God has called us to live in PEACE - 1 Cor. 7:15

30 years ago this month, Don and I married in Coral Gables, Florida.  We were in our 30s and not naive or unrealistic about what we were bringing to the union.  I can only speak for myself to say that I had a very "independent" streak that needed to be adjusted to live with my man!  God has been the strength of our marriage - He has shaped and molded and caused us to love and to submit to each other.  How grateful we are that His "grace was sufficient" for even us!  We do not pretend to be perfect parents, but we knew how very important a good and peaceful marriage was to our boys.  And, guess what, those boys are now gone with wives of their own and it is just my man and me!  Too often we spend more time giving attention to our children and then when they move on, guess what you have left in your home?

God's word has taught us every day of those 30 years.  Had we not yielded to it more than we fought it, I'm not sure where we would be today.  Paul, in our verse for today, spoke to a believing wife married to an unbelieving spouse, but the truth still applies:  "God has called us to live in PEACE".

There are many enemies to peaceful homes today.  A few are:  discontentment, selfishness, busyness,  too much ambition, stress, conflict  temptation...and I believe Satan is the author of them all.  He is doing his best to destroy the home today and I believe the home is the most critical influence in our world today...certainly in the lives of our children and many of our neighborhoods.  The opposite of peace is showing up in too many places.

Listen to Steve Stroope and Kurt Bruner in IT STARTS AT HOME:

The foundation of every stable home is a thriving marriage.  Is it

any surprise that our Enemy's chief strategy for undermining

lifelong faith is to undermine the sacred bond of marriage.

Happy homes echo the intimate joys of heaven.  Broken, 

troubled families, by contrast, imitate the loneliness,

isolation and anger of hell.

Jesus said in John 16:33: "...in me you may have peace".  Galatians 5:22 says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...".  Ephesians 2:14 says about Jesus Christ: "...he himself is our peace."  Apart from making the Lord the center of our home, we cannot have a peaceful home.  Yielding all that we are to Him is the beginning of bringing peace to our homes.  What does your home - or mine - feel like today?

For further study: Gen. 1:27, Prov. 17:1, Isaiah 26:3, Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18, Ephesians 4:29, Col. 3:15, Phil. 4:11-12, Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 3:1-4.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly