New Facebook Fan Page!

Living in the Light now has a facebook fan page!  You can find and like the page HERE.

As soon as I figure it out, I'll have a "like" button right here on my home page.  Until then, I ask that you make a couple more clicks to get to it. :)  Thank you for your support!

Dressing for My Husband

A friend just posted this on her facebook wall:

Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves and of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys they'd just walk around naked at all times.




I was about to disagree with her, but on second thought (and especially since I'm married) she's right! :D  I'm not trying to be dirty, I promise...just honest.


Since going around au natural isn't generally an option for me, I do try to dress in a way that makes my husband smile.  This is a relatively new thing for me.  Before having a husband (or fiance, or boyfriend) I liked to look cute, but what I wore wasn't a big deal.  I rarely wore makeup (still don't wear much).


However, once I had a man in my life, and once I realized how men are such visual creatures, I started paying more attention to the way I dressed.In my dresser are a lot of t-shirts, you know, those screen-print tees that I got from camp, or youth trips, etc.  None of them are very flattering, so if it weren't for the memories attached, I would probably just get rid of them entirely.


Since being married I've been learning how to love my husband more, and dressing in a way that makes him smile is one of those ways.  Now, that doesn't always mean short shorts and cleavage-baring shirts, although sometimes when it's just us at home I love doing that for him!  It's really nice to have that freedom.  Most of the time, though I wear my usual modest--but nice--clothes.  And I've started making it a big priority to be all put together by the time Hubby comes home for lunch.  That means dressed, teeth brushed, hair done, makeup on, and smelling nice (he loves my Midnight Amethyst from Bath and Body Works--yep, that's as high-end as I get! :D ).


This is one really easy way I can show my husband I love him.  I might still be in my bathrobe with messy hair when he leaves for work, but by the time he gets home I like looking pretty.  Now, don't get me wrong, Hubby loves me no matter how I look, and he's said so more than once!  But looking nice makes me feel good as well as making him smile.  And if there's one thing I love doing more than almost anything, it's making my husband smile.  :)

Another very good reason to dress nicely for my husband is that it's a God-honoring thing to do!  I made a vow to God, my husband, and those who witnessed it to love, honor, cherish and respect my husband (among other things).  That includes pleasing my husband by dressing beautifully.  It's also taking care of my body, which, since the Holy Spirit lives in me, is God's temple.

It makes God smile when I make my husband smile, because by loving Hubby, I'm loving the God who made both of us and who gave us to each other.  One lovely benefit of marriage is the mutual pleasure and joy of both the husband and the wife.  That is one way God blesses his children through marriage: he gives people to each other to increase their joy!  Any way I can increase my husband's joy, whether a little or a lot, is pleasing and honoring to the God who brought us together.

A Political Victory, or a Spiritual Tragedy?

A friend posted on facebook last night, "Who needs the news when I have facebook?"  Around 9:30 and 10:00 every other post was announcing Osama bin Laden's death.  My initial reaction was one of relief--finally, the ring leader of Al Quaeda is dead.  And then, to my shame, I thought, I wonder how Satan felt about this.  It's a victory for our side, right?  One of Satan's most powerful tools is gone, after all.

My wonderful and wise fiance reminded me, when I voiced this thought, that Satan probably laughed: he had claimed another man for his own.  God would not want me to consider this a victory.  He weeps whenever one of his created people is lost to Satan.  It hit me:

Jesus died for Osama bin Laden for the same reason He died for me.  Paul wrote in his first epistle to Timothy that God "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).  John wrote in his Gospel, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  The Gospel is for ALL people.  Jesus died to save the world.  That includes bin Laden just as surely as it includes me.

Some are calling bin Laden the "Hitler of our generation."  That he may be.  He certainly is responsible for the deaths of millions of people.  It was the attack on our country that he orchestrated that caused the war that has lasted for the last decade.  This man was responsible for much grief, pain and death.

But Jesus took all bin Laden's sins on himself, just as he took my sins on himself.  "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," Paul writes in Romans 3, "and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."  The death of Osama bin Laden is a tragedy, because he rejected the saving grace of Jesus Christ and will now spend eternity separated from God.  Who could rejoice at such a thing?

I rejoiced yesterday, watching over 20 confirmands profess their faith in Jesus Christ.  Two of them, adults, had been born and raised Buddhist, and have recently come to faith in Jesus.  That was cause to rejoice: two more people are members of the Body of Christ and will spend eternity in heaven with him.

I don't want to sound legalistic or holier-than-thou.  I admitted that at first I felt relief knowing bin Laden was dead.  But I feel greater relief at knowing that in Jesus, I am alive, by the grace of God.