thing. Selfishness. Are you willing to see beyond your own nose? If you get in a fight...are you first to apologize and make things right? How long do you wait for the other person to come crawling back? What are you willing to do to make things right?

Ok - so since I am on a rant...what about the men in this world who don't hold up to what they say they're going to do? Stand up for what's right, get a new job, take out the trash, quit a bad habit - pick one - get help DO IT! Ladies don't get off that easily either...when we are mad, emotional, hormonal, or just plain stubborn - we need to stop holding out on our husbands and expecting him to either read our minds or burst through the door with a big apology and red roses. We need to be careful about complaining and moaning to our girlfriends. We need to communicate our needs to our husbands and stop denying his needs.

Selfishness is rampant in this world, and unfortunately the church isn't immune to this rampant disease. We need to stop schlepping and side-stepping the blame, stop passing the buck and start standing up for what is true and right. If we can't treat our spouse or even spouse-to-be with kindness and love...that's a sad sad thing. Our spouse is supposed to be safe with us.

How safe is your home?