InstaEncouragements Blog

R-E-S-T. Four letters. One word. Filled With Promise.

9/20/2019

Rest...four letters that form one little word, filled with promise, but overshadowed by impossibility. Why is rest so elusive to us? Maybe you are a corporate woman with deals to make and meetings to run. Or, maybe you’re a mom with little ones, diapers, playdates, and laundry to the ceiling. Even if there are currently no little lives depending on you for existence, and you don’t have a corner office, I’m sure your days are filled with opportunities and obligations that keep you busy enough to crash when your head hits the pillow at night. No matter what is written in our individual planners, the pace we keep, the social media we take in, and the pressure to push for more can leave each of us feeling soul-drained.

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: Parents Who Teach and Train

9/17/2019

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: Parents Who Teach and Train

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at signs of a functional family. We've looked at An Attitude of Service, Intimacy Between the Husband and Wife and Husbands Who Are Loving Leaders. These are all signs of functional families, however there is yet another—parents who are teaching and training their children.

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

In order to clearly understand the full scope of this directive, there must be an understanding of the words nurture and admonition. The ancient Greeks used to say that nurture and admonition were the two wheels on which the chariot of child-rearing rolled. While it would be ludicrous to attempt to drive a chariot with only one wheel in operation, it is equally as futile to attempt to rear children without both nurture and admonition.

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4 Ways to Be R-E-A-L With Your Teen

9/13/2019

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Living with teenagers comes with a certain level of scrutiny that I never expected. Teens have an internal barometer for sorting out the genuine from the fraud. From peers to authority figures, they are all passed through the same gauge. “Are they all they say they are? Are they legit?“

Because my house is currently heavy on the teen side, and will be for many years, the desire to pass their smell test has put me on a quest to answer this question, “What does REAL look like to a teenager?” This acrostic has been born out of months of prayer, surrender, and repentance. I fail, and fail again, but having a target has guided me to a new way of walking in my daily life.

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: Husbands who are Loving Leaders

9/10/2019

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: #3 Husbands who are Loving Leaders

“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior” (Ephesians 5:23).

We've been looking at signs of a functional family the last couple of weeks. The first week we looked at An Attitude of Service and last week we looked at Intimacy Between the Husband and Wife. Today we will look at Husbands who are Loving Leaders.

An attitude of service, intimacy between the husband and wife and husbands who are loving, godly leaders are all signs of a functional family. God made women and children with a need for leadership. Any man who has been blessed with the privilege of leading a family should give careful consideration to how he is accomplishing this God-given role.

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“Family” Doesn't Always Fit Into a Neatly Defined Box

9/6/2019

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"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother' (this is the first commandment with a promise), 'that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.' Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:1-4

Today, we’re going to look at some of the Bible’s teaching about family. Family does not always fit into a neatly defined box. An honest examination of anyone’s family background reveals at least a few knots in the family tree.

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: Intimacy Between the Husband and Wife

9/3/2019

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5 Signs of a Functional Family: Intimacy Between the Husband and Wife

This post is the second in a 5-part series of studies on the family. Last week we talked about An Attitude of Service. This week it's Intimacy Between the Husband and Wife.

Functional families are families that have within them an attitude of service and a level of intimacy between the husband and wife that is characteristic of godliness. The world has reduced the relationship between a man and a woman to nothing more than a physical relationship with no boundaries or commitment. In a Christ-like home the husband and wife will have a relationship that exemplifies the bond that God intended.

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