Day 18: PERSEVERE

Our Give-Away for Today!

Winning Him Without Words

Week after week, you sit in church…alone. You are one of many women across the country who are spiritually mismatched; committed to a spouse who does not share your faith.

You may feel abandoned by your spouse or forgotten by your church. You may feel like you have to live out your faith in survival mode, guarding the spiritual flame yet never feeling free to share it.

But don’t lose hope! God wants you to thrive—not just survive. Winning Him Without Words presents 10 Christ-centered keys to thriving in your spiritually unequal relationship. In the pages of this book, you’ll learn from real life stories how to:

• commit to Christian community
• release your spouse to God’s capable hands
• find peace in your relationships with Christ and with your spouse
• continue your pursuit of a growing faith
• and to love your spouse with fresh enthusiasm

God wants every marriage to exude peace and love, and Winning Him Without Words will help you to create that environment in your homes and thrive as God works.

Hi! We’re Dineen Miller and Lynn Donovan. We are ordinary women and ordinary wives just like you. And, just like you, we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and our redeemer. Our husbands do not.

On your journey with us, you will experience the wonder of Scripture as it comes to life, filling you with truths that will rock your world and leave you with a fresh perspective and optimism.

You will discover that Scripture is living and active and relevant to your marriage. We, Dineen and Lynn, believe that 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers,” is a firm calling by God to all unmarried believers. However, we also know that many of us arrive in a spiritually mismatched union and desire to honor God with our marriage.

This book is for all of us who are traveling the path of the spiritually mismatched. (Join Dineen and Lynn at their Spiritually Unequal Marriage website and Facebook page!

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(Can't see the image? Click here to download 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a!)

Cheri (texting my daughter):  “I don't know what to say about perseverance.”

Annemarie (clearly not wearing her sarcasm-free bracelet): “I could write about putting up with you for 21 years. Har-har!”

Cheri:  (Resisting the urge to take the bait. After all, my 3^rd bracelet is almost worn out!) "Fery Vunny."

Annemarie (appropriately contrite): “j/k. Hey, I could write about going from no exercise to running five miles almost every day.”

Cheri:  “Coolio! (Fighting–unsuccessfully–the urge to snark) And I’ll end by writing about putting up with you for 21 years!” (Changing bracelet...)

One. Step. at. a. Time.

(from Annemarie)

I never, ever want to get up and run. Every morning is a struggle and a grumble to turn off the alarm and get out of bed.

I pray as I am getting up and sleepwalking into my clothes and walking out the door.

Running really is a "one step at a time" thing for me, mentally as well as physically. Twenty laps–5 miles–is a lot. But when I focus on this one lap, on this one stride, this one step at a time, it’s not so overwhelming.

Twenty laps is a long time, and I have nothing else to do but pray the whole time. So I focus on Him, on my next step, on getting in step with Him.

Before I know it, the whole thing is done, and it wasn't as hard as I had feared.

Best of all, I know I can do it. Each time I do reinforces my belief. 

I read a devotion the other day that said, "No matter what the situation is, pray 'Lord, I am delighted to serve you in this.' " 

My part is to take the next step. 

Forced Changes

(back to Cheri)

My one worry about The PURSE-onality Challenge is too much change coming too fast to last.

Are we gritting our teeth and white-knuckling our way through on our own will-power and won’t-power? 

Such changes won’t last.

Are we stuffing our true feelings on the inside and faking nice on the outside?  

Such changes won’t last.

In a recent blog post, Michael Hyatt wrote,  “In life, we have to learn there is a fine line between working hard and forcing an outcome....”

A timely reminder that the outcomes I've forced rarely persevere. 

Yes, the change process requires hard work. But sometimes, “the next step” is an intentional step back. 

In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, the Heath brothers point out that "self-control–in the broad sense of self-supervision (any time you're paying close attention to your actions)–is an exhaustible resource.”

Lasting Changes

Many of you have responded to our blog posts and your own daily experiences of “paying close attention” to your complaining+ with comments like:

• “Ouch! You nailed me!”
• “Are you spying on me?”
• “I never saw myself this way!”

Changes are happening. Important changes. Necessary changes.

Change is good. 

And “change is hard because [we] wear [ourselves] out….” 

My sarcasm “slip” has been showing more and more over the last few days. I’m tired of “being good” all the time. 

Which means I’ve been trying to force a “good” outcome with my own strength and without rest.

I’m reminded that during change “what looks like laziness is often exhaustion.” 




Pause to Persevere

(later) Back again. 

Did you miss me?

(You didn’t even realize I was gone? So much for the story I tell myself that people can’t live without me!)

The song lyric “even soldiers need a quiet place to rest” wandered through my mind as I was writing.

So I took a nap. I was really tired. More tired than I thought.

Sometimes, perseverance is about running forward.

Putting our trust and hope in God into action.

Other times, it’s about “running home when I fall down.” 

To the One who always protects and never fails.

And spending time in scripture, silence, and solitude.

With the One whose love is our reason for change

and our power for perseverance.

Try this today:  Listen to or read the lyrics to Twila Paris’s “The Warrior is a Child.” 

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Please leave a comment 

• responding to today’s blog, and/or

• sharing your Day #1-18 experience of replacing “baditude” with God’s word and gratitude, and/or

• about anything else on your heart!

The McD's -- you're the winner of Day 6!  

Tara -- you're the winner of Day 10!

e-mail me at cheri@cherigregory.com w/your mailing address! 

All other winners Days 1-11 have been notified & prizes sent.

Winners for Days 12-16 will be drawn and notified Friday!

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(Catch up on any "Warm-Up Week" Blog Posts!)