Partner

Do you like what God is doing with the She's Under Grace ministry? Well guess what? I am looking to add a partner! God is calling someone to be a part of this team. Each one of you has something you could give toward this ministry. Send an email to shesundergrace@gmail.com and let me know if you are interested! I can't wait to hear from you!

5 Love Languages Day 3.

Are you just catching up with us for our 5 day series on the 5 love languages? If you haven’t yet, the link below will take you to the 5 love languages quiz so you will know what yours is. It takes maybe 5 minutes to complete.

 5 Love Languages Quiz

 

Day 1: Acts of Service

Day 2: Quality Time

Day 3: Words of Affirmation

_______

 We’re on day 3 of our 5 Love Language series. Today’s love language is words of affirmation. If this is your love language (or your spouse’s) you most feel loved by encouragement and emotional support. You feel more loved than ever when your spouse gives you a compliment. They might say something like “You sure are looking good today” or “You did a really good job with that”.

A very important thing to remember when giving words of affirmation is to keep it sincere. You really don’t want to say something and not mean it. That is not encouraging at all. If this is your spouse’s love language and they are having a bad day (because let’s face it, we all have those days) this would be the perfect time to give those words of affirmation and make them feel loved. But that’s not only when you should use those affirming words. It really should become a habit. Giving those affirming words when your spouse has a bad day is great but for it to become a daily thing would all around be better. That way they are getting those uplifting and encouraging words daily instead of every now and then.

You don't always have to use words to show affirmation. You can get creative with it and maybe leave a note somewhere that they will see it or possibly get them a card and not only write "Love, so and so" but actually write a little something.

This is my husband’s love language. I definitely know that without a doubt. I try my best to compliment him daily because I want him to not only know that I love him, but I want him to feel my love.

Is this your spouse’s love language? Here’s your challenge today:

Call your spouse and give them a good ole fashioned compliment and encourage them today.

Is this your love language? Comment below and let me know or let me know some words of affirmation you already use for your spouse.

 

{Reminder: Leaving a comment below automatically enters you in for the drawing for a free surprise! Did I mention it's free?}

5 Love Languages Day 2

Are you just catching up with us for our 5 day series on the 5 love languages? If you haven’t yet, the link below will take you to the 5 love languages quiz so you will know what yours is. It takes maybe 5 minutes to complete.

5 Love Languages Quiz

Day 1: Acts of Service

Day 2: Quality Time

Today we will be looking at a second love language called quality time. Now, we all love spending time with our loved one but if this is your love language, you feel especially loved when you spend quality time with them. These are the times when you get their absolute undivided attention. You two may be having a quiet dinner and your spouse will put away his/her cell phone and focus only on you for the time being.

Do you or your spouse have a job where you are on call 24/7? I know how stressful it can be to have your spouse’s phone ringing all the time. My husband is the worship leader at our church and his phone goes off constantly. However, he does take those times like during dinner to focus on Peyton and me to just catch up on the day. I really appreciate times like those because life does get so busy. (In case you are wondering, this isn’t my love language.)

Another way you could spend quality time with your spouse is to make a movie night. You could go out or stay in. If you have kids, find someone to watch the kiddos for a couple hours and spend that time with your spouse (grandparents love that stuff).

Too often we let time pass us by without taking a moment to spend a little bit of time together. Especially when you have children, you are always running around taking care of their needs and we sometimes forget to spend anytime with the one we love the most. Or even if you don't have children, jobs and other activities I know can take up a lot of your time.

So if this is your spouse’s love language, here is my challenge to you:

Tonight while having dinner (or if schedules don’t work out to where you can have dinner together tonight) try putting away your cell phone. If it rings, let it ring. Take that time to spend with them and let them know that you love them. Trust me, they will love it.

Be sure to comment on this post for your chance to win! Let me know; is this your love language? Your spouse’s? How do you spend quality time with them?

5 Love Languages Day 1.

So today we will begin  our 5 day series on The 5 Love Languages. Some of you may already know yours and your spouse's. But some of you might not know that you even have a love language. Well, you do. We all do. What is a love language? It's simple. A love language is how you most feel loved. If you don't know your love language or just want to take the test, follow the link provided. It is really simple and takes maybe 5 minutes.

5 Love Languages Quiz

The first love language we are going to look at is Acts of Service. People with this love language feel most loved when their spouse does things for them. Maybe your spouse does a chore around the house for you like washing dishes, doing the laundry, or even getting groceries for you. If this is your husbands love language, you may take out the trash for him, get his lunch ready for the next day or even cut the grass. We've all heard the saying, "Actions speak louder than words". This quote my friend, should be your slogan.

If this is your love language, I'm not saying that you need to take advantage of this and make your spouse do everything for you. That is not love. When your spouse randomly does some kind of service for you and it makes you feel loved.

Is this your spouse's love language and you hate to do chores? Let's look at it like this.

How would you feel if your love language was words of affirmation and your spouse never encourage or said sweet things to you? You would feel terrible and unloved, right? Right.

This is where we have to suck in our pride and do it anyways. We want our spouse to feel loved right?

Here's your challenge for today:
     - If your spouse's love language is acts of service, do at least one thing for them today. Then try one for          everyday this week. It's alright, make them feel loved. :)

Don't forget to leave a comment below to be entered for the free giveaway! Is this your love language? Is it your spouse's? I would love for you to share with me!

Discover Your Language, Love That Is

Next week will be the first ever series on the She's Under Grace blog. We did this study in our women's group at church and I know it helped me and opened my eyes so I wanted to share it with you.

Do you know your love language? Did you know you had one? Well, I'm here to tell you that you do. Gary Chapman wrote an awesome book called The 5 Love Languages which I will be using for this series starting Monday. We are going to go through a different one each day and see what each one looks like and how it can help your marriage. You don't have to be married to join this series with us. If you are engaged, dating, or single, this series is for anyone. If you don't have the book, that is fine. It is not a requirement to participate. However, if you would like one to go along with the study you may purchase one on amazon or go to any Christian book store.

Struggling in connecting with your spouse? Have friends that are struggling in their marriage? This would be the perfect time to tune in and maybe re ignite that flame Tell your friends and trust me, ya'll don't want to miss this!

But wait, if you comment on any post this week (or every one of them) you will be entered in a drawing for a free surprise, sent to you by me with a personal message to you. So be sure to comment! :)

#Shesundergrace

Simple Saturday

I'm going to keep every Saturday's post as simple as can be. (Explanation behind the title Simple Saturday) It may be just a picture being posted, a quote, scripture, or just something for you to think about throughout the day. 

This week my husband posted this picture on his facebook.

Now I want you to think about that for a minute.

 Leave a comment in the box below and let me know what GRACE means to you.

Can I have a snack?

Peyton has the cutest way of saying things that make me stop and think for a minute.

Example: Everyday after supper she always asks “Momma, did I eat a really good supper?” In which I respond with a yes or no. Then she proceeds with, “If you eat a really good supper you can have a snack. Can I have a snack?”

Brett and I have probably heard this for at least the last 6 months now. But the other day something hit me. How many times do we say that to God? Not those exact words maybe but something along the lines of “God, I am such a better person than I was 6 months ago. Surely that’s good enough to get into heaven.”

I cannot count how many times I have heard someone say “I’m doing better than I was.” Or “So and so does this and I don’t do anything near as bad as that.”

Here are two scriptures that instantly come to mind.

Romans 10:8 -

“…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

John 14:6 -
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

So that’s how we get into heaven. There’s no special prayer or no ceremony that saves us. Just the simple act of believing that God sent His son Jesus to die for our sins. End of story.

So why do we think that the “good works” will save us?

Ephesians 2:8-9 –

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not on your own doing; it is the gift of God not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

 Simple as that. Being good and doing good things absolutely cannot save us. Yes, we are supposed to “be good” and do good things but we still must believe.

Growing That Flower

I have never been one of those girls that just loved flowers. I never cared to get any sent to me much less actually plant them myself. But here in the last year or so, I have become rather fond of them. Their colors are magnificent and they are all shaped so differently. Do you know the process of growing a flower?

• First, you definitely should pick out the flower that you want and go buy the seeds. (Can’t have flowers without seeds now can we)
• Then, you have to pick the spot that you would like to have them planted.  (I’ve been doing some research and you can even go as far as testing the soil. You also want to make sure that the flower will get the right amount of sunlight that it needs as well as room to grow.)

• Thirdly, you dig a good ole hole and place your seeds in. Fill the hole with the remaining dirt.

Now you are ready. Simple huh? Kinda, but no. Your flower is going to need the water to grow so that it can reach its full beauty. (I have learned that you can’t go too long without watering the flower or they tend to die, oops!) Another thing you will need to do is pull out any weeds that may sprout up around your flower. The weeds will keep the flower from growing and eventually cover up so that it completely takes over the flower and you will never see its delicacy.

Growing a flower is a lot like our walk with Christ.

If we confess with our mouths and believe in our heart that God sent His only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins; yes we are saved. But we also then need to have a relationship with God.

How do you do that you say?

Reading your bible daily, praying, seeking Him and removing the sins from our life. If we go days without reading our bible and praying how can we ever really know God? I know there have been times when life just got so busy I never even stopped to pray once and at the end of the day I would always feel like something is missing. But now that I have been reading and praying daily, my faith has grown, my relationship with God has matured and I have become much more confident in my Christian walk. We still can't leave those pesky weeds in! The weeds are an example of the things that keep us from growing in Christ. Maybe there are some sins that we still haven't completely turned from. We might still be holding onto anything that we may have done in the past.

 

 

 

 

It's time to let go. It's time to dig up those weeds and water our flowers. Will you join me in watering those flowers and keeping the weeds away?

 

 

Make Their Day

For all the married couples, how many of yall remember the dating stage? When we would constantly make the other person feel loved. You were always so goo goo eyes to that person. You wanted to spend every waking minute with that one person you just knew was your soul mate? When did that stop? After the first year of marriage? After the 5^th year?

Why should it stop?

Our spouse is the one person we have vowed before God to spend the rest of our life with. Just because we are married doesn’t mean we can’t do all of the things for them that made them feel special and on top of the world. This is the person that you spend every day with! I’m sure you would much rather have a happy spouse than a spouse that is feeling sad and lonely. After a quick survey, I have created a list of the top 10 things that you could do for your spouse to brighten their day and make them feel special. Try one of them today!

1.       Serve them breakfast in bed (don’t forget the coffee!)

2.       Leave a note on the bathroom mirror. (You can use lipstick, eyeliner, or even shaving cream)

3.       Send a sweet text message during the day letting them know that they are on your mind.

4.       Do something for them that they normally would do (Wash dishes, take out the trash, fill their gas tank)

5.       Give a massage (who doesn’t like a good rub down?)

6.       Surprise them at work with lunch

7.       Leave encouraging notes so they will find them throughout the day (sticky notes work great)

8.       Make their favorite meal (dessert is a must!)

9.       Make them feel appreciated

10.   Give random kisses (they can linger from time to time)

 
What are some things you do for you spouse to brighten their day? What does your spouse do to brighten yours?

#shesundergrace

Who is closest to you?

We’ve all heard the saying. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”.

This famous quote came from Sun Tzu who was a Chinese General and military strategist. The whole quote was meant for the military so they would know their enemy. They would know their strategies, weaknesses, strengths, likes and dislikes. That way they would successfully be able to attack the enemy.  

 

But in our Christian lives, the opposite couldn’t be any truer.

 

We all should surround ourselves with our Christian friends and keep them close by your side. These are the people that are going to encourage you, lift you up, pray for you, be there for you, bear your burdens  and give you that good Godly advice that we all so desperately need.

 

Am I saying that you can’t have friends that are non-Christians? No, I’m not saying that at all. If we did just that, how would we be able to lead anyone to Christ?

 

Mark 16:15

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”

 

Anything in red always means that Jesus said it himself. And in my opinion, anything that Jesus says is very important. Pay attention to what He said: “go into ALL THE world..” which means everyone, no one excluded. So, no we are not supposed to only have Christian friends but we do need to keep them closest to us. How do you share the gospel with someone and not have some kind of relationship with them? You can’t. People are going to be more apt to listen to you if you have built some kind of relationship. Whether it’s going to the nail salon together, getting your hair done, shopping, hunting, fishing, whatever ya’ll like to do but build that relationship, get to know them. However, you don’t want those new relationships and non- Christian friends to be the ones that you go to for help, advice, encouragement, or prayer because they don’t share the same faith as you and aren’t going to give you the Godly advice like a Christian would because they don’t know the scripture and have that relationship with God.

 

Is there that one person that you can’t get close to? Can’t get along with? Can’t build that relationship with them? Scripture says:

 

Matthew 5:44

“But I said to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

 

 

#Shesundergrace

 

shesundergrace@gmail.com

The Least of These

As most of you know, this past weekend was Easter weekend; where we as Christians celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Who willing died on the cross to cover everyone in the entire world’s sins.

A sweet, sweet lady that goes to our church, who works at Martha Franks - a Christ Centered Retirement Community in our home town, Laurens SC with approximately 80 residents - asked my husband, Brett to come and sing some songs for the residents this past Saturday. They had a speaker earlier in the day and I think some other event and then my husband was to end the day with some signing and guitar playing.

Like other communities like this one, I am sure there are some residents that do not get visitors for various reasons they are all there because of different circumstances. Which breaks my heart because I want to be able to help them all, spend all the time with them, and just make them feel loved.

Anytime Brett is asked to speak or play somewhere I try my best to be able to go. Sometimes, it doesn’t work out to where I can because let’s face it; life is very crazy especially when you have a 3 year old.

I thought it would be a good idea to make up little Easter bags and fill them with candy so if the residents didn’t get any visitors or anything for Easter they could have a little something. We filled the cute little bunny bags with chocolate, butterscotch and mints.

 

 

And while Brett was singing, our daughter Peyton handed out all of the bags to the residents that attended.

 

The songs that were sung were:

I’ll Fly Away
I Saw The Light
Amazing Grace
How Great Thou Art
Up From the Grave

 

All of the residents seemed to enjoy the singing and guitar playing. There was this one gentleman that I would say was probable around his 70’s, maybe 80’s, raised his arm with EVERY song that was sung. And that right there proves that God speaks, moves, and touches lives of every age. Not just the young but the elderly as well.

 

-Matthew 25:40-

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”

 

Words cannot describe how blessed I felt to be able to serve these sweet people. Hopefully, we will be able to do it again very soon!

 

 

Love all the people?

The other day I was driving home from church with my daughter Peyton. She is definiately a talker and loves to tell stories. Nothing she says surprises me anymore.

So as wer're driving, her talking, she says:
"I love my momma, and my daddy, and my grandma, and my grandpa, and my mimi, and my poppa. But that's a lot of people. How can we love all the people?"

I stopped and thought for a moment.
The answer is simple.
Just as Jesus did.

John 13:34-

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."

 

 

Because Jesus loves us and laid down His own life for us, not only should we love Him, but each other as well. With the same selfless love that He showed us.

Now I'm not saying people aren't going to make you mad, make your skin crawl, and be happy all the time. That's just not going to happen. But when that does happen, love. Always love. Show them the love of Jesus. -As hard as it will be- because in the end, all the arguing, screaming, fighting, isn't going to make anything better. All it will do is cause hardships and put a wedge further between you and the person. *Experience talking.