Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

Meal Planning Monday

It’s back 🙂  Yep, I’m super stoked too!

Monday – Zuppa toscana soup

Tuesday – Chicken pie…this is, without a doubt, one of my FAV meals!!! I will alter it a bit to make it healthier but it will still be just as yummy!

Wednesday – Sauerkraut, hot dogs, kielbasa, pork roast, mashed potatoes and dumplings 🙂

Thursday – Quick pig casserole (cabbage, 96% fat free hamburg, brown rice, sauerkraut and tomato soup)…one of my absolute FAVS and soooo healthy!!! Under 250 calories a serving and it’s packed with protein and fiber. I highly recommend this one!!! I plan on making a big ole’ batch of it and freezing it in single serving containers for quick lunch and dinners.

Friday – Hmmmmm, I’m thinking my fav healthy restaurant, SUBWAY!

Saturday – Pizza + movie night with my loves

Sunday – Bbq chicken, cheesy potatoes and garlic crescent rolls (for the crescent rolls i use the low fat ones and sprinkle them with garlic powder before i roll them up…my fam loves them)

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30 Awesome Marriage Quotes

Who doesn’t love a good marriage quote?  There is just something about being reminded by others of how wonderful marriage is that I find so beautiful. I may or may not also use them as Facebook statuses and post them to my husbands wall. I am an absolute SAP when it comes to love.  I love love.

So I’m going to list my top 30 favorite marriage quotes, and you leave your fav quotes in the comments.  Here we go….

Imagine a man so focused on God that the only reason he looked up to see you is because he heard God say “that’s her”. ~ author unknown

Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat. ~ Joanne Woodward

A great marriage is not when the “perfect couple” comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences. ~ Dave Meurer

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. ~ Mignon McLaughlin

Two souls but with a single thought two hearts that beat as one. ~ John Keats

The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman’s heart. ~ Josiah Holland

Marriage: Love is the reason. Lifelong friendship is the gift. Kindness is the cause. Til’ death do us part is the length. ~ Fawn Weaver

It’s not compatibility that makes for a happy marriage…it’s grace. The point of marriage is not to make you happy by giving you a perfect soul mate. God’s point of marriage is to make you Holy by teaching you to love like Jesus. ~Author Unknown

Ladies, your husband doesn’t need you to love him as much as he needs you to respect him. To respect your husband is to hold him in high esteem and honor. – Tony Evans

I Found The One My Heart Loves ~ Song of Solomon 3:4

Our marriage is living proof that love and family can get you through everything. ~ Miss Kay

Ladies, a real man does more than pay for you, he prays for you. ~ Jarrid Wilson

More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse. ~Doug Larson

Marriage is getting to have a sleep over with your best friend, every single night of the week. ~ Christie Cook

Marriage is not a noun; it’s a verb. It isn’t something you get. It’s something you do. Its the way you love your partner every day. ~ Barbara De Angelis

God created marriage. No government subcommittee envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and born in the mind of God. ~ Max Lucado

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~ Simone Signoret

The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together. ~ Robert Dodds

The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds – they mature slowly. ~Peter De Vries

Marriage is a total commitment and a total sharing of the total person with another person until death. ~ Wayne Mack

Newlyweds become oldyweds, and oldyweds are the reasons that families work. ~Author Unknown

Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate. ~Barnett R. Brickner

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~ Simone Signoret

Love me when I least deserve it because that is when I really need it. ~ Swedish Proverb

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our heats and brings peace to our minds. ~ Noah Calhoun

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side. ~ Zig Ziglar

Sex will fall by the wayside if you do not intentionally make it a priority. ~ One Flesh Marriage

The crowning chateristic of love is always loyalty. ~ Josiah Holland

The greatest marriages are built on teamwork. A mutual respect, a healthy dose of admiration, and a never-ending portion of love and grace. ~ Fawn Weaver

Happy marriages begin when we marry the one we love. They endure when we love the one we married. ~ author unknown

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Don’t Let Your Body Image Affect Your Marriage

Oh, body image…nothing can affect a wife’s confidence (or more often, lack thereof) quicker than a poor body image. 

So many of us women suffer from low self-esteem. Normally all our self-esteem issues revolve around our physical appearance. We are obsessed about our weight, hair, skin, facial features and so many other areas. You would be hard pressed to find a woman that would not change at least one thing about her appearance. Why do we find it so hard to love ourselves?  

Advertising, pornography, Hollywood, our own unrealistic expectations and possibly even hurtful comments from our husbands have merged into the perfect storm. Time and time again we are told that to be beautiful we need to look like a super model. The media tries to make you feel lower than low every single moment of your life. An unfathomable amount of damage has been left in that storm’s wake.

But the war rages on.

It is no wonder that so many wives (maybe yourself included) are not overly thrilled about getting naked in front or a mirror, let alone with the man they married.

I don’t know about y’all, but my body certainly doesn’t look like it did when I was 20.  I’ve had babies, nursed babies, I have stretch marks, widened hips and gravity has certainly not been my friend.  My body has transformed.  Each transformation seems to ingrain more bodily shame. 


How can we stop this body image war?  What is the secret?

Well, first of all, I wouldn’t hold my breath for the media, advertisers and the porn industry to change.  I’m not so sure that is going to happen anytime soon.

Don’t believe the lies.  Chances are you are basing your actions on lies rather than truth. If you are like most women, you have been told (either directly or indirectly) that your worth is rooted in your appearance. That is an absolute lie.  It’s not that pretty and girly things are bad (like make-up, attractive appropriate clothing and a stylish haircut)… it’s that those pretty things are not who we are.  We are all made in Gods image. Every single one of us. Do you know what that means? I am beautiful, so are YOU, because we are daughters of the King and we were made in His image. Take a moment and let that sink in. You are perfectly perfect and what He wants you to be.  Your value is not in your breasts, hips, hair, lips, eye color, skin tone or stomach muscles.
Get active.  Take a stand.  Fight fat talk.  Be positive.  Accept compliments.  Don’t buy into the media “image” hype.  Talk to your husband about the lies the media loves to force feed us.  Enlighten your children about authentic beauty, authentic sexual intimacy and God’s plan for marriage
Talk to him.  And be completely honest with him.  Study after study would show that the vast majority of husbands desire their wives – and they want wives who want to fully participate in sex and embrace it for the gift it is.  The hang up about body appearance is more about our own insecurities than it is about their expectations.  Nurturing sexual intimacy to its fullest in your marriage has so much to do with embracing the beauty and femininity of who you are. And you are beautiful.  When he tells you he thinks you are beautiful and sexy, he really does mean it.  Believe him.  Accept the compliment and embrace it.  Embrace him and his love.

I can be confident. You can be confident. We can all be confident. We can walk through this world with heads and hearts held high as daughters of the King. Daughters who are messy and broken. With Him, we are transformed into beautiful simply because we are His. Understand your identity in Him and the beauty and freedom He bestows on us and the love He extends to us.

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