Friday, January 23, 2009

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Sacrificial Love

Good morning and happy Friday, everyone! :)


Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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This week's prompt:
Tell us about a time that your spouse went out of his way to serve you, and love you sacrificially.

Thinking about these things can be very good for your marriage, and definitely for the way you view your marriage and your attitude towards your spouse. Especially if you are experiencing a particularly difficult season in your relationship, or if you feel yourself beginning to have a negative outlook on the situation.

That's the point of even doing My Husband Rocks Fridays in the first place. Choosing to focus on the good in our marriages and in the men we will spend the rest of our lives with. God created marriage to be a perfect picture of Christ's love for the church, so why is it so hard? The devil ABSOLUTELY does not want the world to see that beautiful picture, so of course he will do everything in his power to degrade it and to chip away at our resolve to live that out!

Choosing to dwell upon those things that make us fall more and more in love with our husbands, every day, I believe, is one way that we can silence that nasty, nagging voice that tries to bring up all of the petty and selfish and unkind thoughts we are sometimes inclined towards. At least that's the goal.

I hope that this does not become repetative or rote for us, and I hope that this is not something that we just do on Fridays because that's the blog day to do it. Honestly, that is something that I have been struggling with for the last few weeks, but I am so glad for the accountability of knowing that over 100 other women out there in blogland were doing this with me. I had fallen into the "well, it's Friday, I had better come up with something to write about" while the rest of the week, I allowed myself to wallow in my self-pity and selfishness and laziness towards my marriage. I apologize if I have portrayed myself in an untruthful manner, but I wanted you all to know this because I do not ever want to be accused of being false or hypocritical about any of this.

I praise the Lord that he is using this little blog game, and if he is, it is of no credit to me. I do not ever want any of you to think that I think that we have it all together, or that I in any way want to take the glory for whatever good may come out of MHR Fridays! I know the benefits that it is bringing to my marriage, but even more importantly than that, my thought processes and attitudes toward Austin. This may seem very basic, but for this morning I feel like I really "got it." It has never been my job to change Austin, or to even believe that he should change. My job is to love him and respect him and work on allowing God to change me into the very best possible version of myself so that he can use me to bless those around me - especially my husband! Thank you all so much for showing me, every week, women who love the Lord and are striving to be the best possible wives for the husbands he has given them. I cannot tell you how much that means to me!

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Sorry for rambling. That was all something that has been on my heart for awhile now, and I'm not sure that's even everything that I need to say, but I'm sure this post is plenty long already and I haven't even gotten to the my husband rocking part :)

Austin has always been very good at doing what is best for me and for our family. I know that before he makes any decision he carefully and prayerfully considers the ramifications and decides on the best possible course of action. I cannot tell you how comforting and freeing it is to know that he always has our best interests in mind.

Before we were even married, he showed sacrificial love for me by spending the summer in Colorado, living with my grandparents, the year after we graduated from college instead of living at home where he had a sure-thing job, and all of the friends that he had grown up with.

Since we have been married, he has gone out of his way to serve me and to give me so many of the things that I just want - after he has made sure that, by the grace of God, we have everything we need. The most recent example of this is yesterday. Austin went to work for his normal eight to five shift, came home to have supper with me, left to go help a friend move some new furniture into their house, then went back to work to help with a last-minute job. When my alarm went off at five this morning, I called his cell phone, and he had just gotten home! He will go back into work this morning at eight o'clock and work another full day today! Without complaining about it at all, he just got into bed to sleep a couple of hours before hitting it hard again! I appreciate so much that he is willing to work so hard to build a life for us!
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Be sure to check in with the other ladies who are bragging on their rocking hubbies today by clicking on the "My Husband Rocks Participants" button in the left sidebar.

(if you would like to add the MHR Fridays button to your sidebar, use this code ).


<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>


If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and a fantastic weekend!

16 comments:

  1. Thank you for being so transparent, Katy Lin. I truly appreciate your honesty. I feel like I've been given a gift this morning through your words.

    There are certainly times in our marriages when it becomes a bit (or even tremendously) harder to focus on the blessings we have in our husbands and our marriages, and that is definitely the time we need to press on to encourage our husbands and even ourselves and to call upon God to strengthen us and our marriages.

    MHR has been, for me, a great tool and reminder in nurturing my relationship with my Chris. I appreciate the opportunity you've given us all.

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  2. Your words ring so true! I just wanted you to know I appreciate you! It's sometimes VERY hard for me to read other's MHR posts. I feel jealous that my hubby doesn't do some of those things. I am reminded of a Sunday school class I took where I was convicted of reading romance novels. Because I would unfairly compare my life to those in the book. It made me not satisfied with my own life. But, the book was not real. And when I read other's MHR posts I need to remember they are writing only about good things and to not compare my hubby to theirs because that is not fair. Does that make sense? I SO appreciate the foundation of MHR! It wasn't until I started reading the Power of a Praying Wife and praying for my hubby and asking God for an unconditional love for my husband that I started really appreciating him. The more we lift up our men and brag on them, the better things get! After 23 years of marriage, I am just now getting that. You've got that from the beginning....your marriage should be an amazing ride, girl! {{hugs}}

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  3. I love that you are hosting this and am excited to join you! I just put up my first post! It's an amazing thing when we can see how much our husbands actually do for us and it's great to recognize it.

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  4. Katy Lin, Thank You! The lord knows you have made a difference in my life!All you efforts has motivated me to slow down and really acknowledge and appreciate my mariage. I think my hubby enjoys it too!

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  5. I echo everything from above Katy Lin! It is so easy to get caught up in the things that are hard about marriage. I love taking time every week to honor Mike for what he does RIGHT and it so helps me the rest of the time to keep my eye on the prize.

    Thanks for what you do!

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  6. Thank you for doing this Katy Lin! I just found your blog through another friend and look forward to taking up the MHR challenges each Friday.

    Here is my first submission:
    http://nomadsinlife.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-husband-rocks-friday.html

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  7. hi there! saw your blog on a friend's blog. (doesn't it always happen that way?) Love the MHR idea and am going to add it to my blog! What a sweet idea to lift up our husband. Very cute, thanks so much for sharing. Linking you to my blog roll to see how your adventure continues :)

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  8. OH thank goodness...you're NORMAL?!?!? I'm so relieved. :)

    I made my challenge of doing MHR 4 weeks in a row and let me tell ya...2 of those Fridays I had the same, "Oh great...now I have to come up with something to write about" attitude.

    I am so grateful for the fact that you initiate this every week. As wives, we can allow resentment or bitterness to build up WAY too quickly. It's nice to focus on the positive at the end of the week. YOU rock, girlfriend!

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  9. What a great post this week.. Thanks for sharing this.. You can find my post at the below link..

    http://ladybug-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-husband-rocksloving-sacrificially.html

    Lynn

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  10. Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I love that you started this. It gives me a reason to publicize how awesome my husband is.

    Sounds like you're husband is way busy. That's so great that he can work so hard and not complain! Sounds like you have a great husband.

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  11. oooooo, I didn't know you gave prompts?! How nice. There are about a million things that I love about my husband, but for some reason, on Friday's I go blank. :)
    I just wanted to thank you so much for doing this! In a society where marriages are falling apart, it is so wonderful to be encouraged to focus on the things you love and appreciate about your man. AND, it's contageous!! When people are sitting around talking badly about their husbands, it's easy to jump in, but the opposite it true as well! Almost all of my friends have jumped on the MHR wagon (although they don't link back to you and one says hubby and one does it on thurs.?). I just think it's wonderful and wanted to thank you!!!! :)

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  12. I look forward to MHR every week. I am so glad you started it and that I found you. I think it is a little "bloggy" gift from God! We all have our struggles, and it is VERY healthy for our marriages to focus on the good. Thank you for starting MHR!
    That was an incredible example of sacrificial love. Austin rocks!

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  13. A day late, but I couldn't let this prompt go undone! It's such a good one! I like the challenge, too!

    http://gombojav.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-husband-rocks-friday-on-saturday.html

    (btw, Katy Lin, when ya gonna get a Mr. Linky?)

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  14. Great post!! We are ALL VERY blessed to have such great husbands who ROCK and sacrifice!!

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  15. That is a sweet post and your honesty just encourages the rest of us! Your hubby is super, by the way! :)

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Always great to hear from you! I ALWAYS read your comments, and they make my day!

Thank you!