FIGHT - The Power of Fighting Together on the Same Team
This Week’s Quick Hits:
Random Facts about Some Very Interesting People:
Scientists say tears tell you the reason for someone crying. If the first drop comes from the right eye, it’s tears of joy. Otherwise, it’s because of pain.
The longest reigning monarch ever was Louis XIV of France, who ruled for 72 years, 110 days. Exhausting!
Marie Curie was the first person ever to win TWO Nobel Prizes – one for physics in 1903, the other for chemistry in 1911 for her work on radioactivity.
King Henry VIII of England had servants called “Grooms of Stool,” who wiped him clean after he visited the toilet. Gross.
0.5% of the male population are descended from Genghis Khan. (Scientists did a study in 2003 showing that about 16 million dudes share a Y chromosome with the famous emperor.)
The youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is Malala Yousafzai (who was just 17 in 2014), for her work as a child rights activist and champion of girls’ right to education.
Trivia:
How many eyeballs does an owl have?
When you do a Google query, 1,000 computers are used to find the answer in what amount of time?
In this survey taken in 2019, what was the median age of the world’s population?
Apologizing
Read. Watch. Listen.
Read:
Enough is Enough: A Step-by-Step Plan to Leave an Abusive Relationship With God’s Help by Dr. David Clarke
Let me say up front that Dr. Clark never advocates divorce. Rather, he emphasizes separation to get healthy and to give the abusive spouse the opportunity to get help. His knowledge and use of Scripture throughout the book help us see the importance of tough love and boundaries in an abusive marriage. Getting away from an abuser is never easy but it is essential to both spouses’ emotional health.
Watch:
“Love That Adrenaline: Video Games”
The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery website gives us this definition of video game addiction: “Video game addiction is described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling. Similar to other addictions, individuals suffering from video game addiction use the virtual fantasy world to connect with real people through the Internet, as a substitution for real-life human connection, which they are unable to achieve normally. Statistics show that men and boys are more likely to become addicted to video games versus women and girls. Recent research has found that nearly one in 10 youth gamers (ages 8-18) can be classified as pathological gamers or addicted to video-gaming.” So, does that mean trash you video game player? No! It means we have to add balance to this hobby. Join me as we look deeper into this issue and how it relates to marriage.
Listen:
“Have Intimacy or Have Control: You Can’t Have Both” with Special Guest Laura Doyle
How do you know if you are being controlled or micromanaged? Why can’t intimacy and control coexist? Laura Doyle is a NYT bestselling author of The Surrendered Wife and The Empowered Wife, and a relationship coach who helps women bring passion and playfulness back to their marriage. Join us as we talk about this important topic. You can find her content at https://lauradoyle.org/.
Insights:
In 2015, Zondervan published my first book, “7 Secrets to an Awesome Marriage.” It was a bestseller when it debuted on Amazon and continues to sell well. Today we look at Secret #7 and we will finish this series next week with “No Coasting.”
Secret #7: FIGHT - The Power of Fighting Together on the Same Team
If two truly can become one in a Christian marriage, why does it seem so difficult to fight together on the same team? In Ecclesiastes chapter four King Solomon says, “Two are better than one…” and, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves,” and finally, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”
Look at what happens in these verses. He makes his case first for a couple locking arms and standing together against anything and everything that the world throws at them. Then he takes it up to a whole new level with the “cord of three strands.” This is the picture of a husband and a wife and God bound together in the marriage. The God of the universe. The God of all creation. The God who is everything cares about your marriage. He cares so much that He will put Himself right in the middle where He belongs - if you let Him.
What stands in the way of you fighting together with God? Is it something from the past that is still unresolved? Maybe it is an issue of broken trust or un-forgiveness. Whatever it is, your first step is to let God search your heart and reveal what needs to change. That can be a little bit scary because when you open yourself up and completely let Him in, things are going to change. The control passes from your hands into His. I promise you this, God will never do anything that is not the very best for you, your spouse and your marriage.
Now you can do things differently. Now you can stand together instead of apart. Now you can lock arms with God and take on the world. Your life will be better. Your spouse’s life will be better. Your marriage? You cannot even imagine all that our amazingly good God will do.
Next Steps:
Ask God to fight with you and your spouse as you seek together the incredible marriage that He has for you.
Answers Trivia:
None. Owls do not have eyeballs.
The answer to your Google query comes in 0.2 seconds.
The median age of the world’s population in 2019 was 30 years old.
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