Something Great to End With

While thinking through and writing out the bits and pieces of my mini Promises for Hurting Wives series, I came across a 3-part series that Paul Tripp had also been sharing this week. Because it is SO GOOD (aka- much better than anything I could attempt), I've decided to share the links to his 3 posts here as a conclusion to my own. I hope you will read every word of what he has written and share them with others women who need encouragement in their marriage.

Love... in a Fallen World (part 1): It's not an accident that you're conducting your marriage in this broken world. It's not an accident that you have to deal with the things you do. None of this is fate, chance, or luck. It's all a part of God's redemptive plan.

Love... for a Flawed Person (part 2): You and I just don't get to be married to someone perfect. It seems obvious enough, but many people get married with unrealistic expectations about who they're marrying. Here's the point: you both bring something into your marriage that's destructive to what a marriage needs and must do. That thing is called sin.

Love... with a Faithful God (part 3): Realistic expectations are not about hope without honesty, and they're not about honesty without hope. Realism is found at the intersection of unabashed honesty and uncompromising hope. God's Word and God's grace make both possible in your marriage.

Promises for Hurting Wives- Love

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; 
he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; 
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

Holy God,

My prayers go out to hurting women today... Women whose Valentine's Day will be marked with tears and pain. I ask you to quiet them by your love. May your message overshadow every lie that they'll be fed today by the media. May they hear you singing loud, love songs to their hearts. Help them hear and believe your promises of joy and hope.

Help all of us today to view our relationships through the price of a suffering Savior on the cross, not the price tags of fleeting, material gifts. The greatest of all that remains is love-- YOUR love. Give us the courage and desire to love others the way you did. To love sacrificially, in spite of how we feel. Help us put US to death and truly love others today.

Thank You for being forever faithful to your promises. Thank You for hearing this prayer.

Read the introduction to this series HERE.

Promises for Hurting Wives- Hope

Lamentations 3:21-24

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

In the midst of our pain and brokenness, it seems easiest to dwell on our failures. To wallow in our regret. To sink down into the pits of depression for fairytale dreams gone wrong. "But..." we don't have to stay there. "But..." there is a powerful antidote to our defeated thoughts. "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope..." What is the this that offers such hope?

Promises for Hurting Wives- Joy

Read the introduction to this series HERE.

When looking back down former roads of marital pain, what stands out the most to me is a chronic condition of disappointment. In my mind, my husband was always dropping the ball and consistently falling short of my self-enthralled kingdom. Sure, I prayed for change to come... but just for him. Not me. I had my life together. It was too bad that no one else around me was as self-sufficient and capable as I was.  **insert eye roll**

Now with a regenerated view, my eyes can look past those days of struggle which I foolishly thought were birthed by a premature decision to marry. That entangling thread of disappointment and bitterness had been weaving itself through every life event that had already occurred. I wasn't being unfairly denied the treasures of marital bliss that both television and movie screens had promised throughout my life. This religious do-gooder was missing THE Treasure.

Promises for Hurting Wives- A Series

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 

who comforts us in ALL our affliction, 

so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, 

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Hi, my name is Carmen. Maybe you know me in "real life," or maybe you've just been a follower of my blog for a while. One major thing I'd like for people to know about me is I have a hard-core passion for wives who are hurting. Admittedly, I've been on both the receiving end of the hurting and I've shamefully gone over and above to issue the hurting. Almost two years ago, God took this angry, religious, hurting woman on a permanent detour from her high (and lonely) road of self-preservation and ran her smack into a Savior. THE Savior. He miraculously saved me, then my marriage, and now grants me the grace to share this eternal hope with others.