He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?"
Hebrews 13:5b-6

The only thing that I really want, that God has not yet provided to me, is that all of my friends would come to know Him too.

Dear God, the God who was always healing everywhere You went when You visited Earth two thousand years ago,

Please heal her.

Please help her with her various problems: workplace stresses, health problems, relationship problems.

But far more importantly, please heal her soul.  Please use her various problems to bring her closer to You.  Please overwhelm her with Your beauty and goodness.  Please heal the missing father's affirmation and love, filling the void with Your love and warm approval.  Please show her that no human romance will make her truly/permanently happy.  Please dissolve all her worries and replace them with settled trust in You.  Please fill her with contentment in You.

Please heal him.

Please help him with his various problems: workplace stresses, health problems, relationship problems.

But far more importantly, please heal his soul.  Please show him sooner rather than later that the things he is seeking will not satisfy him.  Money, prestige, successful career, the respect of his peers, successful family, a woman that respects him; all of the above: ultimately empty.  Please show Him Your power and Your glory.  Please show him how much Your approval is worth.  Please dissolve all his worries and replace them with settled trust in You.  Please fill him with contentment in You.

(the above prayers apply to many of my friends... somewhat de-specified for anonymity... but hopefully still worth pondering and perhaps reiterating...  please feel free to pray the same way for me, those of you who know our great God)

I saw this article today on CNN.com-- "How to save your marriage" .  Seems like everyone's getting into that endeavor these days (trying to help failing marriages), and for good reason, seeing all the divorces.  The article had some common-sense stuff.  But they missed the most powerful stuff, because they are secular and because part of the quote I'm about to post is extremely politically incorrect.

Ephesians 4:22-33

 ^22"Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.  ²⁴But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

 ^25"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,  ²⁶so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  ²⁷that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  ²⁸So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;  ²⁹for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,  ³⁰because we are members of His body.  31For this reason "a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."  ³²This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

 ^33"Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband."

It is difficult to explain how extremely attractive a quality submission is in a wife... the desirous/nurturing feelings it evokes in the husband, etc... and how the opposite is also true- insubordination powerfully quenches loving feelings...    I expect that the same is true for the other side, that a loving husband evokes happy contentment and submission in a wife and that an unloving husband encourages rebellion in the wife.

God, as the creator of men and women, certainly writes a good user manual.

Looking out the window of one of the laboratories I work in:

I think it's interesting how sometimes I look at someone working at some job and I think to myself, "Wow, I wish I had his job... it would be much more interesting than my job."  But that person would probably look at me and think the same thing.

The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence...  

...  yet for those of us who are Christians, who have been redeemed at great cost despite our worthlessness,...

...[be] content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," so that we will confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Tim223/Xanga - Releasing poor souls from contralaterograminal hyperviridiantism since 2004