Merry Christmas Message!

Announcement!!

JC has joined the contributors over at The Christian Dollar.  This is a fantastic opportunity and a great site to be a part of!  The owner, John Frainee is an old friend from Bible College and I am excited to join him in the continuing discussions about Christians and Finances.

My first article is up! 4 Financial Dreams and How We’re Accomplishing Them

Check it out and join us in the comments!  More articles are on their way!

Christmas as a New Family

We are getting close to our first Christmas together.  It's been fun putting up the Christmas tree, talking about each other's family traditions, and just being together. 

Some of the things we've done:

• Put up the Christmas tree.  It's the fake tree that Brianna had from the past, so we didn't get to go out and hunt for one, but it's still nice.  For some reason she like tinsel on the tree...  Strange.
• Sat with the lights off except for the tree, sipping hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music.
• Finding some nice presents for each other and family.  I think half of them are homemade and I'm looking forward to giving them.
• We taught Children's Church on Sunday and did a special craft.  We painted ornaments!  It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed watching the kids enjoy themselves.
• Went and enjoyed time with family down in Linden and Three Hills.  Played Apples to Apples and was laughing so hard!

 What's coming up:

• New Life Church is doing a Christmas party out at Pioneer Ranch this Sunday.  I hear rumors of a feast and fun times.  I plan on setting up a Settlers of Catan game.  And maybe even doing some sort of card game.  Going to be a ton of fun!
• We have plans for a great Christmas Eve time, eating food, opening presents, maybe a Christmas Eve service.   
• Christmas Day is going to be a service at church, then we are going to have Fondue at her parent's.  Going to be a blast!

All in all it's going to be a good Christmas.

Why The Name?

When we first started this blog, we chose the odd title of "God, My Weird Spouse, and I."  That's a very strange title I know, but there's a reason behind it. 

This world, this culture has defined "normal" as people living together, having multiple partners, having affairs during marriage and having a divorce or two or three.  Normal is spending too much time working and not enough time with your wife and family.  Normal is kids with no fathers.  Normal is....  (you fill in the blank). 

We don't want to be normal.  We want to stand out against the gray and mediocrity of the world.  We want to stand for Christ, for a Biblical worldview, for a life lived in joy and abundance because of our relationship with God.  We want to stand for sex within marriage, for a strong sense of value in our spouse's eyes.  We want to stand for a marriage where we want to be together, to do life together, where conflict is managed and used to strengthen our union.  We want to stand for an open home and for open hearts to those struggling in our community.  In other words:  We want to be WEIRD!!!

It is definitely a journey and we have a long, long, long life ahead of us.  We invite you to walk alongside us and see how our weirdness pays off in the future.

Be aware of what your wife does

I have a friend who shared this article on Twitter.  Basically the author talks about not undoing what your wife has done throughout the day.

He uses the example of leaving clothes on the table after his wife has cleaned it over and over during the day.  Made me think about my marriage and what I do that could undo what Brianna has done.  The stuff on the table is definitely one thing.  Books and papers on the sofas is another.  Leaving my lunch stuff on the counter after making lunch.  Yeah, I do it.

I think the gist of the article is to remember to be proactive with your relationship with your wife.  It takes thought to make your wife feel special.  And she definitely deserves to be have her husband make her special!

Husbands:  What stuff do you do that can undo your wife's actions during the day?  Wives:  What can you gently talk to your husband about in this regard?