Thanks for visiting Obedient Beauty. Please use this site as a reference site. Unfortunately, we may not be adding any new posts but feel free to browse. Due to Kath being pregnant and becoming super busy and Amy and her husband starting a new ministry, they have become very busy and needed to cut back. Though, If they feel the Lord press something on their hearts, they will write. Thanks for your encouragement.
Check out http://www.thedioproject.org for Amy and Jared’s new ministry.
I can not be content unless ‘Blank’. All of us ladies can fit something into this blank. I can’t be content unless my hair and makeup look just right. I can’t be content until my house is clean. I can’t be content unless my husband loves me. There are endless scenarios.
This can be a struggle for me and it sometimes changes. One day it may be that I can’t be content until I feel beautiful so I’m a bit ‘down and out’. Another day it may be that I need the house clean and I’m easily irritated until it’s clean. I know for some people it’s the same thing and doesn’t change. My husband could fit in the blank, ‘I can’t be content unless ‘my wife is happy’.
What are we doing when we have this kind of attitude?… We are making that person or thing our idol and god.
If my contentment lies in a clean house or a sweet husband, I am putting all my hope in them (and a lot of pressure!). What if your child, or husband, or friend could not be happy with life until you were perfectly beautiful, patient, and selfless? How would you feel? I think we would all feel a little overwhelmed and it would never happen. Your child, husband, or friend would be discontent for a long time or their content would rise and fall depending on how good you did on a certain day.
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
What if your complete contentment lay in Christ? What if you start having a bad day and are still able to be content because of what Christ has done for you and what he still is doing for you? There would be a lot of content people. He is the only one that can bring true everlasting contentment.
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Phil 4:11
I would recommend you make a list. Write down ‘I can’t be content unless ________’ and fill in as many things as you can. This could take up to a week or more so add things to your list as they arise. Once you start your list, start asking God to take those faulty thoughts away. Ask Him to give you truth in place of the lies of faulty contentment. Also when something arises like, “My husband is a pill today, it going to be rough”, ask God to give you His perspective and a content spirit. Your contentment may even change your husbands’ attitude.
Be sensitive to where your contentment and hope lie.
-Amy
We women like to be ladies of information. We like to know everything that is happening in our town or church or neighborhood. That’s why magazine companies like, People and Star, make so much money. People like to know the latest scandal or fling.
How many times have we told someone a secret or news to show off our ‘information’? “Did you hear that she’s pregnant again?”, “did you know that she slept with him again?”, “did you know that she has been divorced 3 times?” Knowing information is not bad, but it can be bad if you share it without the person’s permission. When you are talking with friends, keep news about other people a secret. Don’t use your prayer group as a place to freely gossip in the form of “prayer requests” unless you have been given permission to share it. It’s easy to gossip about our family, friends, and even our husband.
Don’t gossip about the latest facebook post that rubs you wrong and say, ‘how dare she say that!”. Maybe the person didn’t mean it the way you took it. Gossip can snow ball into scandalous rumors and hurt people deeply.
“A gossip betrays a confidence but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” Proverbs 11:13
I have to watch myself with this. When talking with a girl friend, another friend may come in up in our conversation, and it’s easy to say “did you hear what happened to her?” or “She has been doing ______ a lot.” This is a bunch of useless talk that can start rumors or cause people to think things that are not true about the person you gossip about. Don’t be someone who betrays a confidence. Be trustworthy and keep from starting potential rumors and more gossip. Keep news about people to yourself.
3 ways to stop Gossip:
1.) If someone hurts your feelings, go to them and fix it. Don’t run to a friend or Pastor or prayer group to talk about it.
2.) If you know about something scandalous happening with someone. Don’t ever bring it up to anyone but the people involved. (Unless you have permission)
3.) If you know a secret, keep it to yourself until you have permission to share it.
-Amy
P.S.
I want to add something that was on our Facebook page. If you confide in a friend about a struggle you have with someone to get a godly perspective or advice on what to do and do not use names; this I not gossip. No rumors can be started if no names are given. (Unless your malicious about it).
Also when you share marriage struggles you can do it tactful or gossipy. Example: “Jared and I are struggling right know. We Just don’t see eye to eye and I’m Haveing a hard time submitting. Please prayer that God gives me a proper perspective” verses “Jared is being such a fool. He is so immature and I just need prayer ladies because I can’t stand him right now”.
Do you see how both were prayer request but one could make you not like my husband much? One starts rumors and the other doesn’t. We can share things in a way that safeguards people, even If we have a problem with them.
Love you all!
“ Here’s a little something to remember me by….”
Do consider having sex with your husband before he leaves on a trip and when he comes back from a trip. I suppose you could try to make it something memorable, too! I was just talking to a friend who told me that this is advice she has received from an older married woman. This particular woman’s husband travels quite a bit for work and he said that he won’t even stay at hotels with pay- per-view options, that’s how tempting it is. He is blessed by her offer of intimacy whenever he leaves for a trip, as this serves as a protection for him.
Don’t assume that it’s easy being a man in this world. We ladies do not have a clue what kind of sexual temptations men face on a daily basis. Everywhere they look they are visually bombarded by images that are quite provocative. Be sensitive to the men of this world in our own dress, manners, and words.
(Note: Each person, male and female, has a choice. People can still choose to sin sexually, even if the spouse has been generous with sexual intimacy. Be able to look Jesus in the face and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You alone are accountable for your own actions and motives.)
-Kath
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Do you believe God will provide for you? So many of us today may say that we believe it, but don’t actually live it out. We say we believe it but still get worried about money or our safety. Isn’t God ultimately in control of all the money? Can’t he provide protection when we need it most?
My husband should have died about a dozen times before he became an adult. He has been in terrible car wrecks coming millimeters from objects that could have killed him…literally. He has been, smashed, crashed, and rolled in cars. But God’s hand was on him.
I should have died when I was 12 after getting stung by a bee. When we showed up at the hospital my throat and eyes were swelled shut. But God’s hand was one me. A week after I had Isaiah, in 2006, I began to lose massive amounts of blood. (I was passing blood clots the size of grapefruits…sorry for the visual). I passed out. But God’s arms were around me.
When we first become missionaries in 2006, we were making $200 a month. How could we survive, right? School, gas, food for 3 people including a pregnant wife? God always provided the food, gas money and tuition; whether by donations or people coming to our aid. God provided.
Worrying about our provisions can damage our marriages, our relationships with our family, and our health. How many of our fights with our spouses or our stress comes from worry that would be completely unnecessary if we chose to trust God? The scripture is very clear- ‘be anxious about nothing’ (Philippians 4:6). I am not saying bad circumstances will never arise but trust that if they do, God will get you through it. When financial burdens arise, a stressful situation occurs, or sickness in the family happens, God can use those things to grow you and refine you, if you let Him.
How silly would it be for my young kids to worry about us having enough money, or food, or clothes to wear? What if they felt like they needed to go to work to make money so they could have ‘more things’ or ‘nicer things’ or ‘put food on the table’? I would say, “No. God has made Daddy the provider and you don’t need to worry about that. Even if we have a hard month or two or three God will provide. Let’s just rest in knowing He will provide for us and focus on our roles and character. Me, a mom and wife, and you, sons and daughters. God is our Father and we are His children. Don’t worry. God is in control and can work things out for good.”
-Amy
When will he notice how annoyed I am?
A certain yellow, slightly beat- up, Nalgene water bottle is plopped onto my kitchen counter every morning. For whatever reason, it annoys me that my better half continues to put this water bottle on the counter every day rather than walk it two steps further to the refrigerator. I have asked him (repeatedly) to please put the water bottle away. He probably just forgets. This is a really annoying habit of his that I really don’t care for.
In our bathroom, I keep my curling iron on Brett’s side of the sink, plugged into his outlet. He has repeatedly asked me to move my hair appliance, as the cord gets in the way while he shaves. I like the lighting on his side of the sink better, so I prefer keeping it on his side. Not unplugging the curling iron after I’m done and moving it out of his way is easy to forget. And, it is a really annoying habit of mine that Brett doesn’t care for.
Why all this nonsense about our really annoying habits? Well, this morning, when I was annoyed by the water bottle, I realized that I have my own habits that annoy him equally. If I can’t conquer mine, for my husband’s sake, why should I expect him to conquer his?
As women, we can get bent out of shape- quickly- over our husband’s annoying habits. Whether your husband leaves the seat up, doesn’t brush his teeth at night, indulges in too much ice cream, hogs the remote control, regulates the thermostat to his liking, or winds up the children right before bed, we ladies can get annoyed by our men, never thinking that we can really annoy them, too! I’m certainly not perfect, so why do I fuss about someone else’s imperfections?
Before you get annoyed about something your guy does today, take a deep breath, and examine yourself first.
Now, excuse me, I have to go unplug a curling iron…
-Kath
“Honey, I’m stressed out. Can we make love?”
Tip #8
DO use love-making with your spouse as a way to relieve stress. If your husband is going through a particularly difficult season with work, for example, offer yourself up regularly and with passionate interest (i.e. don’t just lay there…get into it!). As Andy Stanley says, “Make love a verb!”
DON’T use love-making as something he gets when he “earns” it from you. Your body is not for yourself only, but for your husband’s (and vice versa.) and only giving him intimate relations when he’s been a “good boy” is wrong thinking on your part.
I mentioned Andy Stanley…here is a great sermon he gave titled: ”Staying in Love” for InTouch Ministry
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/audio-archives (part 1)
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/audio-archives (part 2)
-Kath
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