THERE'S HOPE

They were an old couple who had been married for quite some time now but they had no children. They had seen many gynecologists and tried many things even fasted and prayed but to no avail. Some brethren in their church had even suggested that maybe it was because of some sin, lack of faith, or something that they were doing or not doing that God was not pleased with. But Zack and his wife Liz were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well I don’t purport to know the reason as to why.

Zack didn’t let this fact dampen his spirit and though year after year he thought this would be the year, nothing happened. He didn’t allow this to discourage him from faithfully serving God in his church. Then voila! One day as he was serving faithfully at his place of duty bang! And angel appeared to him and gave him a wonderful message that his wife Liz would conceive and bear him a son. This was too good to be true. Zack had almost lost hope that such a thing would happen. In fact he was so full of unbelief that God struck him with dumbness lest he continue speaking his doubts instead of the promise of God.

As we come to the end of 2016, I don’t know how your year has been. Maybe like this couple Zack and Liz, you have believed God for something for many years but are still barren. You have no “child” and both you and your wife/hubby are well stricken in years. It seems like it might never happen but our encouragement to you is this “Fear not, for your prayer is heard…” Know for sure that whatever it is that you desire and have been praying for, your prayer is heard. He (God) has heard you.

Secondly we know that God has spoken certain things to you. What has God told you? What has He spoken to you about? You see God’s words for you shall be fulfilled in their season. There is always a season for everything. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to plow and a time to reap, so don’t you worry, you might have been in the season of weeping and plowing, but your season of reaping and rejoicing is about to come. So hang in there your season is coming.

Thirdly, don’t despair. Don’t lose hope. No matter how long it has been, God can turn things around in a minute. There is hope our God is a God of restoration. He will restore to you all those years that the caterpillars have eaten. Maybe you have waited so long to have a baby, maybe you have waited so long to be married. Maybe you have waited soooooooooo long for a job or to start your business, build your own house or whatever it is. Be encouraged by the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth this holiday season, no matter how long there is hope. Have a hope filled 2017, Happy New Year!

THIS MAN JOSEPH

As we celebrate Christmas one of the narratives that greatly inspires me is that of Joseph the foster Father of Jesus and Mary’s husband.  Imagine here is the Youth Leader of a Church going out with one of the young ladies in the Choir. They have been dating for some time now and are now engaged to be married. But one his fiancée text him telling him that they need to urgently meet as there is something important she wants to share with him. And so he makes time and they meet at one of the Javas in the City Center. There she breaks the sad news that she is pregnant and claims that her pregnancy is a special one. The Youth Leader is obviously disappointed knowing how he has tried very much not to get physical with his fiancée and knowing how strict their church is. What will the elders say? Who will believe their story?  Should he exonerate himself from this fiasco after all he is innocent and it is his fiancée who will carry the shame.

But this man Joseph the Bible says was a just man. He was such a good man that he wasn’t willing to publicly accuse Mary of adultery. In those days, once you were betrothed to get married to a certain man you were to remain faithful until the day of your wedding. If for any reason you had sex with someone else and got pregnant or were caught, then you were supposed to be brought before the elders and would be stoned to death for this. Your husband-to-be would then be free to marry someone else. This is what Joseph could have subjected Mary to because on his side he was clean.

Mary was the culprit and whereas you and I can today understand the virgin birth, it was not that easy to believe this then. It was going to be a hard story to sell. Who would believe Mary anyway that what she was carrying was of the Holy Spirit? So even before the angel of the Lord had appeared to him, Joseph being the just man that he was, had planned to secretly put her away. The message Bible puts it thus, “Joseph, chagrined (feeling of disappointment and annoyance) but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary could not be disgraced.”

Obviously Joseph was disappointed with his bride-to-be, but he was noble, he was a just man so he determined to take care of things quietly. How many men like Joseph do we have today who will even though disappointed that the lady they wanted to marry has a child, or got pregnant, will still want to take care of things for her? Instead we have men who will want to publicly disgrace the lady who has said no to them lying and saying many bad things about them.  Even when it is clear that they have impregnated the lady they don’t want to take responsibility instead accusing the lady of trapping them. No wonder we are a country of “dead-beat” dads.

How many men when they hear that the lady they are dating has a child out of wedlock will want to continue with that relationship? How many of us married men will cover and protect our wives from our relatives who are baying for her blood for a “mistake” she did? Will we like Joseph determine to take care of things quietly or will we join the crowd in shouting crucify her. We need men like Joseph, men who are willing to take responsibility, men who are determined to take care of things quietly to protect their women, men who are committed to stick with their women no matter what, and yes men who are just and noble.

HAVE YOU REALLY LEFT?

Leaving and cleaving is one of the requirements for husband and wife becoming one in marriage. Whereas it is easy to leave geographically except in a few cultures like the Indian community, leaving psychologically can sometimes prove tricky. Completely detaching from our family of origin and not allowing their interference in our marriage can be a tall order.

Many married men and women left geographically but didn't actually leave psychologically. They still owe their allegiances to their parents instead of to each other. They still seek advice from them and it is what they say that carries more weight than what their spouse wants. They are more concerned about their parents or even siblings well-being than their spouse's. They spend a lot on their family than on their immediate family. These are some of the things that are breaking our marriages today.

But even more dangerous and subtle is the effect of how our parents treated or didn't treat us. Many of us don't even know the impact of some of those things that happened to us as children. We grow up with coping mechanisms that have enabled us survive the pain that thing had on us that we fail to see their impact on our marriage. Father wounds and mother wounds have such a great impact on us and yet we tend to minimize it. If for example as a lady your Father left your mother and abandoned you as a family, you will constantly live with a fear of being left by your husband. So you will either one, be constantly insecure in the relationship because of what you saw happen to your mother. Or two, you will constantly be fighting and wanting out so that what befell your mum doesn't befall you.

The effect of that also leaves you as a lady with a low self-esteem because that wound left you with this message, you are not worth fighting for. Guys are equally affected as a similar situation may leave them not sure if they have what it takes. So they may turn out to be violent as that may be the only way they may have an upper hand over their woman. It is until we realize the impact of what those wounds from our parents had on us and we deal with them we shall not leave and cleave as we were meant to. Leaving behind those wounds, leaving behind that hatred or fear is what is required  in order to have an intimate relationship with our spouse.

THE DOMINANT WOMAN (Part 2)

A story is told about this Pastor who wanted to demonstrate how loving the men in his church were. So one Sunday morning he asked all the men to move to one side of the aisle. All the men except one man moved to one side of the isle. The Pastor was not happy with all the men who moved but was very impressed by this one man who remained seated next to his wife. And so he asked him why he hadn’t moved and this was the man’s response, “Sir, I really wanted to move but my wife dared me to move. She told me that if I moved I should know where I’m going after the service.” So the man didn’t move simply because he loved his wife but rather because he feared her threat.

There are women who can scare the socks out of many men (though the men won’t admit it). One of our most popular blogs was the one on THE DOMINANT WOMAN where we talked about how this lady Cathy had completely dominated her husband Dave in their marriage. Whereas society condemns and vilifies such women, what they don’t know and even the ladies themselves don’t know is that this is a symptom of a deeper underlying issue.

According to John and Stasi Elderedge in their book “The Captivating Woman” the major issue here is that these women want to be in control that’s why they are domineering. This problem begun from the very beginning with the fall of man. Fallen Eve controls her relationships. She refuses to be vulnerable. If she cannot secure her relationships, then she kills her heart’s longing for intimacy so that she will be safe and in control. She becomes a woman “who doesn’t need anyone-especially a man.” Far too many women forfeit their femininity in order to feel safe and in control. Their strength feels more masculine than feminine. There is nothing alluring, nothing inviting, and nothing tender or merciful about them. By living a controlling and domineering life, they are really refusing to trust God and something precious in them is also lost.

REKINDLING THE FLAME

One of the things that we keep hearing over and over again among married couples who have been married for a while is “what happened to the good old days”. Men are mainly a major culprit in this when the ladies start asking “Babe, how come nowadays you don’t take me out anymore?”, or, “How come these days you don’t tell me you love me”; “What happened to our date nights?” And if men were to be honest they would ask “How come our sex life is not as sizzling as it used to be?”

You see with time we tend to become too familiar with each other as spouses and start taking each other for granted. We no longer value each other as we did at first and this coupled with the drip drip of juggling job, kids, church obligations, ‘chamas’ and chores makes us drift further apart. We no longer have time for each other and unless something is done the currents of life will sweep us further and further apart. What then can we do in order not to drift apart?

We need to be aware of this tendency and hence deliberately do certain things that will bring us back together. We need to blow the embers, add some dry twigs and add some firewood to rekindle that flame. Be deliberate in scheduling time together with your spouse. Blow away the chaff from your schedule, things that seem “urgent” but are not really important. Identify those things that have been taking your time and hence making you not have time for each other. It may mean reducing your screen time (watching TV and being on the internet), reducing your time with the “boys” or “chama”. It may mean leaving work early or not carrying work home. It may mean helping with the kids’ homework or bathing them and feeding them and getting them to bed early so you can have time for yourselves.

Block off some weekends just for the two of you. Learn to say “NO” to those time snatchers that are taking you away from each other. What do you need to blow away from your schedule in order to have more time for each other? Whatever it is that you need to do, make sure it frees up time so that the two of you can be together. Secondly, after freeing up time to be together, what do you need to do to spark those fires again in your marriage? Is it taking a walk together, going for a hike together this weekend, playing a board game together or just launching on the sofa watching a movie together. Come up with activities that will bring you back together.

Yours for an exciting marriage.

GREAT MARRIAGES JUST DON'T HAPPEN (Part 4)

Someone has said that marriage is easy if only you put in some work. We enter marriage with great expectations which sometimes are unrealistic. We come into marriage with a fairy tale mentality, a happily ever mindset. But the reality of life is that there will always be good times and bad times more like the seasons in life. You just can’t expect that it will always be fun, it will always be summer, winter is on the way. Bad times are inevitable but that doesn’t mean that the marriage is over however bad you feel about each other. What you do during those bad moments is what will determine whether your marriage will grow or not. Use those bad moments to work for you and your marriage by practicing patience, conflict resolution and other relational skills.

Human nature so often wants to focus on the negatives. Why many marriages fail is because we dwell so much in the dark rooms of our marriage developing those negatives. We need to come out of that dark room and focus on positives things. Pay more attention to the things about your partner that you love and you will be surprised how you will start feeling positive about each other again.

Pay attention to your marriage too. So often our marriage relationship is confined in the back banner as we pay more attention to the urgent things that scream for our attention like the kids, our career, that business etc. Don’t let your children, career or social life put you asunder. Don’t even allow your hurts to come in between you. You didn’t get married to a perfect person so they are bound to hurt you from time to time. So learn to forgive each other and to be gracious to each other.

Accept each other in spite of your differences, different personalities, different interests and so on. Allow your partner to be themselves and don’t try cloning them into what you want them to be. Remember you are two individuals who are becoming one in marriage. Becoming one doesn’t meant losing our individuality but rather crafting an interdependent relationship between two whole individuals.

One of the greatest sins in marriage is the sin of assumption. Don’t assume you know why your partner did whatever they did or said whatever they said. Always ask you might just be wrong in your assumption. On the other hand don’t assume that your partner will automatically know what you are going through or are thinking. Never drop hints or say “nothing”. Be open. Say what is in your mind and openly express your feelings without violating your partner’s feelings. Being open and honest is the key to effective communication and the best way to build trust. Be yourself; stop pretending that it’s okay when deep down you are hurting. Accept and love each other for who you are. Don’t be judgmental or critical of your spouse but instead be curious and want to really know. Provide them with a safe environment to pour their hearts and hurts to you.

Learn each others love language and speak it to them. Husbands need to feel respected while wives need to be cherished. Do to each other that which communicates “I love you” in a way that is meaningful to them and not what you think will be meaningful to them. Affirm and appreciate each other. It’s the small things that really matter in marriage, things like “I love you”; “Thank you”; “I’m sorry” those words however small and simple can work magic in your marriage.

Be there for each other. Let your spouse know that no matter what, you will not leave them however bad things are. Let them know your commitment to them and to your marriage. Support each other financially. Work together as a team for two is better than one. Dream together, plan your future together, set goals together and encourage each other.