Laying a solid foundation for your marriage is key for longevity. We build our marriage day by day, month by month, year by year. We do that by what we say, how we say it, and loving our spouse because we just love them. Period. Not expecting them to be perfect or loving them because of what they do for us or thinking they need to be perfect. Expectations like those kill a marriage. What builds and sustains a marriage is choosing to love the other person for who they are and loving them because God loves them unconditionally. Thank you so much for listening! I pray this helps your marriage, just like it has mine.

When you feel God pulling you to do the unexpected, and even when it doesn't work out, we must still obey. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac that he had waited years for, he obeyed. When God told David he'd be king, but he ran for his life in the wilderness for 20 years before ever being crowned, he obeyed. When Jesus came down to Earth to do the hardest, most heartbreaking thing a person could ever do and gave up his life for us to live forever with Him, he obeyed. We're called to obey God, sometimes without our questions asked. And most of the time, not knowing the outcome. It's all worth it when we know Who holds our future.

The last letter of The Screwtape Letters is about the patient dying and making it to heaven. When he gets to heaven, he realizes all of the deceiving Wormwood tempted him with his whole life. He also realizes that God was there all along. He realizes he never should have doubted God's existence and how incredible heaven is. All of the pieces of his life come together, and everything makes sense. I pray that you know this peace will come to you when you get to heaven. God will show us why everything happened the way it did, and the puzzle will be complete. In the meantime, we have to stay true to God. Living on earth is only temporary. Our home is heaven, and when we get there it's going to be an incredible new beginning.

Fatigue can either make us gentle and kind, or angered and impatient. We can be tempted and deceived when we’re fatigued as well. We have to keep our guard up when we’re tired, and still show love to the people around us. We also need to know what around us is real and what’s false. Hatred and pain are real emotions, but love covers all. God is real, our relationship with Him is real, and they need to be more real to us than the pain and suffering we’ve seen and experienced in our lifetime. That’s what Letter 30 is all about!

Why does God allow dangerous circumstances to happen? God allows us to live in a dangerous world so that we don't become numb to good and evil. We keep our values and stand up for what's right when danger arises. War, famine, earthly disasters, covid, they all make us rise up and become brave! We reach deep inside ourselves and become courageous again. We're made to be courageous. That's what Letter 29 is all about. 

Letter 28 is all about Wormwood needing to protect his patient from dying so that he can keep tempting him and trying to deceive him. The longer he lives, the harder it is for him to resist temptation. Getting older doesn’t mean resisting gets easier, but we can have perseverance. We can keep our relationship with God and resist the devil. God put it inside of us to persevere! Everyday that we live is another day we can get closer to our Creator. How can you get closer to Him today?

Do you ever feel like your prayers don’t matter? That God doesn’t answer them, or if He does answer them you feel like it would have happened anyways because of circumstances falling into place? This letter addresses our concerns on if our prayers matter and how they affect our lives. God is always listening to our prayers. This letter also talks about how reading old books, like The Screwtape Letters, have the answers we are looking for. The demons try to cut off generations from each other. But we need each other! There’s nothing new under the sun, and your answers are out there. You can find them in a book, or ask someone older than you. Wisdom wants to be found. Seek her. 

This letter is about how to get men and women irritated at each other. Being unselfish is part of who God asks us to be. The way men and women view being unselfish is totally opposite of each other. And then when we serve each other continuously, everyday, for years, we can start to get self-righteous and get the wrong motive for serving one another. We can enjoy serving one another without ill feelings by remembering our spouse is a gift. It takes a conscious everyday effort to be grateful for our spouse and serve them with the right motive. How's your heart today? Are you serving your spouse with the right motive?

Letter 25 is about change! Change and permanence are natural parts of life. God created us as humans to love change and permanence, both. It creates a rhythm in our lives that we all have the gift of enjoying. When the seasons change, when holidays and events come every year, these are all part of the rhythm that we get to enjoy. How can you embrace change and permanence today?

Spiritual Pride: to believe that you’re better than someone else because of your beliefs; believing that because your beliefs are “right” and that you’re better than nonbelievers. What a trap we can fall into thinking that we know better than nonbelievers and therefore superior. We’re all created the same, all loved the same amount by the same God. No one is worth more than the next person. Loving our neighbors no matter their beliefs is really hard. But we can do it. We’re made to love! When the Holy Spirit is inside of us, we can love like He does.