Here is this week’s free printable Love Calendar. Print, post it, and spread some love and kindness in your life!
Archives for January 2015
Top Ten Blog Posts of 2014
I took a look back at my 2014 blogging year and found these top ten blog posts. Here they are:
- Parable of the Chinese Bamboo Tree (March 2014)
- Cleaning Games for You the Mama (April 2013)
- Chat with Piper Huguley, Historical Romance Author (June 2014)
- A Cold Winter Night, a guest post by novelist Ada Brownell (December 2014)
- 5 Small Habits for Big Strides in Your Marriage (December 2014)
- New Mother, a Letter for You (June 2014)
- Love Anyway, a guest post by Angela Strong (November 2014)
- Wedding Dress Dreams (November 2014)
- Four Ways to Kiss Your Husband (December 2014)
From this list, I learned a couple of things about the top ten blog posts. First, half of them were written later in the year. That’s when I discovered my blogging passion. It’s good to follow your passion! Second, this list reflects my natural interests in romance, relationships and fiction. So all in all, I am remaining true to my writing interests 🙂
We got a head start this year by talking about setting goals for our relationships. Have you looked at those questions from last week’s post and decided upon your relationship goals?
I’m looking forward to having a fun 2015 with you and delving even more into all things love!
Have a great rest of the week.
A Worthy Man, a guest post by novelist Connie Almony
I’m excited to have novelist, Connie Almony as today’s guest blogger. She’s talking about what makes a worthy man!
Sometimes I am disappointed by romances. Why? The biggest reason being when it’s all about the physical attraction—her skin prickles when she sees him; his heart pounds when he hears her voice. No reason for the connection other than this inner knowledge that “he’s the one.”
I need a little more than that in my man, and I’d like to encourage women today to require more than that as they choose a spouse themselves. However, there is a catch. If you seek a worthy man to wed, you must also be prepared to be a worthy woman.
So as an author of romance, what are the characteristics I like to write into my heroes? My latest novel is a romantic suspense so you might guess he’s willing to risk his life for the woman he loves, but there is more. I like my hero to also have qualities the average woman might find in the average (or maybe slightly above average) man. He may not have an opportunity to risk his very life, but he must be prepared to take personal risks of the less dangerous variety.
Chris Johnson, the hero of One Among Men, is this type of man. At first he bristles at the idea of a woman taking a job running an all-male dorm, where she has to live in a building with 500, hard-partying college guys. And he tells her so! He, being male himself, is even more aware of the challenges she will face to which, by virtue of her solely female experience, she may be a little naïve. Therefore, unbeknownst to his conscious thought (and what he sometimes considers his better judgment) he continually finds himself watching out for her, and consequently, protecting her from everything including mere embarrassment, salacious rumors, and … well, I’ll let you read to find out the rest. He even helps her staff. He is not just a hero on a grand scale. He is a hero in the everyday.
That’s my kind of man.
But there is one additional quality of a worthy man that is worth more than all the rest put together. He must know and love Jesus. Chris Johnson, when we first meet him, is a little deficient in this area having never been brought up this way, but God is a big, powerful and gracious God. He puts all the right pieces in Chris’s life so he can have the opportunity to do just that. One of those pieces includes a Worthy Woman who doesn’t just tell him about Christ, she shows him Christ in the spirit of Second Peter, Chapter Three. Not because she wants to fix the man she’s become attracted to. She shows him because that’s who she is, a woman who finds Joy in the thought of her Creator, her Savior. Chris wants that Joy.
Don’t we all?
What do you think are the most important qualities of a Worthy Man?
About One Among Men
Samantha Hart is looking for godly purpose, like her missionary best friend, but is forced to take a job as the resident director of the all-male party dorm at the major state university where her prodigal past haunts her. She must avert the pitfalls of a woman in her position as well as the dangerous forces that threaten her life.
Chris Johnson, a rock guitarist, has come back to school as a music major, and finds himself in a business relationship with the ruthless supplier of an on-campus drug ring. He’s intrigued by the lady RD, while learning more about his musical gift and the God who gave it to him. Can he manage his two worlds without risking Samantha’s life?
About Connie
Connie Almony is trained as a mental health therapist and likes to mix a little fun with the serious stuff of life. She was a 2012 semi-finalist in the Genesis Contest for Women’s Fiction and was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2012 WOW Flash Fiction Contest. She is the author of One Among Men, about a woman whose job requires she live with 500, hard-partying college guys, and At the Edge of a Dark Forest, a modern-day re-telling of Beauty and the Beast about a war-vet, amputee struggling with PTSD.
You can find Connie on the web at ConnieAlmony.com, and hosting the following blogs: InfiniteCharacters.com, IndieChristianFictionSearch.Blogspot.com, and LivingtheBodyofChrist.Blogspot.com.
You can also meet her on the following social media outlets:
Four Ways to Communicate with Your Spouse About Conflict
Finding ways to effectively communicate with your spouse can be a challenge, especially when you encounter conflict.
We’ve all experienced conflict in our marriage, issues we shove under the rug and ignore (workaholism, financial issues, parenting stress, etc.). We try to wish it away, but it remains. If we aren’t proactive about communicating these issues, things could take a turn for the worse. Here are some tips I learned during pre-marital counseling which could help you talk with your spouse about the hard issues in a healthy way:
- Hear the other person out. Don’t interrupt your spouse. This can be tough to do, especially when you think the other person is wrong. One way you can resist the urge to interject is by taking notes while they are talking. It will quell the urge to speak in haste, and it could very well prevent a full blown argument.
- Communicate back what you hear the other person say. I have a tendency to assume the worst whenever I am in a conflict. I am a naturally “glass is half empty” type of person. Whenever I try this second technique, I soon learn that my interpretation of what the other person said or did wasn’t 100% accurate. This technique prevents unnecessary miscommunication.
- Don’t expect to solve the problem in one conversation. Table some aspects of the discussion for later. Big problems and big conflicts aren’t solved in one conversation. Be prepared for multiple talks if needed.
- Affirm your love for each other at the end of the conversation. This serves as a reminder that you aren’t enemies. You’re partners who’ve encountered a speed bump on life’s journey. The Bible verse “don’t let the sun set on your anger” rings true in marriage relationships. So make sure love, not anger or bitterness, ends each of these hard conversations.
What ways have you solved conflict in your marriage? I’d love to hear your tips!
Have you downloaded this week’s Love Calendar? If not, get your copy here.
Free Love Calendar (January 4-10, 2015)
Hope you had a great week!
Click on the link for this week’s Love Calendar. Print it out, post it up, and start spreading the love!
Blessings,
Preslaysa
Setting Goals for Your Relationships
Happy 2015! This is the time of year when many set career goals, health goals, or financial goals. These are good to have, but we often neglect to set goals for our close relationships, our spouse, our children, our friends. Solid relationships are the foundation to a happy life
I once listened to a sermon where the pastor advised his congregation to set goals and schedule in time to work on them. This pastor had been setting goals and writing a weekly schedule to work on his goals for over thirty years. When he became a father, he had said one of his long term goals was to have a friendship with his children. While they were young, he scheduled one-on-one time with them. His said it was an enormous investment given the competing demands on his time, but it paid off. He has a friendship with his adult children.
That sermon came to mind for me recently when I thought about the kind of relationship I want to have with my children, spouse and my friends. Scheduling in that one-on-one time with those I love should be an important part of how I spend my day.
Here are some questions to help you set some relationship goals for 2015:
Your Marriage Goals
- How would you describe the current state of your marriage?
- How many dates have you gone on in the past year? How many would you like to go on? (Check out this post for date night ideas.)
- What are some ways you could improve communication with your spouse?
Your Parenting Goals
- What’s your current discipline style? How could you improve it?
- Do you have clear boundaries with your children?
- What could you do to spend more quality and more quantity time with your children?
- What could you do on a regular basis to show your child that they are loved?
Your Friendship Goals
- Do you like your friends? Do your friendships edify you or drain you?
- Are there any fun things you’d like to do with your friends in 2015?
- How much time do you spend with your friends? How often do you talk to them?
- What could you do to be a better friend?
There you have it, some questions to ask regarding your relationships.
What questions would you add to the list?