Hey Covenant Groupies,

** PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST FORGIVE THE OLD ENLISH. I JUST LOVE IT!!

The scripture about Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist, found in Luke 1:5-7 has been heavy on my mind for quite some time and I couldn’t figure out why. I know once before when I read it, God had given me some great revelation about it. Usually when this happens I begin to dig into God’s Word for answers. I went through the Matthew Henry Commentary and this is what it said:

Zacharias and Elizabeth were a very religious couple. They were both righteous before God; they were so in His sight whose judgment, we are sure is according to truth; they were sincerely and really so. They are righteous indeed that are so before God, as Noah in his generation. They approved themselves to Him, and He was graciously pleased to accept them. It is a happy thing when those who are joined to each other in marriage are both joined to the Lord; and it is especially requisite that the priests, the Lord’s ministers, should with their yoke-fellows be righteous before God, that they may be examples to the flock, and rejoice their hearts.

They walked in the commandments and ordinance of the Lord, blameless.

1) Their being righteous before God was evidenced by the course and tenour of their conversations; they showed it, not by their talk, but by their works; by the way they walked in and the rule they walked by.

2) They were of a peace with themselves; for their devotions and their conversations agreed. They walked not only in the ordinances of the Lord which related to divine worship, but in the commandments of the Lord, which have reference to all the instances of a good conversation and must be regarded.

3) They were universal in their obedience, not that they never did in any thing come short of their duty, but it was their constant care and endeavor to come up to it.

4) Herein, though they were not sinless, yet they were blameless; nobody could charge them with any open scandalous sin; they lived honestly and in offensively, as ministers and their families are in a special manner concerned to do, that their ministry be not blamed in their blame.

He said/ She said: The Giver and The Receiver

Hey Covenant Groupies,

Why is it when I desire tp please my husband, he gives me some resistance? Now when I say "please my husband", what I means is that I take sheer pleasure in seeing my husband have what he needs and desires. If I'm the one who can give it to him, well that's even better. That means everything from the simplest of things to the grandest of things, but he makes it so hard. Again I ask, why?

See, when the shoe is on the other foot and I need something, there can be no discussion, he'll go ahead and get it, sometimes going even further than necessary to see that I have it. No, I'm not complaining, but I want to do the same for him.

A great example: I love to cook and unless I am totally beat, I cook each night. I believe that a man/husband should, by title alone, should be entitled to many things and a home cooked meal each night is just one of them. However, Kevin often tells me that I don't have to cook and that I should just relax if I've had a long day.

I just can't help my need to "DO" things and "BE" for him all that would add to his joy that make him happy.

I know Biblically men are the givers and women are the receivers, but by nature women have become the givers. How do we balance this when our men won't let us give?

I could go on with tons of examples, but you get the meaning, right.
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No Marriage License - Covenant Agreement ONLY!

Hey Covenant Groupies,

Happy Monday! Today is an amazingly beautiful day - just because. I wanted to share something different today. This is a video of a couple getting married without all the fanfare; we've seen that before, no HUGE reception; we've seen that before, simple attire; we've even seen that before, but maybe we've not seen a marriage where the couple doesn't sign a marriage license, but a marriage Covenant ONLY!

Check this out and let us know your thoughts.

My Deepest Needs-Who fills them?

Hey Covenant Groupies,

Happy Friday Ya'll

I had a crazy experience this morning. I wanted to spend some time talking to Kevin this morning before we parted for work. Needless to say, it didn't happen; he was rushing and I was waiting.

Immediately, I found myself getting angry at him, however, I didn't access why I was REALLY getting angry. But shortly, after asking God to take my anger away and reveal my true ache, He did.

He had me read the passage below. Mind you, I haven't picked this book up for about four years, but He sent me directly there.

Share your thoughts about the passage.


For one of the most profound ways in which the Lord touches us and teaches us about Himself and His own essential otherness is through the very limits He has placed upon our relationships with one another. It is an enormous source of human frustration that our need for intimacy far outstrips its capacity to be met in other people. Primarily what keeps us separate is our sin, but there is also another factor, and that is that in each one of us the holiest and neediest and most sensitive place of all has been made and is reserved for God alone, so that only He can enter there. No one else can love us as He does, and no one can be the sort of Friend to us that He is.

Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage
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QUESTION OF THE DAY!

Hey Covenant Groupies,

Yesterday on "The View," Elizabeth Hasselbeck was hosting with her husband Tim Hasselbeck. This week the ladies are hosting alongside their best male friends and the discussion came up about being "best friends" with men. Tim was delighted to be asked by his wife and said that as a married woman, Elizabeth couldn't have been able to bring another man because he's her best friend.

You know I totally agree with him.

Let us know your thoughts.

Is your spouse really "BEST FRIEND?"

Marital Harmony: Taking up the Cares and Crosses of One Another

Hey Covenant Groupies,

I was just recollecting the fact that, not only are we embarking on our annual Couples Retreat, which God has allowed Kevin and I to participate in for 8 years but that we have about 4 newly married couples in our church, one couple just reached their first year. The one year mark with any couple always gets me to thinking about Kevin and my first year. I HATED it! I wanted a different husband and a different life. It was a horrendous struggle for the both of us. Just the mere fact of getting to know one another was so excruciating. I think we talked about that in pre-marital counseling, but I didn’t remember any of it when we had our issues; which stemmed a lot for our awful personalities. I wanted him to familiarize himself with my ways and vice versa.

I do, however, remember wanting the husband described in Deuteronomy. He was called to be attentive, caring, and at home. For us, it didn’t happen immediately, but shortly after being married, God created a wonderful situation where Kevin and I were able to spend quite a bit of time together; his hours at work were cut and we began working together – daily. Whoa! Be careful what you ask for. Again, not easy, but we had to work on it. Before we knew it, our year had come and gone, we were still a bit clueless about one another and the truest sense of our intimacy suffered because we were trying to do EVERYTHING all at once which caused some very important things to fall by the side. God was so merciful to us.

I want to share with you what the commentary says about this Deuteronomy husband and also, why the first year of marriage is so important to God that He mentions it in His Holy Word.

Matthew Henry Commentary Breakdown:

In Deuteronomy 24:1-5 the Bible speaks specifically to the husband and the role he is to take in truly loving his wife. However, if he finds something wrong with her and begins to detest her, he may, of his own free will and hardness of heart write her a letter of divorcement. Furthermore, the Bible says that in order to avoid detesting his wife a husband is “not to be sent to war or have any duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.”
This fitly follows upon the laws concerning divorce, which would be prevented if their affection to each other were well settled at first. If the husband were much abroad from his wife the first year, his love to her would be in danger of cooling, and of being drawn aside to others whom he would meet with abroad; therefore his service to his country in war, embassies, or other public business that would call him from home, shall be dispersed with, that he may cheer up the wife that he has taken.

NOTE: 1. It is of great consequence that love be kept up between husband and wife, and that everything be very carefully avoided which might make them strange one to another, especially at first; for in that relation, where there is not the love that should be, there is an inlet ready to abundance of guilt and grief. 2. One of the duties of that relation is to cheer up one another under the cares and crosses that happen, as helpers of each other’s joy; for a cheerful heart does good like a medicine.

Couples: Bearing Burdens Together; as ONE

Hey Covenant Groupies,

Just recently, I received a call from Kevin during the work day, which is quite normal for us, but it was what he said that leads me today's post.

He called and asked me if everything was alright? Was I feeling well? If I needed anything from him? Crazy thing was, I wasn't feeling so hot, but no one knew this but God. Also, only God could have known that I needed a word from my covering. Kevin went on to say that he felt something was wrong and wanted to let me know that he was here for me; that my man was here for me and that he had my back.

Although my mood was kinda just alright, that call put me in a state of restoration; after the tears of course.

When reading about the story of Hannah and Elkanah in 1 Samuel Chapter 1, Hannah's weeping over her barrenness and Elkanah not only comforts her and has compassion for her, but he carries her burden as the Bible says a husband should. Based on this verse, the Matthew Henry Commentary shares, " Those that by marriage are made one flesh ought thus far to be one spirit too, to share in each other's troubles, so that one cannot be easy while the other is uneasy".

That's how I felt when Kevin called me that day; his Spirit was troubled because mine was. God knew that and gave my soul just what it needed.

Let's not forget to carry our spouses' burdens with them. They need our understanding, love, support and compassion.

Have a great Saturday!
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