Tag Archives: Encouragement

Remember the Plan

The other week playing tennis, my partner and I were down 3 games to 1. ’Okay, let’s get it back to 3 all for starters,’ I said and she agreed. Then after we won the next game, we both said ‘remember the plan.’ One game was a particularly long drawn out game that went to a number of deuces, about twenty in all. We kept hanging in there telling each other, ‘remember the plan, remember the plan,’ repeating it like a mantra. It occurred to me then, that it’s not a bad analogy for marriage – to remember the plan. … Continue reading →

What Makes You Feel Better?

A married couple I know expecting their first baby, are going to prenatal classes. They came to the conclusion recently they obviously have a different view of marriage to some of the others in the group. When asked what makes them feel better, several of the others in the class said yelling at their spouse. I don’t know about you, but I can’t see how that can make you feel better? Now I’m not saying Mick and I don’t have our disagreements or don’t ever have raised voices, but we do try not to make a habit of it. It … Continue reading →

The Greatest Influence

What or who would you describe as being the greatest influence on your life? That was a question asked recently of Brett Kirk and the footballer, a legend here in Australia and especially in Sydney, said his wife Hayley was the greatest influence on his life. What a lovely comment that is. It made me wonder how many of us would like to be described that way by our spouse or how many of us can describe our spouse that way. I know Mick is a great influence on my life. He is always there to cheer on and encourage … Continue reading →

Taking Care of the Little Things

It’s amazing how important the little things are in a marriage. Yesterday Mick and I were playing a set of tennis together. We were playing against good two players. Throughout he kept encouraging me with, ‘nice shot’ or ‘good pick up,’ and similar comments. Meanwhile I kept encouraging him as well ‘great serve.’ ‘Well done,’ etc. The result was we both played exceptionally well. That’s the difference a bit of encouragement makes on the court and in marriage. It helps you be better than you really are. Sadly, into his second set his Achilles tendon started to play up as … Continue reading →

Playing the Supporting Role

Recently a young woman I know did several things that impressed me in her marriage, so I thought I’d share them with you. Just because someone hasn’t been married very long, doesn’t say all of us can’t pick up tips from the way their marriage works. The first thing was she supports her husband in the work he is doing. He had to give an important talk to a large number of people. Even though she had a heap of things needing to be done over the next few days, she decided this was more important as it was happening … Continue reading →

Battling with Discouragement?

It’s easy to fall into the pit of discouragement. I’d suggest discouragement is one of Satan’s greatest tools. It’s one I’ve been battling lately. Half the problem stems from a cold or flu bug that doesn’t want to leave and half from trying to get work done and not getting far with it, due to other problems. Sadly, discouragement affects too many people in our churches. It can be easy to feel that what you are doing is not appreciated or even noticed by anyone. It can be easy to wonder why you even bother. Your pastor is not immune … Continue reading →

Gaining Perspective

You know it’s going to be a bad day when you spend 10 minutes standing on your front porch trying to figure out why you can’t get into your home before you realize that repeatedly pushing the unlock button on your car’s smart key isn’t going to open the front door of your house. Yes, it’s been one of those days. Actually, it’s been one of those months. One of those months when you can’t seem to catch a break. One of those months when the war against fatigue has you in the trenches. One of those months when your … Continue reading →

To Try

What was it that Yoda said? Oh yes. Do or do not. There is no try. Well, I disagree. My apologies to Yoda. He may have more wisdom of the ages than I do, but he didn’t watch today’s Paralympic sledge hockey game. We live in Vancouver, Canada, the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Way back in the fall, I’d purchased tickets to the gold medal round of sledge hockey, certain that Canada would be in it. Canada lost to Japan, and Japan ended up in the final with the United States. We decided to cheer for Japan. What … Continue reading →

Marriage Essentials

Do you want to know four essentials for a good marriage? Here they are: Encouragement This quality cannot be stressed enough. One of our adult offspring once said, ‘you and Dad always encouraged me in whatever I did. You made me believe I could do anything I set my mind to.’ While I was pleased to hear that, I also thought that’s the sort of encouragement each of us needs to be for our spouse. We need to be behind them in whatever they do encouraging them every step of the way, whether it’s changing jobs or learning a new … Continue reading →

Would You Support Your Spouse?

As Ruthann8 pointed out, sometimes it is not so much a male/female thing in the way we respond to events as a personality issue. It can happen between you and your spouse, differing personalities affect the way you view a situation and how you react. What is important when this is the case is accepting and supporting each other, even if you don’t understand why they react as they do. Mick admitted recently the way I reacted to a situation and what I wanted to do about it, was not the way he would have handled it. But because he … Continue reading →