Tag - love

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Book Review: Eight Twenty Eight
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Football & Marriage
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Do Not Awaken Love

Book Review: Eight Twenty Eight

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Our love could never be as perfect as His, of course, but as children of God we were able to receive love vertically from Him that we could learn how to extend to each other.

Ian and Larissa Murphy were not that different from my husband and me in college. They were young and in love with both God and each other. They were planning their future together when a car accident caused a severe brain injury to Ian. As Ian lie in the hospital bed, suddenly Larissa’s planning changed from their future marriage to the possible funeral of Ian.

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Football & Marriage

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(This article appeared in the most recent edition of the Baptist & Reflector)

Fall has arrived, bringing with it football on all levels. We’re an NFL household, fans of the Minnesota Vikings. As I write these words, I want you to get a snapshot of my day. I wore a purple Vikings scarf to work to celebrate the fact that we are driving to Nashville this evening to watch the Vikings play the Titans. I also packed a change of clothes for the game and had to decide which of my two Vikings jerseys to wear. On social media, I not only follow the team, but also the individual players. Put it all together and you get a pretty good idea of how much I enjoy the Vikings.

But that wasn’t always the case for me. I grew up in a sports-neutral family. To be embrassingly honest, football was that activity on the field I endured until halftime. That’s when the marching band took the field. I went to almost every game to watch my brother march for four years until it was finally my turn.

In college, I started to date Kevin (my husband). As dating got “serious,” I realized that football had the potential of igniting a lifetime’s supply of arguments because I could care less about grown men chasing after an oblong ball.

As we entered premarital counseling, we read all the standard passages and books, many based on Ephesians 5. I spent time with married women who complained when football season began. And I spent time with married women who loved the sport as much as their husbands. I decided I needed to be the latter in order to look forward to the fall season rather than dread it.

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Do Not Awaken Love

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Kevin and I started dating three years ago this month. Within our first week as “girlfriend and boyfriend,” he told me that we needed to discuss something very important. We sat at a table in the middle of our university’s cafeteria and he told me that we needed to be certain to set boundaries in our relationship. That was no problem for me – I was completely supportive of verbalizing our boundaries. But then he said something really strange to me – he said we needed to talk about all three categories of boundaries.

Woah Woah Woah. Three? How are there three categories of boundaries? I really and truly was stumped.

Kevin patiently explained to me that the three categories of boundaries are: physical, spiritual, and emotional. He told me to take a week to think through and pray about our boundaries and that we would reconvene to discuss them.

I knew I needed professional help! So I did what I encourage everyone in a dating relationship to do – I sought out an accountability partner that was at least a step ahead of me in the process.

Last week at youth group, on Valentine’s Eve, Kevin divided the genders so that we could talk about dating relationships.

I had the opportunity to dialogue with the girls in our youth group about these three categories of relationships.

We used a quote as well as a Bible verse to frame our mindset for this topic.

“How much better it is to grow the tree straight when it is young than try to straighten a bent tree when it is old.”

and we used this Bible verse

“Do not stir or awaken love until the appropriate time.” – Song of Solomon 2:7 and 3:5

My next three blogs will be the outpouring of both this conversation with Kevin as well as the outline from my Wednesday night talk. Check back to get the full story!

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