I have a former co-missionary friend, Mark Gungor, from the ministry I was in as a teenager, who wrote a book called, Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. His book and church have been successful.
That may have been a little harder for me with my husband, because I was married to a serious minded engineer. I could tease him about "getting some" at night and that always brought a smile to his face. His lack of a sense of a humor wore on me at times, because I'm a totally deranged person when it comes to comedy. I like some of the "bad" stuff.
I put on the movie Hangover recently and got a revelation on how my life has been a hangover. Not from drugs or alcohol but after a divorce or a death of a husband. It's been a scavenger hunt to piece my life back together and look for clues from God how healing could come in my life. Similar to the movie, how they were trying to piece their life together what happened the previous night from the drug in their drink.
I remember going to see the movie Liar Liar and laughing at the top of my lungs when the son in the movie wished that his dad played by Jim Carey would not lie. My husband did not like Jim Carey. My mother could not stand actor Robin Williams. I've sat down with engineers from online dating sites, and I realized I can't go there again. Even with a good marriage, I just have to have a guy who has a better sense of humor. I've blogged that God has a sense of humor look at all the weird animals in the zoo, their weird mating rituals, and then look at yourself in the mirror.
I have another suggestion on making oneself happy and that is be a giver. Most missionaries can be very happy people because they are givers. Usually givers are the happiest people I've met. This is as long as you are giving with the attitude that you are giving to God and you are not looking at a man for the reward.
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful (hilarious) giver. 2 Cor. 9:7
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. Duet. 15:10
It's because you can help people at times and it can blow up in your face. If you realize that you are giving to God than no matter what you give if it does not work out that a person does not like your gift, you know you have given the gift as unto the Lord not unto men and that is all that matters.
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, Ephesians 6:7
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, Colossians 3:23
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Cor. 9:6
At times we may have to "shake the dust off your feet" if people are not receptive to God's word, but you share what God has laid on your heart. There are hungry people and go where the hungry people are. If people are not hungry than go somewhere else. Jesus talked about "blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled, Matthew 5:6." I want to be around those who are hungry for God's word.
I've thought about different times of the greatest joy in my life and it all started four months after I lost my husband when I brought two widows to a single social for Groundhog's Day. They had such a good time. God put joy in my heart right then in giving those two widows joy by "making their day." When I went outside and we were getting into my car and leaving the party, and I heard this scripture in my mind, "It's more blessed to give than receive."
I met my friend Brandy at that party playing Euchre cards who later traveled with me to New Zealand on a single's matchmaker flight with the ABC camera crew and Jason the Bachelor. Because Brandy found that cheap New Zealand trip, I got to bungy jump. Bungy jumping has always been a dream in life...let alone the highest in the world!
It's amazing how helping two widows out can lead to fulfilling a dream in my life.
Sometimes I've hosted parties and boating events and it was grievous to me. The hardest was everyone leaving and then feeling alone when I had a great party. It's like the movie Jerry McGuire when you want to share the greatest victory with a person, but the person I shared the victories in my life is gone now.
I don't have that horrible sense of loss like I used to at the end of those parties anymore. My life has become that song, The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robison and the Miracles, but recently I have more joy in reaping of a reward for a good single's party or taking friends out on my boat in the summer.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6:38
He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17
Another great victory in my life was reaching out more in the music ministry in singing on a worship team and eventually leading worship with my guitar for a single's group. I would drive home from the single's group and instead of feeling that lonely feeling that my husband was not by my side like he was for 15 years after church. I experienced a deep joy in my spirit after leading worship on Sunday night.
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
I look back on much of the hardships/devastation of my soul in life and I can find one theme in my life and that God has always kept me in some type of ministry giving whether it was to help women going through an abusive marriage, women's prison, troubled teenagers that came over to our home, helping out in the children's church, doing worship for a women's Bible study, street evangelism, or now it's more singles and widows. That theme is to stay a giver.
But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. 2 Thess. 3:13
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. Proverbs 22:9
Recently, I had a man question me if I have been sowing that I should consider slowing down and being ministered to and getting in a relationship, and the Lord had an immediate answer for me. He said that He is my portion.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24
Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. Psalm 16:5
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26
I cry to you, O Lord; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." Psalm 142:5
The prodigal son asked for his portion from the father and then he spent it on riotous living. God will take care of my needs in His timing but He wants me to continue to give and sow into his kingdom for my rewards and not focus on myself. I know a lot of people have met their husband/wife on the mission field. My mission field happens to be Indiana. I'm an Indiana peach as far as hospitality goes. Sometimes it can get frustrating because I have turned down a relationship several times, but it was only after I prayed about a man, and I did not have the green light to go forward in a relationship. I had shared awhile back like Johnny Appleseed went from town and town and planted apple trees, God has me planting his word out to different Christians. I'm a seed planter. I'm reaping these little joy harvests from God.
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." Luke 8:5-8
That may have been a little harder for me with my husband, because I was married to a serious minded engineer. I could tease him about "getting some" at night and that always brought a smile to his face. His lack of a sense of a humor wore on me at times, because I'm a totally deranged person when it comes to comedy. I like some of the "bad" stuff.
I put on the movie Hangover recently and got a revelation on how my life has been a hangover. Not from drugs or alcohol but after a divorce or a death of a husband. It's been a scavenger hunt to piece my life back together and look for clues from God how healing could come in my life. Similar to the movie, how they were trying to piece their life together what happened the previous night from the drug in their drink.
I remember going to see the movie Liar Liar and laughing at the top of my lungs when the son in the movie wished that his dad played by Jim Carey would not lie. My husband did not like Jim Carey. My mother could not stand actor Robin Williams. I've sat down with engineers from online dating sites, and I realized I can't go there again. Even with a good marriage, I just have to have a guy who has a better sense of humor. I've blogged that God has a sense of humor look at all the weird animals in the zoo, their weird mating rituals, and then look at yourself in the mirror.
I have another suggestion on making oneself happy and that is be a giver. Most missionaries can be very happy people because they are givers. Usually givers are the happiest people I've met. This is as long as you are giving with the attitude that you are giving to God and you are not looking at a man for the reward.
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful (hilarious) giver. 2 Cor. 9:7
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. Duet. 15:10
It's because you can help people at times and it can blow up in your face. If you realize that you are giving to God than no matter what you give if it does not work out that a person does not like your gift, you know you have given the gift as unto the Lord not unto men and that is all that matters.
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, Ephesians 6:7
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, Colossians 3:23
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Cor. 9:6
At times we may have to "shake the dust off your feet" if people are not receptive to God's word, but you share what God has laid on your heart. There are hungry people and go where the hungry people are. If people are not hungry than go somewhere else. Jesus talked about "blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled, Matthew 5:6." I want to be around those who are hungry for God's word.
I've thought about different times of the greatest joy in my life and it all started four months after I lost my husband when I brought two widows to a single social for Groundhog's Day. They had such a good time. God put joy in my heart right then in giving those two widows joy by "making their day." When I went outside and we were getting into my car and leaving the party, and I heard this scripture in my mind, "It's more blessed to give than receive."
I met my friend Brandy at that party playing Euchre cards who later traveled with me to New Zealand on a single's matchmaker flight with the ABC camera crew and Jason the Bachelor. Because Brandy found that cheap New Zealand trip, I got to bungy jump. Bungy jumping has always been a dream in life...let alone the highest in the world!
It's amazing how helping two widows out can lead to fulfilling a dream in my life.
Sometimes I've hosted parties and boating events and it was grievous to me. The hardest was everyone leaving and then feeling alone when I had a great party. It's like the movie Jerry McGuire when you want to share the greatest victory with a person, but the person I shared the victories in my life is gone now.
I don't have that horrible sense of loss like I used to at the end of those parties anymore. My life has become that song, The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robison and the Miracles, but recently I have more joy in reaping of a reward for a good single's party or taking friends out on my boat in the summer.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6:38
He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17
Another great victory in my life was reaching out more in the music ministry in singing on a worship team and eventually leading worship with my guitar for a single's group. I would drive home from the single's group and instead of feeling that lonely feeling that my husband was not by my side like he was for 15 years after church. I experienced a deep joy in my spirit after leading worship on Sunday night.
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
I look back on much of the hardships/devastation of my soul in life and I can find one theme in my life and that God has always kept me in some type of ministry giving whether it was to help women going through an abusive marriage, women's prison, troubled teenagers that came over to our home, helping out in the children's church, doing worship for a women's Bible study, street evangelism, or now it's more singles and widows. That theme is to stay a giver.
But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. 2 Thess. 3:13
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. Proverbs 22:9
Recently, I had a man question me if I have been sowing that I should consider slowing down and being ministered to and getting in a relationship, and the Lord had an immediate answer for me. He said that He is my portion.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24
Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. Psalm 16:5
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26
I cry to you, O Lord; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." Psalm 142:5
The prodigal son asked for his portion from the father and then he spent it on riotous living. God will take care of my needs in His timing but He wants me to continue to give and sow into his kingdom for my rewards and not focus on myself. I know a lot of people have met their husband/wife on the mission field. My mission field happens to be Indiana. I'm an Indiana peach as far as hospitality goes. Sometimes it can get frustrating because I have turned down a relationship several times, but it was only after I prayed about a man, and I did not have the green light to go forward in a relationship. I had shared awhile back like Johnny Appleseed went from town and town and planted apple trees, God has me planting his word out to different Christians. I'm a seed planter. I'm reaping these little joy harvests from God.
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." Luke 8:5-8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness2 Corinthians 9:8
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