We all get them, email forwards.  Most of the time I read them and move on without giving it another though.  Seldom do I forward it on.

My uncle recently sent me one titled “The Duck & the Devil”.  Rather than sending it on in an email, I thought it was worth posting in today’s blog for all to read.   Enjoy.

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods.
He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner.

As he was walking back he saw Grandma’s pet duck. Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in
the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved!

In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, ‘Sally, let’s wash the dishes’ But Sally said, ‘Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the
kitchen.’ Then she whispered to him, ‘Remember the duck?’ So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, ‘I’m sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.’

Sally just smiled and said, ‘Well that’s all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help’

She whispered again, ‘Remember the duck?’ So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s; he finally couldn’t stand it any longer.

He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, ‘Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because
I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.’

Thought for the day and every day thereafter…

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done… And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits,
hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)…whatever it is…You need to know that God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing.

He has seen your whole life. He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He’s just wondering how long you will let the
devil make a slave of you.

The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness;

He not only forgives you, but He forgets.

It is by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved.

God is at the window!

We all dream of marrying the perfect person.  When we marry, we all believe at the time of the ceremony that the person standing next to us at the alter is “just perfect.”  Yes, we know deep down inside that nobody is perfect, but in that moment of joy and euphoric feelings the rational thoughts of reality are blurred or buried to live in the dream of marrying Mr. or Miss perfect.

Then it happens.  Six months, maybe a year or two, sometimes it is even 10, 20 or 30 years after we are married we accept even start to resent the fact that we are not married to a perfect person.
It is so amazing how quickly we  point out the imperfections of our mate while ignoring our own imperfections.

Somehow along our marital journey life got busy and we stopped praying together or going to church regularly.  We were busy at work, or with the kids and things around the house that we weren’t spending as much quality time together.  The door was cracked open to allow satan to reach in to create a fire in your relationship.

We get hurt.  Many times we let those hurts go without a word.  Then there are the little things the other person does that aggravates us.  Sure they are small in nature and not worth mentioning.  But after time, as years past, these hurts and little aggravations start to eat at us.  We then start to look at every little thing about our mate that “isn’t perfect” and we start to knit pick at everything.  We don’t hold it in anymore, we express it to the one we love.  Satan is in the house.

We no longer look at our life long covenant spouse as perfect, instead we focus on everything about them that is not perfect.  This is when we need to reach up to God and cry out for His intervention.
I read a quote recently,  I am unsure who the author is but it is profound and something we should all focus on in a marriage.

Love is not finding a perfect person, it is seeing an imperfect person perfectly.

God sees us as as perfectly imperfect.  He give us His unconditional love no matter what we do and no matter how often we turn away from him.  Imagine how wonderful marriage would be if we looked at our spouse the same way God looks at us.

How many marriages would still be if we looked at our spouse as perfectly imperfect.  If we accept them for who they are instead of making them who we want them to be.

There is no way we can do this on your own.  We live in an imperfect world.  But with Christ as our foundation we can see our spouse as “perfect.”   He will also let you see that you are not “perfect.”  After all, how can any of us point out the imperfections of others when we are just as imperfect?

Oh, we all do it.  It is so much easier to focus on someone else’s short comings than our own.  But as we mature, as we grow our relationship with Christ we will focus more and more on improving our own imperfections as well as loving our spouses imperfections.

What better time than today to start improving who you are and loving the imperfections of who your spouse is.

How many times have you looked at something that someone else has done and said to them “that wasn’t the right thing to do” or “you shouldn’t have said that” only to get back from them some form of resentment? Have you been told by someone “don’t tell me what’s right and wrong” or “stop being such a goody toody”.

To be honest, I have. Oh sure, I may have been wrong by pointing out something someone has done wrong, or better said, they way I pointing it out could have been done with more tact. But it is true, I do tend to hold people to a higher level, especially someone who professes to be Christian. Am I judging them? No, or at least that is not my intent. I always figured that as Christians we should live differently than how the “world lives.” We should be set apart, there should be something in us that is “different.”

In my study today I read Ephesians 5. Yes, I have read it before, many times, but for some reason today God actually showed me the words and opened my eyes. He showed me in His word how I should live. How we all should live as well as how we should treat our spouse.

I realized this standard for Christians wasn’t something I set, but to a standard that God set. And it isn’t a standard for Christians, it is a standard everyone should strive for. If we all lived as Ephesians 5 reads, imagine how the world would be different. Imagine how TV would be different. How talk around the water cooler would be different.

Most importantly imagine how families would be different. Relationships between husband and wives would be filled with love and respect not hate and resentment. Imagine how this would change children and how that change would be contagious to their friends in school.

So much in this world would be better if we all “lived right” and followed the teaching in Ephesians 5.

Think through how often you have said a “four” letter word during your day. Think how you may have been deceived by empty words in a business deal or maybe even by your own spouse, or maybe you were the one doing the deceiving.

Please read and study Ephesians 5 let it be your standard for living today and every day.

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for the Lord’s people. ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Instructions for Christian Households

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing  her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, people have never hated their own bodies, but they feed and care for them, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  Ephesians 5 TNIV