Bitterness

Charlyne Steinkamp “Women, do you respect your husband? Men are to love their wives as their own bodies . A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Ephesians 5:31 When I started disrespecting Bob because of his actions, behaviors, and words, I allowed the enemy to come into our home and pour self-righteousness, bitterness, and anger into my heart”.

“Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. Even so husbands should love their wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, Because we are members (parts) of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church. However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly].”

~~~Ephesians 5:22-33 (AMPC)~~~

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JUST A SIP

Stop Making Everything All About You!

April 16, 2021April 16, 2021 taylorjamesalbert

“Self-centeredness is the foundation to all bitterness and hurt and pain. It’s what goes on in marriages when you’re self-centered, you have a problem almost with everything because you have yourself in the center. You have to remove yourself from the center in the midst of an attack and it won’t bother you, because you are not in the center of it” Creflo Dollar.

“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”

~~~James 3:14-16 (KJV)~~~

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Life’s Problems: Bitter or Better

February 10, 2020December 18, 2020 taylorjamesalbert

Each of us has problems to deal with. This is life. The real question is how do we deal with these problems? How we deal with them determines the quality of our life.

Though I can’t say I recall ever hearing my deceased mother-in-law having said this, but my husband has said she had said “life is just a series of problems to be solved.” This statement does sound like her.

The phrase “bitter or better” is such an accurate description of how effectively we use our problems in life. We can choose to learn from these problems and navigate through them much easier than the alternative. If we choose to be bitter about having problems in our life, then navigating through them becomes more of a struggle.

Life is about living and living is full of learning opportunities. I have always used the phrase “stepping stones” to describe how I see life and the opportunities it offers. Every person, every book, every situation is full of opportunity to use all our senses to experience life. It’s a moment by moment decision how we choose to experience life.

It’s about choosing to be happy or unhappy, full of life or full of death, eager to grow or anxious to die; it’s about your cup being half full or half empty. And it’s also a choice between good and evil, and ultimately trusting God or not.

As Nick Vujicic so famously has stated “Your attitude determines your altitude”. In essence our negativity fuels more negativity or our positive outlook creates more positive outlook.

The real question is why anyone would want to be negative, living in doubt, in bitterness, without hope. Why would anyone want to waste their life on just surviving and fighting their way through the problems of life when there is such an amazing alternative? Life is just too short to be wasted.

I am also not advocating living a selfish, glutinous life of over indulging in all the amazing and wonderful things life does have to offer. More importantly I am certainly not advocating tossing aside ones moral compass and going off the deep end, choosing to live a life void of common decency, honorable character, and morality.

Some people spend their whole live running. They run from anything they cannot control, they run from anything they don’t like, they run whenever their lies have begun to catch up with them, they run whenever they are feeling bored, and they run when genuine intimacy and true love are reaching out to them.

The point is, it’s a choice how each of us views life and ultimately how we live it. Bitter definitely in not the way to go. Better opens up the door to unlimited possibilities. Better definitely is better!

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us….but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:1-5, 8 (ESV).