I was with a few Christian people recently, and I came away with the strong impression that they believe that going to church and evangelizing is the goal and the focus of the Christian life. They talked about these two activities a lot, and implied repeatedly through their conversation that a person is a successful Christian if they continue to be church attendees and aggressively evangelize.I was with another group of people a few weeks ago who left me with the very strong and aggressive statement that the goal of the Christian life is to read, study, and memorize the Bible, and to live by their interpretation of it. They made strong statements against people who did not live their lives the way they did, and they implied that their children will not be successful if they do not memorize large portions of Scripture, and spend significant time reading and studying the Bible.As I visited with these groups of people, I certainly didn’t experience love coming from them in those times, nor did ...continue reading
I'm so grateful to Marilyn Howshall who came to my house and showed me very specifically how to love my alzheimer's inflicted mom with Christlike love! (read the blog post about it here)She pointed me toward listening to the Holy Spirit speaking through my conscience, and as I obeyed, I became changed; I became transformed! (read the blog post about it here)Over time, I began to see how my children and husband needed to truly love and serve each other with Christlike sacrifice. Because I was changing, I could more clearly see how they needed to change as well. The entire culture and atmosphere of our home and family life changed as we began to focus our daily efforts toward what really matters.It's so common for parents to get sidetracked into behaving as though what really matters most is going here and there on time, and getting stuff done at home. That's what I used to do too. Like many parents, I added some sort of devotions or Bible curriculum to our life, but ...continue reading
When Marilyn began to show me specific and practical ways to love my family, as I mentioned in my last blog post, I became transformed.I wasn’t just receiving information about love, but specific and practical instruction and correction that allowed me to know HOW to change. As I began to obey the Holy Spirit’s conviction through my conscience, my attitudes, intentions, and motivations began to change, which in turn changed my actions toward my family.My family experienced me being different than I was before. As I began to be transformed, I was able to help my children in the same way. Instead of gaining some interesting information, we were changed. We were transformed.As I prepared and worked on the Love’s Actions Seminars, my goal was to point you toward cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s work in you toward learning HOW to love much and love well so your life can change too.The instruction and correction within the audios can clearly show you the way forward. You become aware of what you need to stop doing in your relationships, and ...continue reading
I remember thinking of myself as a generally loving person for most of my life. After all, I was nice to people in my neighborhood and at church. I made sure to try to avoid conflict, and our family generally minded our own business. I couldn’t really think of any way I was being unloving, and so I assumed I was loving.I remember when Marilyn Howshall came over to my house to help me with my mom who had advanced Alzheimer’s disease. As Marilyn spent time with my mom and me, she started to gently show me particular ways I was not loving my mom. She came in and started talking and praying with my mom, looking in her eyes, smiling at her, holding her hand, and sweetly having the round and round conversation that is typical when someone has only a 15-second memory.Marilyn showed me specific things to stop doing. I needed to stop emotionally ignoring my mom, and stop leaving her in her isolated turned-in state. She also showed me things ...continue reading
As I was sitting in a church service while visiting some friends out of town, I heard it being said that the primary actions of love are to have a smile for most everyone, and to be a generally encouraging person.I remember thinking that it would be very easy to think of myself as being loving if this was my only idea of what a loving person does. Through my growing up, I was impressed with a similar idea that the primary actions of love are to be nice, avoid conflict, mind your own business, quietly and temporarily tolerate annoying people, and perhaps occasionally do a random act of kindness for a stranger. This definition of the actions of love would leave almost all of us believing in error that we are loving.I have found that many believers have been taught the same idea of what love's actions look like. I’d like to show you why we need to move beyond this common anemic idea, AND I’d like to help you move into experiencing God’s ...continue reading
In coming to look at your family's relational heartbeat, you can feel unsure as to how to proceed making changes in how you and your family members relate with one another. You don't want to waste time trying on ideas that won't work, so focus is key.It's possible you haven’t yet known your children's true heart-level needs, and until you understand how every human heart needs to be loved, you won’t be able to fix your family's relational problems that are really at the core of your difficulties.You'll want to hear about our practical tools that will help you tackle making changes in your family's heartbeat.A Heart-Level ApproachAs you’ve read the complimentary material I offer on my blog MarilynHowshall.com you’ve heard of the importance of entering into a process with God’s work in your own life, so He can release His guiding wisdom for how to meet your family’s unique needs. Many of your questions begin to have answers straight from God’s heart to your own.We want to help make these ideas work for you and your ...continue reading
