A Respectful Wife

This is re-posted from Nancy Wilson's blog (www.feminagirls.com).  I love her straight forward writing style.  She tells it like it is.  Let me know what you think!

A Respectful Wife

One of God’s clear commands to wives is to see that they respect their own husbands. One of the hard things to get wives to see is that this is not about their husbands. It is not a command to the husbands to be respectable (though they should). It is to and for the wives. And respect is really about the wives, not the husbands.

What do I mean by this? A wife is to see that she does something herself. Respect is a behavior that the wife is to display. Here are a few things that characterize a respectful wife.

1. She thinks right thoughts about her husband, contemplating his strengths and godly traits.

2. She shows gratitude to him for his work and provision and abilities.

3. She shows concern for his needs and wishes.

4. She speaks courteously to him.

5. She fulfills his requests, submitting to him in the little things and the big things.

6. She speaks highly of him to others.

7. She is trustworthy.

8. She goes to him for counsel first.

9. She prays for him.

10. She forgives him.

Now some women will say, “I refuse to do that. My husband is not worthy of such treatment.”  Then why did you marry him? Some husbands may say that they refuse to love their wives because they are not lovely or lovable. So why did they marry women they couldn’t love? They are still required by Scripture to love them anyway.

This is why it is so important for women to marry someone for whom they have great respect. Otherwise, this is a very high bar. If you have great regard for your husband, then you married the right guy. And respecting a respectable man is not too difficult after all.

But if on the other hand, you are already married to someone for whom you have little respect, the command is still there, but it will be much more difficult to obey. At the same time, if you begin to treat your husband with respect unconditionally, out of respect for Christ and His Word, it will be good for you and good for your husband.

Park Church's Etsy site

I have been going to Park Church Denver for almost three years.  Those of you who know Wes and me well know that Park Church is our home, our family.  This is not only because we are both deacons and Wes works full time for the church.  It is because we do life with these people seven days a week.  We strive to love our neighborhood and city with these people.  Our community at Park Church knows us well enough to call us out on our sin, celebrate our victories, and to push us closer to Jesus in both circumstances.  We hear the Gospel (the life, death, and resurrection of Christ) preached from the pulpit every Sunday and demonstrated in the actions of our pastors day in and day out.   For these reasons and many more, we believe in this church.


Since the church started in the summer of 2008, we have rented space.  We are now making the move to purchase real estate in our neighborhood.  This will allow us to continue to grow as a community the worships Jesus and to have a place of our own to open up the neighborhood.  Wes and I oversee our church's outreach to our local high school, North High School.  This includes Young Life, tutoring, PTSA, coaching, praying, and much more.  Having a space will allow us to serve the school so much better.  In the past, anytime we wanted to gather with the staff, parents, or students of North High School, we have had to find a space and pay for it.  Not anymore!


Our church is currently raising money for the down payment and some initial repairs on this building.  For the last five weeks, we have been working towards raising $289,500.  With three weeks left in our fundraising campaign, we have around $135,000 yet to raise.  Because Wes and I don't have much extra money, we figured labor would be out biggest contribution to the building.  However, we wanted to support financially as well.


In order to do this, I have started an Etsy site that features arts and crafts from the women in our church.  We are trying to raise $1,000 with this site.  So far we have raised almost $200.  Please help us reach our goal by purchasing something from our site.  More stuff will be posted daily.  Below I have posted photos of a few items.  I have also posted the link to our site and a link that talks more about the building we are buying and why we are buying it.  


Thanks for reading!

Crocheted coffee sleeve made by me

Tutu for babies and toddlers made by Sarah Bruss

Classic gray cowl made by Hannah Gurley

parkchurchdenver.etsy.com

www.parkchurchdenver.org/building

Crocheted coffee sleeves

So the weather is getting warmer and crocheting scarfs and hats is seeming less and less practical by the day.  I have now moved on to making crocheted coffee sleeves.  They are so easy!  I start with a 6.5mm crochet hook and a chain of 10-12 and then use whatever stitch I want until it is long enough to go around a cup WHEN IT IS BEING SLIGHTLY STRETCHED.  Then I sew it together in the back with the same color yarn and add a couple buttons.  It takes me 30 minutes from start to finish.  If you're interested in buying one, I am selling them on Etsy to make money for the down payment on the building our church is buying.  Several women from church are putting their crafts on the site as well.  I will be doing a big push next weekend for our Etsy site, but you can check it out now at parkchurchdenver.etsy.com. Here are some of them:

More scarfs!

Here are a couple of new scarfs I made.  The first one is for my Grandma Lou (but don't tell her because she doesn't know yet!).  I used two different yarns together with a 6.5mm hook and the double crochet stitch.  It is 14 chains across.  


The second on it is an infinity scarf.  I honestly don't have specific instructions because I made it up as I went.  I am going to make another one very soon and I will pay better attention!  Here's what I do know: I started with a chain stitch.  Once I achieved my desired circumference I used a slip stitch to put the chain together and I continued with the double crochet stitch until I was satisfied with the width.  I then used the slip stitch to finish it (this can be seen at the end of the video I posted on how to make a large beanie).

Birth control as it relates to the Gospel

I have gotten a lot of questions recently about birth control.  I taught a women's health class at church last summer about birth control, menstrual cycles, and sex as it relates to the Gospel.  I got great feedback on the course and I'd like to share the birth control handout from the class.  I freely disclose that these are my views and aren't the "end all, be all" by any means.  However, I hope they are helpful.  E-mail me at laura.strebeck@gmail.com if you have any questions.


To see the document, click here.

First baby hat/some more burp rags

For Stephani's baby shower I made three burp rags (this has become my thing for baby showers - fun, cheap, easy) and a baby version of the hat I made Wes.  To make the hat I used the same instructional video that I used for Wes' hat, but I didn't add anymore links after my round of 40 and of course I didn't make it as long.  It amazed me what a fast project it was!  I used the 6.5mm crochet hook again.

Cloth diaper with fabric down the middle - I hand stitched and did not go all

the way through so that the blue thread did not show on the back side.

Keaton's hat!

Keaton's hat next to Wes' - Stephani and I want to

get a photo of them wearing their hats together!

My first crocheted hat!

So I was a little intimidated to attempt a hat...but with the instruction of YouTube, I did it (link included below)!  The first part is challenging and it took me three tries to get it right.  Once I finished adding stitches, it got a lot easier.  Although I am proud of my hat, I learned how much more fun it is to learn from a friend (like I've done for all my previous items) than from "Crochet Geek" on YouTube.  Once I got it right, it took about two hours of total work.  It was one of my Valentine's Day gifts to Wes, but I just couldn't wait to give it to him!  I used at 6.5mm crochet hook.

Wes relaxing at home with his new hat.

Close-up

View from the back

Instructions for a large beanie for a man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KobDydvvmmU