Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. Hebrews 4:1

Busyness is an effective thief of joy during the holiday season.  We simply spend too much of our time running from one party to another, tramping through malls looking to finish our gift lists, and trying to remember who we still owe a Christmas card to.  The final result is exhaustion, disappointment, and often irritability.  If we’re not careful, exhaustion enters our marriage.  We begin to snipe, argue, or just ignore the other person in plain indifference.

There are practical steps you can take to break the cycle of busyness, overcommitment, and holiday burnout.  Create  margin for the two of you in order to sp end unhurried time together.  Limit your engagements.  Say no to some invitations.  Don’t leave everything to the last minute.  Most important, decide as a couple to spend time together in the presence of God.  Sit down and read Scripture to each other.  Listen to soothing and uplifting music that celebrates Christ’s birth.  Rather than go shopping, use the time to pray in an
unhurried fashion.  God rest ye merry spouses.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

“Will you sign for this?” one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard my way.

“Sure, what is it?”

“A freezer,” he answered.

“We didn’t order a freezer.”

“Someone did,” he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past me and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.

As we studied the invoice, we discovered a sister church had purchased the appliance for us. That’s strange, we thought. They never told us it was coming.

Our minds returned to the Thanksgiving dinner. Within a few hours, the first flakes of snow started coming down. In Minnesota in late November, that can mean anything from a dusting to three-foot snow drifts. On this particular day, it meant the worst. By 4:00 p.m., the flakes had turned into a major-league blizzard. The timing couldn’t have been worse. By that late hour, all the food for our dinner had been prepared—a dozen turkeys, nearly a hundred pounds of mashed potatoes, and scores of piping-hot pies.

But we had no one to eat any of it. All our food and effort was about to go to waste.

That’s when we remembered the gift we had received only hours earlier. We wrapped the food and carried it upstairs to our new storage freezer. One week later we held the postponed dinner and served a hot Thanksgiving meal to a church packed with grateful neighbors and needy friends.

Looking back, we realize we received more than an appliance from a department store that day. We received a postcard from God.

What’s a postcard from God? It’s one of those providential, serendipitous events that appear in our lives, marriage and family—a reminder that God has not forgotten us. For us, it’s like receiving a short note that reads, “Dear Cheryl and Bob, I was thinking of you today. Just thought I’d let you know. Love, Your heavenly Father.”

The ways in which he sends these timely postcards are as unpredictable as they are amazing. The net effect seems always the same: to encourage and strengthen us, often when we need it the most.

POSTSCRIPTS
Piles of unwanted junk mail are delivered daily.  As catalogs, sales brochures, newspapers, and a host of other materials accumulate on our desks, our goal is to dispose of the piles as quickly as possible. In the same way, our lives and schedules can become cluttered with carpools, shopping, taking care of kids, committee meetings, weekly deadlines, and urgent calls to make. Our goal can become simply to get through the day.

In the midst of sorting through such clutter, it’s easy to overlook the simple notes our heavenly Father sends to remind us of his love. When we take the time to sort through “coincidences” of my life, we discover simple but much-needed messages reminding us, “I love you. I haven’t forgotten you.”

Signed, Your God.

About the Authors:
Bob and Cheryl Moeller are marriage conference speakers and authors (as well as columnists for cwahd and cwahd). Learn more at www.marriagevine.com
Cheryl’s latest book is Baby Saves Christmas, written with daughter Melissa,
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=25973&it=1

If you’re a husband, it’s a good exercise from time to time to try and follow your wife’s schedule for a day. If she works an outside job, you’ll quickly realize that household chores don’t just disappear because she’s put in eight hours at an office. If she works primarily at home, you’ll soon discover how many roles she’s expected to play in just one day: banker, nutritionist, counselor, interior decorator, chauffeur, educator, and the list goes on and on.

Yet a wife’s work often goes unnoticed or unrecognized. Ingratitude is wrong, if not sinful. So what are two ways to express true appreciation for all the work your wife does on behalf of your marriage and family?

1. Praise her for her resourcefulness. In any given day, wives solve numerous difficulties, problems, and crises. Ask what dilemmas she faced that day, then praise her for her ingenuity and resourcefulness in solving them.

2. Notice the small things. As you walk through the house, notice all that’s orderly. Imagine the state of affairs if you had to manage everything. Thank her for the small things she does each day to make life so much better and easier for the two of you.

—Bob Moeller
www.forkeepsconference.com

Marriage Minutes, Moody Press

If you really loved me, you’d know what I was feeling.” “If I have to tell you what I’m thinking, I won’t do it.”

Have you ever said things like that to each other? It’s not uncommon for hurting spouses to expect their mates to know exactly what they’re feeling and why. It’s also very unrealistic. The truth is we can’t read each other’s minds. (Would you really want anyone to have complete access to your mental data files?)

The apostle Paul offers a wonderful alternative to the impossible task of reading minds: speaking the truth in love. He tells us to “put away all falsehood and ‘tell your neighbor the truth.’”

When we’re upset with our wife we should quit expecting our spouse to read our mind. Instead, we should say something like, “Dear, when you walked ahead of me through the mall, I felt unimportant to you.” Or, “when you criticized how I painted the eves, I felt unappreciated.” That will end the guessing game and let the reconciliation begin in your marriage. So what’s on your mind today?

—Bob Moeller
www.forkeepsconference.com

Adapted from: Marriage Minutes (Moody Press)

The apostle Paul once found himself in a terrifying storm at sea in a ship filled with criminals,
mutinous sailors, and ruthless Roman soldiers. The sailors were about to abandon ship,
the soldiers were about to spear all the prisoners, and the boat seemed about to break up
like a matchbox underneath a truck tire. The despair and gloom on that ship was so thick
you could cut it with a chain saw and stack it.

Notice Paul’s response. He told everyone to keep up their courage because God had assured
him no one would drown. Why did Paul, at this time a prisoner, get a word from God when no
one else did? Because he belonged to God.

Can you say that? Can you say that your marriage and children belongs to the heavenly Father?
If so, you are a servant of God. And if you are His servant, you have every reason to be filled
with hope for this coming year. Not sure? Get on your knees and trust your lives, marriage,
and children to Him today.

By Bob Moeller
You can check out Bob Moeller’s books and conferences at www.forkeepsconference.com

Our financial plans collapse. We suffer unexpected setbacks in our career. We have a house that won’t sell. How can we explain such difficulties in life? They may have a number of causes. But one overlooked explanation is our pride. The Bible teaches us that God opposes the proud. When pride enters our heart, He blocks our advance, frustrates our plans, and lets us spin our wheels. It all adds up to God saying, “I’m not letting you go anywhere until you humble yourselves before Me.”

We went through one particularly difficult period of life where we couldn’t understand why one calamity seemed to pile on another. We had to replace an engine and a transmission in our car; some of our kids got lice; and every major appliance in our home needed repair. At the end of this incredibly hard time we realized God had been working to break us. God was telling us it was time to pray. Only when we began to seek Him
together in brokenness and humility did the light break through in our lives once again.

We would never suggest all trouble in anyone’s life is caused by pride. But if we’re not praying and seeking God with all of our hearts, pride may very well have slipped into our lives. The remedy is to humble ourselves
before God this very hour. Seek His forgiveness. The choice between God’s opposition and God’s grace is clear to us. Which do you want?

About the Author: