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Valentine’s Day has passed. Maybe it was everything you hoped for, or a lot less than you imagined. Maybe your marriage is dynamic and everything is going great, or maybe your stuck in a bit of a rut and wondering how in the world that happened? Either way, I want to share some ideas on how your marriage relationship, and you personally, can grow and thrive in Christ.

Ruts are a result of erosion, a natural and dynamic process, yes, but destructive rather than constructive. If your marriage is in a rut, perhaps you are not deliberately protecting it.

The thing about a rut is that you can accidently fall or drive into one simply by not paying attention…but rarely will you accidently get out of one. It takes deliberate and focused effort.

Whether driving, or thriving in your marriage, the main issue is to actively pay attention, close attention so you can stay out of the rut. Make your marriage a priority, stay focused, and at a minimum, devote time to these activities:

Listening: What was your spouse's day like? What was the best part of their day? What were their struggles – what was the " big rock" of their day? Also recognize if things were difficult for them, and they really don't want to talk about it – maybe there something else you can do right now to help them? Ask how can you best serve them, and then listen to the answer? It’s better to ask than assume.

Talking: Good conversation is the lubricant of marriage! If you're the kind of person that doesn't talk much, consider cultivating communication for your spouse's benefit. First, don't expect your spouse to read your mind and second, try not to interrupt!

Proverbs 18:2 tells us:

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

When you interrupt, people can lose their train of thought and it can be very annoying – so I’ve been told directly.

Praying Out Loud Together: Communication reveals the mind and our thoughts to one another, but prayer unveils the heart, and ultimately the soul.

It is the experience of being in the inner sanctum when your spouse is in communion with God. And you get to share in that! This doesn't happen overnight, especially if you haven't been praying together previously -  but this is the goal, and it is very achievable with practice! Start praying together and watch the Lord bless your marriage, because of your active inclusion with Him at the center!

Encouraging: Marriage is a team sport! Be the person your spouse can't wait to see, can't wait to be with, can't wait to talk to, and always trusts to be honest with them! Be on their side, even if they do something wrong – maybe most especially if they do something wrong! God extends grace and mercy to us; we certainly need to follow suit with our spouses. You must accept that they, like you, are imperfect and will inevitably sin. In Ephesians 4:2-3 we are given a beautiful picture of how to encourage someone after they have made a mistake,

“with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

We are called to walk together, recognizing that each will sin, but working together toward godliness.

“speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

We can recognize that neither partner is perfect while working together to grow in our relationship with Christ. There is a difference between accepting your spouse as a sinner and allowing them to remain in active sin.

Be graceful as you encourage them to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received” as part of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:1).

Playing: Yes, having fun! If you're not having fun in your marriage, get with the program! Plan date nights, play board games or listen to music, go for walks or tell jokes! Having a heart that is open to “playing” yields great joy! Simply watch children, the experts of play! They have perfected the art of joy, naturally, as you likely once did in the beginning of your relationship with your spouse or as a child yourself.

The above ideas can help with creating peace in a marriage. Every marriage is unique, so be attentive and focused on what is, and is not, working in your marriage!

Pray, Play, Listen, Encourage, Talk and see how God draws you together! Put God at the center of your marriage and watch what happens!

If you are looking for some tools or ideas on how to improve and work on your marriage, be sure to watch for upcoming Marriage Matters workshops!

It’s that time of year again. People are setting the New Year’s resolutions or goals that they want to achieve this coming year. 

Perhaps you want to improve your health, fitness or a relationship you are in. Maybe you want to get those finances under control. There is a Biblical reason and way to do that! 

Here are a few helpful tips that may be useful in the financial arena.

1. Rediscover your pay stub. Look at every category to make sure that everything is correct. You’d be surprised how many times you can find an error!
2. It’s almost tax time again. While your doing your taxes, this year make sure that you are not overpaying each month.  Getting a big tax refund is not a creative way to have a vacation fund, it’s just an interest free loan to Uncle Sam. Increasing your deductions can allow you to have more money each paycheck to put towards your goals.
3. Get your kids involved. If you have middle/high school aged kids get them involved in how the household finances are run, so that they can learn now and apply what they learn later in life.
4. Define Savings Correctly. I think most Americans believe that savings is how much you save when you buy something. Well, that’s just marketing.  Perhaps some actually do put cash into a savings account, but it comes out at the end of the month to cover all the over spending. Savings is actually money you put into an account and it stays there for a specific purpose.  In the last 3 years the personal savings rate has dropped from 6% to less than 3%.

Be more than average.

If you want any help with these tips or other financial resolutions please consider our upcoming Living Debt Free Workshop on February 24th from 9 AM to 3 PM.   If that class does not work for you, please consider taking our short survey (just a few questions!) below on one of the other classes offered through Mountain Christian Church.

MCC Financial Stewardship Survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y9SCFDN

One of the keys to Christian growth is learning to exercise faith as a child in our daily life. Exercising faith teaches us to trust God and recognize the blessings that He constantly bestows upon us. We can often fail to recognize God’s gifts, and the ways that He is at work.

In Mark 10:15, Jesus states, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”  

Early in my Christian life, God taught me how to trust His promises and exercise my faith. 

Second Peter 1:3-7 says,

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises ….”

As a young Christian, I read Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret.  Hudson Taylor was the founder of the China Inland Mission and grew up in London, England during the late 1800s.  He wanted to go to the mission field in China and tried to grow spiritually in every way that he could.  (He even learned Chinese on his own.)  His employer was very forgetful and often had to be reminded to provide his earnings.  Rather than asking for his paycheck, he decided to trust God to remind his employer that he needed it. 

As he expected, a couple of weeks later his employer forgot to pay him.  He didn’t ask for his paycheck and trusted God to remind his employer to pay him.  He ate his last apple on a day when he went to minister to the poor in London.  On his way home, he was hungry and rather despondent that God hadn’t met his need.  He wasn’t paying attention to his route home and “just happened” to walk by his employer’s home.  His employer saw him walking by through the window, called him to his door, and paid him. 

Hudson Taylor saw his simple faith develop into complete trust years later as he had to depend upon God to provide not only his need, but the need of his ministry on a daily basis.

I have also seen God provide for my food, when I ran out of money.  I chose to trust Him, and He provided an unsolicited check on the day that I ate my last can of tuna.  Since that time, I have seen God work mightily to answer prayer in many other ways.  Exercising faith has made me feel like a child in a candy store of God’s goodness.

God wants to answer prayer and He wants us to grow our faith.  Consider an action today where you might see God grow your faith.

Last Thursday was not your typical night at Youth Group. Instead of starting with an action packed (and only slightly dangerous) game, we launched straight into an intro that reviewed what we’d been learning. The past few weeks Thursday Night Live has been digging into the book of James. If you haven’t read James before, it’s an incredibly action focused book. James tells us to let our works show the fruit of our faith. (James 2:18)

As a youth group, we want to follow the commands in God’s word, to let them bring transformation in our lives.

We want youth members to understand that the bible is more than just words on a page; we want our actions to show the changes God is making in our lives. We want TNL teens to see that God’s Word is active and living.

So, we found a way to do that through collecting food for the MCC food pantry by doing “The Great Canned Food Scavenger Hunt 2017”.

This is how it went down: two teams were formed, each with a driver. We piled in cars with instructions to use any legal means we could think of to bring as many non-perishable food items to the church as possible within the 1.5 hour time limit. Extra points were awarded for having the most unusual food item, the largest food item and the most expired food item.

From 6:15 to 7:45, the high school youth group used various methods to relieve the East Mountains of as many canned goods as possible.

Some highlights:

• Marv buying out the canned food aisle at Triangle Grocery store.
• Creative instagram posts for bonus points, which included pig masks and tiaras.
• Arguing about whether canned soup counted as a “prepared meal” for... well way too long… (We finally decided that it did.)

At the end of the night, TNL was able to collect over 150 non-perishable food items.

More importantly, we had an opportunity to represent Jesus to our community, and serve our MCC brothers and sisters, showing the transformation the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives.

Less importantly, my team won the hunt! We’re excited to see where God will lead us to serve next. If you have an idea for a place the youth group could serve, please contact me, Sami Gutierrez.

Individual photo taken by Jasmine Mostrom.

Mothers of Preschoolers, MOPS.  

For me, the name elicits many things. For one, it is the mental image of a frazzled mom with a young child clinging to her side and maybe another strapped to her belly.  It is a weary mother who cannot seem to brush her own hair, though she has brushed her children’s. It is an exhausted momma who tries to keep a clean house, but fails regularly.  It is a woman, a mother, who might be tired, often overwhelmed, certainly underappreciated and likely underpaid.  She works hard, loves deeply, struggles mightily, and fights fiercely for those she loves. But still, too often she neglects her own needs and is left feeling empty.  This is one image I get when I hear Mothers of Preschoolers because…This. Is. Me. But this is only part of the story.

You see, there is another image that comes to mind when I hear the MOPS acronym, one of joy and of challenges shared.

After having attended MOPS for three years I see the image of a community of women and their children coming together to combine their strength, what is remaining of it, to combine their gifts, talents, ideas, and skills.

That together, these women would thrive; their burdens and joys shared!

Each woman content, knowing that there will be days when she is the one being carried through the messiness of life, and other days when she will be the one carrying! Much like Paul shared with the Corinthians, that both our abundance and need be shared.

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality—at the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality.”  -2 Corinthians 8: 13-14 (NIV)

Having seen and experienced the beauty of this community, of joys and burdens-shared, between mothers in the East Mountains I know that there is a transformation that happens as God uses a community of women to lift one another up. And as women, once we’ve experienced the hope, gratitude and strength of that generosity, it inspires us.

MOPS is about living lives intertwined.

It is about the hope given to other mothers in the middle of their struggle; whether it be the birth of a new baby, postpartum depression,  or health problems, MOPS moms have risen up to the challenge to provide for not just the basic needs, but also providing hope. 

I’ve seen God in our midst, as we are the served and the servant.

The MOPS community sends the resounding message that we are not alone in this marathon of motherhood and life. 

Instead, we persevere together. Friendship is born from this kind of space.  Stronger women and families emerge from this community because, though it can often feel lonely raising kids in your own home, you know you are not alone.

There are women here who have your back.

Visit MCC's MOPS page to learn more about this ministry.