February 2013

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It's February...the month of cupids and hearts. 

If you're a single mom or are married but going through a rough time in your marriage, the Valentine's Day holiday can be a source of pain. 

If this describes your current situation, you need to know you are not alone. 
  

That was me last year and I remember it well.

On February 14, I clung to my own personal valentine messages from God alone. Here are some of the words that I soaked into my heart:

  • For God so loved ________ (insert your name), He gave His only-begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
     
  • Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains...How priceless is your unfailing love. Psalm 36:5-7
     
  • God's love endures forever. Psalm 118:1
     
  • I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
     
  • For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:38-39

If you're happily married, Valentine's Day usually prompts some sort of intentionality in your marriage. However, once a year intentionality isn't enough. Marriage is hard work. It takes time and effort.  

While Valentine's Day isn't enough, it is a great time to launch intentionality into your relationship. What if this year on February 14, you set some realistic goals for your marriage? 

Here are some commitments other couples have made:

  • We will go out as a couple regularly (once a week, every other week, once a month).
     
  • We will set aside $____ for an annual overnight getaway as a couple.
     
  • We will turn off the television and step away from the computer every night at ____ PM to talk and snuggle in bed.
     
  • We will stay in touch with each other throughout the day with texting.
  •  

Or you can choose to make some personal commitments such as:

  • I will affirm my husband at least once a day.
     
  • I will shut my mouth when I am tempted to criticize.
     
  • I will tell my husband I believe in him.
     
  • I will put my marriage before my kids.
  •  

Whatever circumstances you find yourself in this Valentine's Day, you can make the most of it. Don't let Valentine's Day be a once-a -year experience.   

Allow it to motivate you to draw closer to God and closer to the one you love throughout the entire year!

Joining you in the journey, 

 

Jill Savage

Wife to Mark

Mom of Anne, Evan, Erica, Kolya, and Austin

Nana to Rilyn, Landon, and Marie

 


A MOMent with God 

     

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.

                                                 1 Corinthians 13:4     

 

 

When Your Hallmark Moment Goes Wrong

 

A Valentine's Day Story for Real Life


By Laura Sackett 

Grocery Bags

It was Valentine's Day and my husband was deploying to Iraq soon, so I wanted it to be special.

 

I had stopped at the grocery store so I could fix a nice dinner. I only needed a few things, but I should have known better. 

 

After a diaper blowout, a trek across the store to retrieve a dropped toy, and an endless wait at the checkout line, I finally escaped with a cart full of groceries and two wailing kids. 

 

By the time I buckled my boys into their carseats and unloaded the bags from the cart, I was vowing I would never go to the grocery store again. Right about then, a terrible jolt shook our car. Someone had backed into my minivan.

 

We spent another hour in the parking lot before finally making it home. I put the baby in his crib, set my 3-year-old in his room with some books, and shoved a frozen dinner in the oven. 

 

When my husband walked in the door, he found his Valentine sitting numbly at the kitchen table, surrounded by bags of groceries and fed up with life. I remember staring at him and thinking, "This wasn't how it was supposed to be!"   

 

For all I knew, this could be our last Valentine's Day together. I had wanted it to be special, but reality was messing with my expectations, big time.

 

I walked down the hall to check on our boys and discovered they'd both fallen sound asleep. The oven timer beeped. Returning to the kitchen, I had an idea. Minutes later, my husband and I sat down to a candlelight dinner, groceries heaped at our feet. 

 

We ate overcooked lasagna from a box. We looked into each other's eyes and talked. We feasted on being together. We took life, our life, as it was...and we made the best of it. Was it a Hallmark moment? Not even close. But it was something better: it was real.

 

He came home safe from that deployment, and I am forever grateful. Still, we haven't lived a fairy tale. Over the last few years, my heart has taken hits far worse than what happened to my minivan that day. But I'm learning not to measure my marriage by how well it lives up to my expectations. 

 

Instead, I'm freeing it to be what it is: two broken people living in a broken world, called to be faithful to God and each other -- in real life, with all its highs and lows. It's not always what I'd choose, but it's growing the kind of love that will endure long after Valentine's Day has come and gone.

 

And that's better than any Hallmark moment.

 

hah signature


 Hearts at Home helps you...
  • Empower your children to make good choices.
     
         
  • Increase your confidence as a mom when you move from feeling overwhelmed to being an intentional leader of your children.
     
       
  • Build a relationship with an unchanging God in an ever-changing world.    
  
Is your seat saved for National 2013?

 

It's just a few weeks until Best Value Registration

for the Hearts at Home 

National 2013 Conference ends!


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The Best Value Registration Deadline is

February 20, 2013

 

Main stage speakers include:
 

 Candace Cameron Bure - mom, producer, New York Times'
 
best-selling author and actress, and best known 
for her role as
"D.J." on Full House.
 
    

 Jill Savage - author, CEO and Founder of Hearts at Home.
 
Anita Renfroe  - well-known for her pop culture parody of the William Tell Overture-Mom Style (Moms Night Out only).

 

Special musical guest Meredith Andrews.

  

Choose the two-day Friday PLUS! option for two main sessions and three or four workshops on Friday, plus choose three or four additional workshops on Saturday

or

 choose to attend either Friday or Saturday.  

 

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Go to www.HeartsatHome.org for the full descriptions of all speakers and workshops and to start the registration process.

 

 

Are you living your "happily ever after?"

 

No More Perfect Moms

If you stop to think about it, chances are likely that your fairy tale marriage is not turning out like you imagined. 

 

This doesn't make you different. In fact, it makes you normal.

 

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It's a practical look at what REALLY happens when two imperfect people join together in marriage. 

 

You'll explore the realities of marriage and learn to recognize the traps we encounter when we have unrealistic expectations. 

 

You'll also learn the antidote - the things that you can do that will positively impact your relationship with your husband and make your marriage the healthiest that it can be!

 

You can download and read a chapter today!  

 

 

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Hearts at Home

1509 N. Clinton Blvd.
Bloomington, IL 61701

Email: hearts@heartsathome.org

Phone:  309 828 MOMS

Web:  http://www.HeartsAtHome.org