During the Holy Day Season, I wanted to count my blessings.
I want To Thank God For My Relationship with God the Son, my Wife, my Job, Ability To Work
With My Hands, Health, An Internet Ministry, For Parents that Have blessed me with some valuable lessons, opportunities and
experiences.
My wife Loves Me for Who God Made Me to Be and What He is Making Me Into.
She doesn't harass or Nag me to be Someone or something that I'm Not.
I Love and Thank God For Who She is and God Making Us More Like Him.
This is the main thing You Should Desire of Each Other.
We thank God for each other.
I Want What and Who I Have, and What and Who I Have is very Good.
What Causes Divorce and major problems in life and marriage?
Coveting What You Don't Have and Not Being Thankful For What You Do Have.
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant
or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20)
I Couldn't Care Less What The Neighbors or the Relatives Have.
In Fact Some Cannot Have A Conversation Without Telling You What Others have.
Ask Them About Their Own Life, and They Seem Lost.
In hard circumstances it may seem hard to be thankful.
But that may be because some wouldn't know a blessing if it bit them.
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there
was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times
I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses,
in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12)
So what was the purpose of this blessing on Paul?
I have heard it said that to be blessed is to b-less
Paul's Thorn Was To Keep Him Humble.
Our Thorns Are Meant To Keep Us Humble and Dependent on God.
Do You Have A Struggle that Just Haunts You All The Time?
The Christian Life is not without Daily Struggles, and screwups.
One That Doesn't Struggle everyday to Do God's Will
is One You Should Have Nothing To Do With, Except preaching to them Repentance. (Ephesians 5:11)
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on
to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward
in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3)
Marriage Can Be A Struggle.
However, Spouses Should Remain with Each Other, if one is unbelieving but wishes to remain.
"To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And
a husband must not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord):
If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13
And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and
the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children
would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let
him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live
in peace. 16 How
do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?" (1 Corinthians 7)
AND
You made a vow, "To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, til death do
you part."
Of course this doesn't mean you have to put up with silliness.
Still, there must have been something You Saw in Your Spouse When You Married Them, That You Can Be Thankful
For.
If not your mistake was getting married without thoroughly thinking it through.
Even the bible provides a temporary solution, if you have a spouse that dishes out a lot of crap. (1 Corinthians
7:3-6)
But once you make that comittment, be grateful for what you have.
The only justification for divorce is unfaithfulness of the other, but a major reason for unfaithfulness
is either or both sides being ungrateful for what and Who they already have.
The Answer to Victory over struggles is to 'Boast (Be Thankful For) Of Your Weaknesses That
the Power of Christ May Rest Upon You.' (2 Cor. 12)
Be Thankful For Your Thorn(s).
Do You Have a Spouse That Tries Your Patience?
There May Be a Reason For it.
Maybe You, Not Your Spouse Needs to Change First.
Maybe Your Thorn is to Keep You Humble and Dependent on God and THANKFUL for Your Thorn.
Nobody Really Knows What Paul's Thorn Was and it Does Not Matter.
Blessings are sometimes sent our way to make us rely on God more and on ourselves less.
For Paul it was to keep him humble and he even boasted of his weakness, so that the power of
Christ would rest on him more.
Can we boast (be thankful) of the thorns sent our way?
Its very hard to do sometimes.
Do You have a spouse that is annoying or a real trial?
Do You have a spouse that hasn't lived up to our idea of a good spouse?
Do You Think That You Would be really Thankful if you had a spouse like So and So?
Is the Grass Really Greener on the other side of the fence?
If it is, could it be because you haven't watered your own Lawn Lately
Because You Are Too Busy Coveting and Watering Someone Elses Lawn?
Have You Praised Your Spouse for the Good You See in Them or are you always looking at What
They Are Not?
Nothing Destroys a Marriage More that Focusing on the Negative or having a pity party because
you don't have what others have.
I believe some spouses give up when their mate from the start is always comparing them
to someone else.
Encourage Your Spouse To Be More Like Christ and Thank God For the
Good Things That God has Given Them.
Also be thankful for children that are serving God and using their gifts.
"Count Your Blessings name them one by one
Count Your Blessings See What God Has Done."
Want What God Has Given You.
