So we recently started a book club! One of my best friends, Karyn, along with her mom, Candie, and my sister, Denise, and mom, Cathy, have begun to read through John MacArthur's book Twelve Extraordinary Women together. We have begun to email one another with what we are learning from the book so that we are challenged to actually apply what we are reading. So I figured I could post what I'm learning here on our blog as well. Last week, we read about Eve, the mother of all living. Here is what I wrote to the girls. If nothing else, it may encourage you to start your own book club!
I think it is a wonderful thing to meditate on the creation of the marriage institution. As John MacArthur was describing the first wedding ceremony ever, he reminds us of four things (pages 5-6): the husband and wife are fundamentally equal; unity is ideal in every marriage relationship; marriage is designed to be deep and meaningful; the woman has been given a divinely-designed role (mother, comforter, nurturer, and helper). How beautiful this all sounds! But we know that practically speaking, our selfishness and sinful tendencies mar this beauty so that we not only do not fulfill God’s design for marriage in a way that is most pleasing to Him but we often gripe and complain about the plan that he has for us as women!
Not only do we go against the Lord’s plan for us as wives—just like our mother Eve—but we seek to justify our sin in countless ways! On page 17 John goes into how Adam tried to blame Eve for his sin and Eve tried to blame the serpent for her sin. Do our marriages look like this? Do I blame Kyle, my circumstances, hormones, fatigue, or any other outside factor for my complaining spirit, my lack of love for those around me, my preoccupation with my own wants and needs? I confess that I some times do! So my challenge to myself from this week’s reading is to always examine what sin is in my heart when I am frustrated, impatient, whiney, or any other unpleasant attitude that I am inflicting on myself and others! Then I need to accept responsibility for my sins by confessing them to God and to anyone else I have affected. Also, I want to meditate on how God has designed the marriage relationship to be pure and unified. I hope these two things will help me to be a better helper to my husband and servant to our Lord.
I think it is a wonderful thing to meditate on the creation of the marriage institution. As John MacArthur was describing the first wedding ceremony ever, he reminds us of four things (pages 5-6): the husband and wife are fundamentally equal; unity is ideal in every marriage relationship; marriage is designed to be deep and meaningful; the woman has been given a divinely-designed role (mother, comforter, nurturer, and helper). How beautiful this all sounds! But we know that practically speaking, our selfishness and sinful tendencies mar this beauty so that we not only do not fulfill God’s design for marriage in a way that is most pleasing to Him but we often gripe and complain about the plan that he has for us as women!
Not only do we go against the Lord’s plan for us as wives—just like our mother Eve—but we seek to justify our sin in countless ways! On page 17 John goes into how Adam tried to blame Eve for his sin and Eve tried to blame the serpent for her sin. Do our marriages look like this? Do I blame Kyle, my circumstances, hormones, fatigue, or any other outside factor for my complaining spirit, my lack of love for those around me, my preoccupation with my own wants and needs? I confess that I some times do! So my challenge to myself from this week’s reading is to always examine what sin is in my heart when I am frustrated, impatient, whiney, or any other unpleasant attitude that I am inflicting on myself and others! Then I need to accept responsibility for my sins by confessing them to God and to anyone else I have affected. Also, I want to meditate on how God has designed the marriage relationship to be pure and unified. I hope these two things will help me to be a better helper to my husband and servant to our Lord.
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