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Daily Affirmations for Wives

I did it, I wrote consistently 30 of 31 Days. I enjoyed reading and reflecting on the book of Sirach this month, but I think some of my favorite posts from the month have been the last couple where I considered a good wife. One of my purposes in writing is to encourage women to take every thought captive to Christ and stop being a slave to negative thoughts. Daily affirmations can play a huge part in overcoming negative thinking. So let’s pull together some daily affirmations for wives.

It’s amazing how much we can learn about being a good wife from a few simple lines of scripture found in our Bible. But reading about a good wife is not enough. We have to desire to become one and then take steps to make it happen.

One of the easiest and most fruitful steps to becoming a good wife, is to start speaking of ourselves as a good wife–daily affirmations for wives. These affirmations need to be said repeatedly. Remember the whole “making new pathways in our brains” discussion we considered in “What Does the Bible Say About Our Thoughts.” Well, it applies here.

Just as an experiment, for the next week, let’s repeat these daily affirmations for wives at least twice a day, morning and night. Repeat them with an open mind and tender heart, asking God to make us the wife He created us to be. Also, anytime during the day we start to feel frustrated, angry or resentful with or toward our husband, let’s start saying these affirmations, preferably out loud. Also, where it says “husband” say your husband’s name.

Remember, these affirmations are not to change our husband. He will most likely be the same guy in one week as today. These daily affirmations are to change us. They are to change our heart, our thoughts and our words about our husband. We are fighting fire with fire here. If we have been negative or sloppy in our thoughts and words about our husband, the purpose of saying these affirmations are to make us positive and intentional in our thoughts and words.

If you are joining me for the next week in my daily affirmations for wives challenge, let me know in the comments. I would love to know I’m not alone in desiring to become a good wife.

Click here to read more posts about a good wife.

Each day there is more encouragement and even some laughs over on my Facebook page. Head over and “Like” me there for more.

by Jenny

Daily Affirmations for Women

I’m slipping this 31 Days post just in under the wire. I know it’s late Tuesday or early Wednesday for most of you, but let’s consider daily affirmations for women tonight. More importantly, let’s talk about one we need to start saying first thing every morning, starting this morning

I am wholehearted in my understanding and my speech is consistent.

Daily Affirmations for Women

There’s this verse in Sirach that says “Be steadfast in your understanding…” Lovely verse, but I don’t walk around using the word “steadfast” so I was a little confused how to apply this word into a daily affirmation. I looked up “steadfast” in the Thesaurus and I liked the last synonym listed…wholehearted.

Why “wholehearted” over “steadfast” in my daily affirmations? Because to me, being wholehearted means uniting my mind and heart. The Bible frequently uses the mind and heart interchangeably. Think of Psalm 19:14–“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

So for my daily affirmation, I want to unite my heart and mind. I want my understanding to be so multifaceted that I use every available means from God to understand His ways first. Then I want my understanding to extend to the grumpy toddler (or teen), the stressed husband, or the frustrated fifth grader. I need my mind and heart to truly understand these beautiful souls because they are uniquely multifaceted individuals. Seeing them at face value will lead to poor communication, misunderstanding and more frustration. Remember when we considered A Man of Understanding?

When I try to understand from my heart and my mind, hopefully, I can see past the tough exterior or the grumpy exterior. I will be able to recognize the fear, discomfort or sadness that may be not so obvious. I remember a long time ago hearing, “When a man is angry, there is always a fear behind that anger.” Being able to understand my husband’s anger in a different way, not just what I saw on the surface, helped me to respond instead of react to him. I could feel sympathy for a fear that was behind the anger instead of bristling in my own anger. This understanding completely diffused what could have been a tense situation.

Consistent speech…Oh where do we even begin? One of the reasons I write and blog is to encourage women to break free from negative thoughts and words. So let’s not go too in depth here because this is a topic we will cover frequently. Let’s just say, especially if you are a parent, we know the value of consistency. “Value” is not the best word…the necessity, of being consistent. One time is all it takes for a bad habit to try and take over any good already accomplished. This absolutely holds true in our daily affirmations. We must be consistent in our speech to ourselves or we won’t believe ourselves. If I tell my toddler, “Do not throw that toy or I will take it away from you,” and he throws it and I don’t take it…I’m not consistent; I become unbelievable.

In order for our daily affirmations to be effective, to be life changing and joy producing, we must be consistent in proclaiming them over ourselves. Our heart and mind must be steadfast–wholehearted–and in agreement consistently to break the bad habits we have learned and spoken to ourselves for who knows how long.

Each day there is more encouragement and even some laughs over on my Facebook page. Head over and “Like” me there for more.

by Jenny

Prayer for Strength

I took on a 31 Days Writing Challenge to get back into blogging, again. I’ve been blogging quietly and communal, off and on for the past 10 years. I get anxious or overwhelmed with putting myself out there and then quickly close up shop. But I always come back…always. Blogging serves a creative good for me, confirmed over and over again by my husband and my spiritual father. So this morning, I said a prayer for strength. I know what I am supposed to be doing. I know why and I’m learning how. Now I need the strength.

These past few months have been trying. There is the usual complexities involved in raising a large family–finances, relationships, clean clothing and soccer schedules times five, piano and Girls Leadership. All blessings indeed, but sometimes, they are just the collective one more thing.

There was the respiratory virus that bored a huge hole in our lives, disrupting everything from outside activities, to simple household chores and home learning for nine weeks. And the respiratory virus chose to make it’s debut two days after my husband left for almost four months of out of state work…his work never travels, why then?

There has always been my creative passion, blogging, to either distract and or make sense of it all. I think out loud either verbally or through blogging. And even blogging took a hit this year. I changed the name of my blog the beginning of the year to a more user friendly name. And just shy of a couple months into the new name, for possible legal reasons, I had to change the name again. Not good for momentum and continuity and not good from a business perspective.

I have felt discouraged, rubbed raw and worn smooth–or almost smooth–at times. I have stepped back and completely away from blogging only to return, drawn to this creative outlet and compelled to share my words, my stories, and even the little details in my weekly Daybook, like what song I’m listening to as of late because I know you are there just like I’m on the other end of someone else’s thoughts and words. I have recently shifted my focus or rather clarified my intention. Blogging for me is not just a creative outlet, I know it to be my humble witness of the love and mercy of God and His workings in my life; so dare I call it a ministry?

Back to my prayer for strength Sunday morning. I didn’t sit down with the intention to pray for strength. I sat down and read from Divine Intimacy and the section I read was all about the life of the apostolate. An in my reading, I felt compelled to write and the result was this prayer…

Prayer for Strength

Lord, I know you have placed a call on my heart to share You–Your truths revealed in the scriptures–to worn and weary women struggling with anxiety, worry and doubt. Please show me and use me to reach their hearts and minds and show them there is power in positive thinking, positive affirmations and daily affirmations. Keep me from being more internet noise but a woman of conversion–always renewing my heart and mind to grow in closer friendship with You. And a woman of conviction–able to share Your truths through my life stories and ponderings which I share on The Littlest Way for the encouragement of others.

I have mentioned and will occasionally mention the struggles I have had with my thinking. Those struggles are a part of my story which make me who I am–Hi There! And those struggles were hard, scary, and lonely. I don’t have to go into the details and only mention them for context. Neither one of us need the details or reminders, they would only serve as a superficial distraction and bring out the base voyeur that lurks in all of us. I don’t like to go there, much less linger in the past. My goal is to focus on the present.

And that brings me to the purpose of The Littlest Way…to focus on the love and mercy of a gracious Father who blesses us with the gift of the present moment and grants us hope for the things to come.

Each day there is more encouragement and even some laughs over on my Facebook page. Head over and “Like” me there for more.

by Jenny

Meditate Constantly on His Commands

Welcome to Day 18 of my 31 Days Writing Challenge, Meditate Constantly on His Commands. I’m spending 31 Days reading the book of Sirach and writing about it. So far, I’ve considered affirmations, a Facebook Bible, ebola and mean girls to name a few. There is one common thread through all those posts though, our thought life.

I spent too many years thinking about whatever popped into my mind and I bear the mental and emotional scars to prove it. I have a sensitivity to those suffering from the consequences of negative thinking and a healthy fear I think of ever going back down that road. On that note, let’s think about something different. Let’s consider today, how to meditate constantly on His commands.

I’ve written frequently and specifically on our thought life. I’ve shared scientific information about how our brains are wired to think. That scientific information is important even though today we are considering Christian meditation on the commands of God. The science behind our thoughts reveals new habits can be formed. That’s encouraging to know and important to note. Starting something new, anything new, is a learning process. So don’t be discouraged if you read this post and go sit in your favorite comfy chair to meditate on His commands and come up empty and dry.

Meditate Constantly on His Commands

Before we unpack this idea of meditating constantly on His commands, please do not get hung up on the word “constantly.” Constant can mean a couple of different things: fixed, never ending, loyal, determined. Some synonyms for constant: regular, stable, steady, perpetual, firm, permanent, habitual, endless, persistent, faithful, dependable, persevering…Sure some of those words can conjure up the idea of a continual, non-stop sort of holy conversation rarely seen this side of heaven. But some of those synonyms are for the rest of us…the wives and mothers, the full timers and the old timers, the deep thinkers and the “I cannot even finish a complete thought without an interruption!” (I fall in the last category…thanks be to God for these seven interruptions.*)

For those of us living La Vida Loca–the crazy (blessed) life…pay attention to the word, “persistent.” Back to my trusty Thesaurus. Persistent: enduring, repeated, in for the long haul. Now those are some words I can work with.

Meditate constantly on His commandments…Meditate repeatedly on His commandments…Meditate persistently on His commandments. I can do that. You can do that. We can persistently go back to our meditation if interrupted. We can repeatedly go back to meditating on His commands. Look, if God’s desire was for us to sit in a quite place and meditate exclusively all day long, He would not have placed us where we are. He does not expect continually, He expects continuity; a habitual practice, for the long haul, of returning our thoughts to Him.

I love the next part of that verse, “He will make your heart steadfast and grant your desire for wisdom.” The note I have out beside that verse is, “Seek God for advice before others.” Too often, we immediately call…or we Google…or head to Facebook. What would happen if we just sat on the problem for a minute or two? What if when confused and needing some answers…we let God have first stab at the problem?

Let me tell you, drowning out or not even allowing in the unnecessary noise and opinions of the world were crucial to regaining my mental health…still are. I have to train myself to seek God’s wisdom. Did you notice I did not say “…had to train?” I am a total work in progress.

If too many cooks spoil the broth, too many opinions unsettle the mind.

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We started this series considering Chapter one, verse one of the book of Sirach, “All wisdom comes from the Lord.” The wisdom of God, produces a steadfast heart, an unwavering heart. And the only way we can know God’s wisdom is to seek His wisdom. Not only seek it, but ponder it, consider it, and meditate on it, so we can understand it.

So this constant meditation? It is not necessarily a continual meditation on God’s commands, but a continual returning our mind to thoughts of God.

*I cannot even tell you how many times I was interrupted while writing this post.

by Jenny

And Then…A Heart Attack

So yesterday, we considered, what is ebola…to me, it was part of my 31 Days series. I shared with you ebola is a thief that has been lurking in the shadows of my mind since elementary school some 30 plus years ago. This definitely explains why I recently forbid my husband from flying…and he laughed. We’re a pretty good pair. But it’s not just ebola, there was as time when the fear was a heart attack and it was not lurking. That fear had me in a strangle hold for at least a year and wrestling that demon, left me with a mental limp even Jacob would recognize. {Genesis 32:25} Although I did not realize it at the time, this mental limp was a reminder that my battle was not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities–this battle was ultimately in my mind.

A Heart Attack

Back in the day when I used to watch television, even further back when I used to watch Oprah, she did a show on young women having a heart attack. And the longer I watched, the more my mind raced and my heart suddenly started palpitating and hurting. The more my mind raced, the more my heart hurt and the more my heart hurt, the more my mind raced. And pretty soon instead of asking “What came first, the chicken or the egg,” the question was “What came first the mental or physical symptoms?” I literally thought I was going to have a heart attack, like the women on Oprah, and die; leaving behind a young husband and father with three small children. I worried myself sick thinking my heart was going to kill me, when in reality, I was not having a heart attack, my heart was being attacked.

Instead of giving my attention to the good things…to the God things, in life, I was giving my attention to the scary thoughts. Focusing on the scary thoughts made me weak and kept me in an enveloping darkness of anxiety, fear, depression and dread.

I was so tormented mentally–so tormented–that it took me almost two years before I could rationally stop and think, “Wait a minute. Yes, those women all had out of the blue heart attacks at a young age…but they didn’t die. They were alive to talk about their experiences.” That thought released me from almost two years of torment. Two years of living in fear of death. Actually more like 20 years of living in fear of death.

That freedom did not last long though, there always seemed to be some scary thought lurking in the shadows of my mind. All it needed was an open invitation, which I ignorantly gave…Afraid of a serial killer–hey let’s watch Dateline about a serial killer. Scared of anthrax–let’s read all the latest news about possible anthrax threats. Frightened about possibly miscarrying–make sure to dog ear that chapter in the pregnancy book so “I’ll know what the symptoms are.”

I had another go-round about six years ago. It was then that I finally realized, these fears were never about a heart attack, anthrax, mars landing in the middle of the earth and scorching me to death…it was my mind. All those years, all those fears, they began and ended in my mind and each and every one of them, attacked my heart.