Miss Mary’s life: A memorable journey - Hannibal, MO - Hannibal Courier-Post

My Girlfriend, Shelly from MO visited Hannibal, MO this past weekend. Shelly and her sister Debbie visited a nursing home where their Aunt Sylvia lives. The planned for a nice Christmas visitation with all of the elderly residents and have done this for several years now. Many of them look forward to seeing them visit each Christmas season, that is if they remember them.

At the nursing home in Hannibal, Shelly & Debbie met a very outgoing, positive and somewhat feisty older lady that claimed to be 106 years old. When the nurses verified that she was in fact that age, Debbie also found this very insightful article in the archives of the Hannibal Courier Post about Ms. Mary Carter, age 106. Seems Ms. Mary must have recently moved into the nursing home in Hannibal.

I challenge you to listen to the short video at the end of the article to get inspired about living a positive "happy" life for Jesus! It will make you smile and remind you to be thankful you are "alive!"

Miss Mary’s life: A memorable journey - Hannibal, MO - Hannibal Courier-Post

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Husband #2 ????

Okay, I can't stand "The way things ARE today." I am totally sick of the commercial for the newly released antacid medicine. The actress in the commercial claims to be out on a date with a guy that is "really bringing it." She on the other hand, "has got nothin'." She then takes this medication, another pill to feel better, and then she gets "husband number two!" It's totally the excitement of the number two or second husband she has, as if there will be a three and four.

I've always said that it seems that even in well meaning churches there is more emphasis on DivorceCare type ministries than there is on "Reconciliation CARE" We live in such a disposable society. One that even elevates the idea of just getting a new husband. I thank God daily that we have been taught and continue to teach others that they don't need a new spouse, they NEED a NEW marriage.

Why take all of the issues from your first marriage into your second, third or fourth marriage. Why not work on the issues you have and learn to love as Christ taught us to do. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. And women are admonished to teach the younger women to love their husbands. In this, it seems as though it is something we need to learn to do. It's not basing love on an emotion that just happens. It's a deep love that brings up a wonderful emotion.

I pray today that anyone reading this will not look to spouse #2, 3, or 4 to find the love and joy that God intends for "the wife of your youth." Reconciliation can be a wonderful lifelong marriage of happiness, this I live daily. Thank-you Lord for restoring my marriage back on February 12, 1995! I'll never forget what the Lord has done for us.

Dr. Oz at it again

Today I was doing laundry again and listened in to Dr. Oz again. He is doing the second round of his "National Sex Experiment" in marriages. He's outlined a few more things to
"help get America restarted in the bedroom." Remember in my earlier post that he says there is a problem with lack of intimacy in American couples, married ones, these days. He says it's in epidemic proportion in America. DUH, I say. As we move farther and farther away from calling sin a sin, it's no wonder that the sin of bitterness and laziness and selfishness is taking over in the bedroom. We need to forgive, get rid of bitterness and laziness and let go of our selfishness in order to be able to open our emotions up to intimacy. The gal on Dr. Oz's show today, a sex therapist said, "You can change the color of paint in your bedroom to make it more, " alluring was what she was suggesting. She also said that a couple should practice acting out a fantasy, maybe with costumes if necessary!

I say, what about just loving one another in a way that is intimate in and out of the bedroom. Love with an intimacy that God loves with. Emotional connection that looks forward to being together, at all hours, and not just in the bedroom. This can and will happen when you lay your "issues" down at Jesus feet, accept the emotional pain and consequences and learn to love as God loves; unconditional, romantic, passionate and holy.

We have been mentoring some couples this year, where their marriages have gone from zero and one's on the scale of 1-10, 10 being great to 6, 7, & 8's all by using the "Heart Care" method of forgiveness and laying things down at Jesus feet. So much emotional intimacy is dormant behind the walls of bitterness, pride, moral failure, negative thoughts, generational sin, sinful habits, hypocrisy, and the like. I'm thankful that God is a forgiving God and he restores the years the locust have eaten in all lives who surrender to Him!

Less Stress

As I have watched the Dr. Oz show off and on, I have found some useful tips I'd like to pass on a more importantly, remember myself.


His 4 big ideas to have less stress in your life were:

1. Discontinue Caffeine


2. Cut back or discontinue sugar intake


3. Add Vitamin C to your diet


4. Increase Endorphins by: Exercising, Meditation & Deep Breathing

How interesting. Eating right has always been a challenge for us in America. God created food from the ground for us to eat, but why do we always seem to go for the highly sugar added, fried in grease, chemically processed or enhanced with preservatives food? Oh how good it would be to eat only the good things for me. I look forward to eating more from the land we live on each year. Next year we plan to plant fruit trees to eat from and sell at our Farmer's Market in Springfield.

Then there is adding that Vitamin C. I believe that a person needs to get out in great outdoors and get the serotonin from the sun every day. I find it so rewarding and encouraging to my mental health to get outside with God's living creation daily. Thanks Lord, for the great property you allow us to care for. I pray you will give us the means to pay for the extra $800 each month we are going to have to pay in taxes this next year. YEP, our property tax in Sarpy County, NE went up 333%. Talk about taxation with out representation. Pathetic.

Okay, back to the list of stress relievers that I desperately need this year. Hmmm, endorphins increase. Did you know making love to your spouse increases endorphins that produce a healthy body? Yep. And about the meditation, what about daily prayer, memorizing the word, studying the word and just "Being still and knowing that HE is God." I think meditating on his word is a very useful practice to understanding God's will, and lining up with it. When I first learned how to meditate on his word several years ago, I was amazed how God gave me direction, comfort and peace in knowing and completing his plan. He also gave me the "next right thing to do," each day!

And to think people are all in a flurry about how wonderful Yoga is these days, like it's a new practice for great health. I think God designed a perfect idea for great health. Meditating on his word makes so much more great sense compared to the Eastern Religion idea of emptying your mind and finding peace from within. God tells us always to renew our minds. Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

I must take time to reduce stress by renewing my mind right now! Add deep breath here - in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Are Women in America Unhappy?

Today, still doing laundry, Rachel Ray told viewers on her show that statistics show women in America are unhappier today than in previous decades. She went on to state that we have more power, more business success and more women in the work force, yet we are not as happy. She said, "Why is that?"

Well I'd love to answer that Rachel. I think we have made a shift away from what God intended for Marriage and Family. While women have lots of opportunities, many women take advantage of that and in the long run end up doing jobs that require a lot of their time and energy, pulling them away from the their families and definitely not encouraging oneness in their marriage relationships. Am I saying it's wrong to work outside the home? NO, but make sure it doesn't interfere with your number one priority as a Mom and Wife, to be the intended helper/homemaker of your family. If it does, it may not be a good choice for your family.

My husband will say that many times women excel at work because they do not get the encouragement from husbands at home. People even compliment what a woman wears in the workplace. I've always said, I think women dress up for other women. We get many of our compliments from each other and look forward to impressing our girl friends. However, if you put together a day with; an argument with your husband left over from the night before and a boss or other male co-worker complimenting the way you dress then you may have a recipe for success for Satan to get in and cause problems in a marriage.

Satan's goal is to break up a marriage. In doing that, he will break up a family, which in turn breaks up a church and as many societies before us have disintegrated, so will America, our country. Satan hates any thing of God touches. God created the institution of marriage, the church, and the family. We must fight for our families and not let being busy cause us to drift from a happy and fulfilling marriage, family, church and country.

So back to why they are unhappy. Could it be that women have taken on too much or too many tasks we were not created to handle. Are we working to buy stuff we don't need to end up working a job we don't like and hauling things to the curb for the Disabled Veteran van to pick-up things we no longer need, want or have time to use?

Sometimes you have to get off the wagon of bad habits. Take time to be the Mom you want to be. Which usually lines up more to the Mom God wants you to be. I've worked with SO many women that end up working just to pay the bills and they hate it. Many times women are making more than their husbands, who in the long run tend to lose self esteem by having a higher paid wife.

Remember this little quote..."If Satan can't make you bad, he will work to make you busy." Too busy to take care of a family and marriage relationship. Then breakdown happens. Make time for God, Your Husband, Your Children and You, each day in this order and you will find more recipe for happiness. Keep your priorities in the right order for success. Learn to serve God your spouse and your family to find joy and blessing each and every day!

Marriage & Sex & My Laundry

This week is laundry week. As I fold, hang-up and iron I get to hear much of the morning talk shows. Yesterday, Dr. Oz said that "Americans prioritize everything above their romantic partners – and as a result, the country is in the midst of a sexual famine." He put out a challenge for an experiment to help couples across America. While I don't line up totally with Dr. Oz's Eastern Religion influence, I do believe he has very good points to be made. AND many of the tip in this challenge would do all marriage some good. Such as the first challenge of just holding and cuddling (non-sexual touching) for 10 minutes each weeks. We suggest this all the time to heal marriages and help them find oneness.

http://www.doctoroz.com/challenge/national-sex-experiment

Check it out for your marriage!

Our Daugther's Wedding Day

Our daughter's wedding was a wedding created with Christ at the center and dedicated to our heavenly Father on October 24th in the year of our Lord, 2009. I find it very interesting that Sadie's Great Grandmother, Sadie Bertha Bartsch's, wedding certificate to Jacob Bartsch from Cottonwood County in the State of Minnesota is recorded like this:

I hereby certify that on the 19th day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty three at the home in said County. The undersigned, a minister of the gospel did join in the holy bonds of Matrimony according to the laws of this State. Jacob H. Bartsch ...and Sadie Bertha Wiegold...

Imagine, in these days how much the State of Minnesota would get attacked for having certificates that imply that marriage in such a Christ centered event...in the year of OUR LORD!

I'm thankful that here in America we can still rent a ballroom and have a Christ-centered Wedding between to followers of Jesus Christ. Two families in Jesus coming together. What a wonderful day it was. One of the highlights definately was having a first communion with Sadie and Ethan as a new family unit. The six of us, Ethan's parents and us along with the newlyweds broke the bread symbolizes Christ body and shared the "cup" symbolizing Jesus' shed blood for us. We actually dipped the bread in the cup, eat in remembrance of Him. Then the Father's prayed and Pastor Jeff closed the prayer as we all wept in thanksgiving to Him for bringing not only our "kids" together as one, but for what Christ did for all of us that have accepted his death on a cross as our salvation for eternal life. What a day of rejoicing that will be.

Then, there was the reception next door in the ballroom. Dancing, cake cutting, pink flowers and pink twinkle lights, a candy table with a Bridal shot with Sadie's favorite Grand Champion Chicken Mary on the it, food, fellowship and Bridesmaid's dancing! Sounds like a party to me.

What does America think is funny?

As I was ironing a table cloth today I was listening the TV. It announced upcoming shows for fall on the ABC network, with the catch phrase "Laugh with America" on ABC or something to that effect. The very next clip was a show in which the mother character says to someone younger than them, "You can ask any question you want?" To which the young lady replies back, "How many men have you slept with?" I stopped my ironing to look up at the TV in dismay, wondering "Why does AMERICA think that is funny?"



I went on to hear Actor Chris Rice talk of his new documentary on the VIEW. His documentary shows how black women spends millions of dollars each year on their hair and that in comparison with percentages is much higher than white women. Why that is worth documenting I'm not sure, but he then made a statement regarding David Letterman's recent plight of having affairs with his staff - If people make you angry you can call the police, if the but if you make your wife angry, "There ain't no one you can call!"



Which makes me think of this past few months and how we have worked with many couples to help resolves the "issues" they have between them that has stiffled thier marriage happiness.

Our 2nd Daughter to Marry

Our middle daughter and 3rd child in the birth order, Sadie Elizabeth, will marry her first and only boyfriend, from her Jr. High youth group, Ethan Hall. We are thrilled to celebrate this union October 24, 2009. They started their courtship last fall with a phone call to Roger from Ethan to court and seek to marry his daughter. The have bought an adorable little home in the heart of Omaha and are ready for a lifetime of love & commitment to one another In Christ.

The Silent Year...and one month

The silent year. Is this similar to the 400 silent years between the old and the new testament or maybe the 40 years that Israelites wander in the wilderness? To that I am not sure. I just know that our ministry has taken a huge turn since our last post in August of 2008.


We now find ourselves in the middle of New Membership classes at a new "Missionally Focused" church that meets in the center of our city, 30 minutes for our property. The end of January 2009 we felt very confident to leave the church we had been attending for 7 years. It was so neat how God defined our leaving within one single moment. It was an answer to prayer that God let us see beyond a shadow of a doubt to understand that our teaching and leading to the fact the marriage is a VERY spiritual institution, became the polar opposite of the way the church we were attending saw ministering to marriages. Are they wrong? Not necessarily, we just were confident God was taking us out.


Since leaving behind the marriage ministry that God allowed us to build at a local church 20 couples thus far, have called, emailed or come to us asking for marriage help. Help either in premarital coaching, direction, mentoring or most of the time, "crisis" help. Many marriage have come to us on their last leg. Many very close to ending. It has been no only a privilege but a blessing to see some of the marriages we have worked with see actual miracles happen in their marriages. God has helped us to help them unlock hearts and reconnect them in a way only Jesus forgiveness and abundant grace and healing can repair.

Isaiah 58:8 (New International Version)
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard

With that being said, (A true Mark Driscoll cliche') we have been doing lot's a marriage mentoring. We are also working slowly toward starting a faith based non-profit marriage ministry. We hope this ministry will help serve our very first vision..."To see the decrease of divorce in our local communities." PRAISE God he is directing our path. More news to come.