Facebook, or Rather a Heart, Claims Another Marriage

This past week I heard of (yet another) marriage destroyed by infidelity when one spouse reconnected with a past love on Facebook.

The husband was the guilty party in this case. But knowing some of this couple's past struggles, I can safely say she wasn't blameless in the dissolution of this marriage. Not that this fact excuses anything.


          "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

~ Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

Only when we see clearly the role our hearts play in sin can we understand the role our circumstances have in it. Our struggles and temptations often trigger sin, but they never cause it. The origin of sin is always our heart and it's sinful desires.

The actions of others, external pressures, even our biology, these have an impact on our behavior via our hearts. But we cannot blame our circumstances when we sin - Adam and Eve tried that unsuccessfully (see Genesis 3).

Adam tried blaming Eve, and blaming God who gave him Eve. Eve tried blaming the snake in the garden (aka - Satan). While God punished the snake, He also held both Eve and Adam responsible for their individual choices.

So selfish desires lie within our hearts. They lead to sin. And sin leads to death.

Death of a relationship. Death of a family.  ...eventually physical death - unless we're in Christ and will be raised with Him.

That's why we can't always follow our heart, as the common advice goes. But we can always safely follow the Spirit.

I realize "always follow your heart" is appealing advice. I'd like to always follow my heart too. But if we want to follow our hearts, we must first make sure they are anchored in Christ, His Word, and His Spirit. Not in our hormones, or our wants, or the pleasurable feelings a private message on Facebook can bring.

And that anchoring is pretty much a daily thing. Sometimes, hourly.

Stopping the Slide

CRACK.

I heard my toe break. Sharp pain raced through my foot as I stumbled. I tried to focus on not dropping the bowl of ice cream I was carrying.

I’d rearranged the living room the day before. And I'd been out of the house most of that summer day and was now heading into the darkened room to turn on the TV and relax with some rocky road. But I forgot things were now moved around, and I walked smack into the wooden base of our sofa.

It was so unexpected.

Have you ever had the experience of waking up, surveying your life and wondering how things got to be like this?  The things you'd carefully arranged years ago have been somehow moved. Other things you thought were firmly in place are now gone. And things you don't remember putting in place - things you never meant to sign on for - are now dominating your landscape.

Yeah, me too. There was a year late in my teenage life when I went off to college, my mother died, our family Hallmark business was sold, and my childhood home was sold too. I came home from my semester away, looked around, and suddenly I didn't recognize my life. I knew why, but still I wondered how it had gotten like this.

It was so unexpected.

I felt like I was slipping. Like my whole family was slipping. Like my life and future were slipping. And for the first time I wasn't so sure I had what it takes to fully overcome the set-back. I wasn't entirely sure how to overcome this set-back.  The carefree confidence I'd always had took a hit, along with my heart.

Then I began to walk with Christ. I could have penned Psalm 94:18-19 at that point:

“When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”

If you can relate to wondering how your life got so unrecognizable. Or if you can relate to feeling like something significant is sliding - like you are slipping. Or if you are smarting from the pain of running into obstacles - call out to God in prayer today.

He will lift you up. He will set you back down on solid rock. And he will craft a path for you.

Just felt like maybe someone needed to hear that today.

On Air Live Today

I'll be on the air live this morning about 8:45 to 9:45 EST with Carlette Christmas to talk about the secrets in my book It's No Secret: Revealing Divine Truths Every Woman Should Know.

Specifically the chapter on humiliy and the chapter on rest.

Come on, you know you need some rest! And there's a definite tie between humility and rest ... you'll have to listen to interview to find out more about that.

I'm curious, on a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you rest in the biblical sense?

Do you take a whole day off from work? Either on Sundays, or another day of the week?

Or do your Sundays look pretty much the same as the other days of the week or weekend, only perhaps you go to church?

If don't create intentional times of rest (beyond falling into bed exhausted at night), why not? I'd love to hear from you on this.

Meanwhile, you can hear from me on this by listening to the interview online this morning at  http://www.onpointcxmas.com/. If you miss it, I suspect you'll be able to listen to a recorded version of it from their website. It might take some time for them to get recording posted.

1 book, 1 class, 1 interview and 19 years

Edits on my next book My One Word: Change Your Life with Just One Word are due to my editor tomorrow. I also have a class tomorrow night which I need to read 5 chapters in prep for. Then I have a live radio interview on Tuesday morning.

I'm feeling some pressure. Which means I'm eating cheese right now. Cheese is my number one comfort food.

That might be a lie. Chocolate is probably my number one comfort food. When things are really bad I instruct Rick not to come home from work without bringing something chocolate.

Tomorrow is also our 19th year wedding anniversary.  Rick's grown quite good at picking out the just right chocolate dessert over the last 19 years. And if I request cheese rather than chocolate, he knows just what to bring.

My all time favorite cheese:

Denmark's Finest Havarti with Herbs & Spices

Tonight I have that, plus a Merlot-encrusted french Bellavitano cheese I found on sale at my Harris Teeter yesterday. It's good - best on a cracker.

OK, so the fact that I'm eating cheese and not chocolate right now means I'm pretty confident I'll get everything done in time tomorrow. But there is room for doubt, which is what the cheese is for.

So what's your number one comfort food?

And if you have any ideas about what I should get Rick for our 19th anniversary this week, let me know. Otherwise I'm likely to buy him some chocolate and cheese.