Challenge - Day 22

Day 22
"Let your speech always be with grace..." Colossians 4:6a

Focus today on how you represent your husband in your home, your church, and your community. In this challenge to encourage, ask: "If all my family and friends knew about
my husband came from a filter of what I've said about him, what would they think of my husband?" Do you need to change the filter?

Do you talk positively about your husband to others... or do you complain and criticize? Your speech should reflect 1 Cor. 13 love. Your words should be kind, and should never "rejoice in iniquity" (v. 6). Refrain from listing your husband's faults to others. Satan likes to trick us in this area - be wary of sharing barbed "prayer requests."

Remember, "Love will cover a multitude of sins" (1 Pet. 4:8b). Present your husband before others today in a strong, positive manner. Slip in a "good word" for your spouse. Resist the urge to correct or belittle him in front of others. Some of what you say may come back to him - and you want your words to be sweet, building him up and never tearing him down.

Don't forget: you are always criticizing - or encouraging - before an audience. God hears your conversations when you are alone with your husband in your own home. May your speech be always seasoned with grace.

Day 22
Pray that your husband will be humble and quick to agree with God about his sin. Pray that his heart will be tender toward the voice of the Lord.

Psalm 51:2-4
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.



Nathan teaches Sunday School (with another guy friend) - the Grade 5 & 6 boys class. He really enjoys it and I know the kids do too. A couple times the moms of have come up to me and say how much their sons love him. It happened today again with a mom of a boy who's not even in his class. I think Nathan was helping out with Boys Club when this particular boy was in it a couple years ago. And since then, Nathan still stops and talks to him in church on Sundays. Which I think is the key point - not many adults (especially men) bother to stop and talk to kids - and Nathan is excellent at this! Way better than I am that's for sure. Anyway, this mom, Sherri, was telling me how much her son loved Nathan and he was always asking for them to invite us over sometime soon - in fact he wants us to go on a cruise with them! :) She had mentioned it to a friend of hers (when she saw Nathan at a local coffee shop) who also has a son in Nathan's class and she agreed enthusiastically that her son loved Nathan too.