'love' Tagged Posts
Growing Together in Grace
No marriage is perfect because no person is perfect. This reality shouldn’t discourage us but should actually bring relief and hope. The goal isn’t to achieve a flawless relationship but to grow together while extending grace for inevitable failures. You can’t expect more from your spouse than you’re willing to give, and you can’t demand perfection when you yourself fall short daily. The beauty of marriage lies in two imperfect people choosing to love each other through the messy, difficult,…
Speaking Truth in Love
There’s an art to speaking truth that heals rather than wounds. It’s not about what we say as much as how we say it and why we’re saying it. When we approach someone in anger, with a condemning spirit, or with the goal of proving we’re right, our words become weapons instead of tools for healing. But when we speak from a place of genuine care, with the goal of restoration, our words can become bridges back to relationship. This…
The Mirror Before the Magnifying Glass
It’s so much easier to see what’s wrong with everyone else, isn’t it? When conflict arises, our first instinct is often to grab a magnifying glass and examine all the ways the other person has failed, hurt us, or contributed to the problem. We can quickly compile a detailed list of their faults, mistakes, and character flaws. But before we turn that magnifying glass outward, we need to look in the mirror. Self-examination isn’t popular in our culture. We’re encouraged…
The Secret to Impossible Forgiveness
Some hurts feel unforgivable. The betrayal that shattered your trust. The words that cut so deep they changed how you see yourself. The actions that altered the course of your life. When someone has wounded you that deeply, forgiveness doesn’t just feel difficult – it feels impossible. But here’s the secret that makes even the hardest forgiveness possible: we don’t forgive by thinking about how much the other person needs forgiveness. We forgive by remembering how much we need forgiveness.…
Preventing Unnecessary Battles
Not every conflict needs to become a war. Sometimes we create unnecessary drama by misinterpreting situations or taking offense at every small slight. Two simple filters can save us from a lot of heartache: don’t assume the worst, and don’t take everything personally. That text message that seemed rude? Maybe they were just in a hurry. The friend who didn’t invite you to their gathering? Perhaps they thought you were too busy. The coworker who seemed dismissive? They might be…
The Fourth Way
When someone hurts us, our natural instinct is to make them pay. We want them to feel the weight of what they’ve done, to understand our pain, to somehow balance the scales. But God offers us a radically different approach: forgiveness. Biblical forgiveness doesn’t mean pretending the hurt didn’t happen or that what they did was okay. It means releasing that person from the debt they owe you. You’re essentially saying, “You hurt me, but I’m not going to hold…
True Love
Hidden in the midst of our long Iowa winters is the season of love: Valentine’s Day. It’s a time for chocolate and card companies to reap huge rewards as we focus on the significant others in our lives. Symbols like hearts and tiny cupids emphasize the importance of romantic love in our culture. Beginning with the Valentine’s card you gave to your first crush, there is a constant push from society telling you that true happiness is only fulfilled when you…
God Loves You
Do you believe God loves you? Whether you attend church regularly or have never stepped foot inside a church, you have probably heard that God loves you. Maybe you grew up singing the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” But then you became an adult and life happened. Now you struggle to reconcile the message of God’s love for you with all the trials you have experienced: a spouse who left; or a…