Monday, March 19, 2012

The Three Keys

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Savannah, Georgia parade second in size only to New York's and Georgians think that's debatable.

It's also spring and weddings are in the air. I've been pondering what advice to give the soon-to-be-marrieds among us  like our granddaughter Katie. 

I think I shall say:
Marriage is only hard if you want to stay engaged in a love affair. If you choose to settle for less than a dynamic intimate union you can take the emotional walk into separateness, at least on certain issues. Life on the surface may be easier. If you’ve known the excitement of emotional oneness it’s never as fulfilling.

Plus God doesn’t like lukewarm marriages any more than he likes lukewarm relationships with Him.

So what’s the answer? It comes in three. Speak through pain, love through anger, listen rather than run.

These are the three keys to making a real marriage. Not just one that works, but one that does honor to the God who designed this fantastic union between frail, flawed men and women  - and even sacramentalized it.

It helps to know God has a blanket of love big enough for two, when one of you temporarily hasn’t enough to keep the other warm. You can stay under and re-energize as you use the three keys to re-connect.

The best advice of all is from Psalm 119:25-27. "My life is down in the dust; give me life through Your word. I told you about my life and you listened to me; teach me Your statutes. Help me understand the meaning of Your precepts so that I can meditate on Your wonders."

Isn't a good marriage always a wonder of God! Feel free to share these thoughts with those you love. 
 (c) Judith Rolfs 2012



You may also want to check out the Intimacy Reviver in A Woman's Guide To Keeping Promises available on amazon.

Friday, March 16, 2012

First Day in Heaven

My friend Betsy is spending her first full day in heaven today. She left us two soon in human eyes. Betsy was a classy lady, warm and loving, with beautiful eyes, beloved by many. A few years back I wrote about Heaven’s First Morning. I present it again today in honor of her.

Heaven’s First Morning

I’d like to twirl with You, Lord,
And dance through the clouds.
May I ride the morning star?
I’d love to climb into Elijah’s chariot
And see a startled fish from the splitting red sea.
May I pet the mane of Your white Horse,
And sit among the children You let come close?
Heaven’s first morning will be so grand!
Breathless Minute Meditations © Judith Rolfs 2010

Words can’t describe how she’ll be missed. Betsy endured her suffering with quiet dignity and focused on making others comfortable in the presence of her illness. She fought like a bold warrior always trusting ultimately in the plan of her Lord and God, her Commander-in chief.

I met my friend on the, Fontana Country Club Estates golf course. We’d arrive early to get out before everyone else and managed to be a twosome every week. Part of the joy of our time together which we always discussed was the thrill of spending our early morning in God’s creation tugging our pull carts up the sizable hills for vigorous exercise. Occasional good golf shots mixed in with some laughable duffs.

Betsey was fun to be with, a gem of a woman.

Now she’s heaven’s treasure.

"O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you
in heaven above or on earth below-
you who keep your covenant of love
with your servants who continue
wholeheartedly in your way.”
Exodus15:13

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Women Endangered, Who Will Speak Up?

Have women in high positions of government failed millions of women? Sebelius head of Health and Human Services released the National Institute of Health 2011 report stating “the IARC [International Agency on Cancer Research] concluded there was sufficient evidence of the carcinogenicity of oral contraceptives in humans based on increased risks of breast, cervical, and liver cancer.” 

Yet Sebelius wants every woman to have access to free contraceptives without women being informed that they endanger their bodies risking future breast cancer, cervical cancer and liver cancer from oral contraceptives, well-documented by her federal report. Women also risk miscarriage of first babies if and when they do get pregnant. Plus the huge horror of STD’s that can rob this precious young woman of her fertility forever and make her life miserable as well. Only God's plan of a one man, one-woman relationship can guarantee safety from these plagues.

To insist women have free access to harmful contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to block the natural function of their bodies and then insist all taxpayers in America is a disservice to the women our Secretary of Health and Human Services should protect. Would she endorse free distribution of cigarettes for men and women as well? Once, long ago, smoking was considered therapeutic for women, not the source of cancerous, blackened lungs. Manufacturers protested for years that cigarettes were safe.  Will contraceptives follow this path?

The process of childbirth is a healthy, natural event, that is conducive to a woman's health, not a disease to be prevented at all costs. Psalm 127:3
in the Bible says, “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.”

For men and women who choose to responsibly limit the size of their families let's inform them of safe, cost-free Natural Family Planning which accomplishes the same thing without any expense or dire health consequences. Couples, instructed and motivated to use this method, can practice the cross-checking Sympto-Thermal Method at a 98% level of effectiveness for avoiding pregnancy. The research is even described on the Planned Parenthood site! This natural method avoids any health danger and means taxpayers don’t have to pay for oral contraceptives to get the same results.
 The contraceptive freedom of choice has always existed. Everyone knows that. Making other people participate in unmarried women’s immoral behavior by subsidizing it is a violation of religious liberty. Sex anywhere, anytime, anyhow is not an American right. It’s a human choice. Making taxpayers pay for married women’s use of cancer-causing contraceptives and abortifacients is a violation of female taxpayers who should be allowed to spend their money on their own family.

Who will speak up for the women being used like sheep being led to slaughter? Will men come to the rescue of these maidens and say they treasure and respect women’s decision to guard their body - their emotional, spiritual and physical health.

The Catholic Church has got this issue 100% right. Self-appointed women’s rights groups desecrate the dignity of women with lies and gross disregard of their intelligence. Our Secretary of Health and Human Services alleges concern about our contraceptive "rights" while stripping us of religious freedom.
Immigrant forefathers crossed an ocean at the risk of their lives to give us this legacy of freedom and wept with joy when they saw the Statue of Liberty. In their honor America shall remain the greatest country on earth where  Catholics worship freely and exercise freedom of conscience. This administration cannot have America’s religious freedom. Blood was shed to earn it for us and it shall remain ours.
Read the novel Directive 99 for another great deception about to be foisted on the American people. Available on amazon.com

Monday, March 5, 2012

Fined For Refusing To Sin

The Catholic church supported by countless evangelical churches is exhorting individuals: Don’t let anyone take away your right to do what you know is right or force you to do what you believe is wrong! Because God gave you that freedom!


The church, Catholic and Christian, hasn’t always gotten Christ’s message right when offering it to the world. But it has tried for centuries and succeeded valiantly at teaching love for God and others. Religious people, very often Catholics, have been in the forefront of caring for the poor, educating the ignorant and nursing the sick selflessly without the help of government. For the glory and honor of almighty God, reward enough for anyone.

Jesus made the role of the church very clear and who is the church but all of us. We are to be actively, hands on involved in local care of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the homeless through our financial giving and our volunteering. This is not the job of government. The church has lovingly provided hospitals, and orphanages and shelters and food pantries. Let the government not impede God's work on earth by destroying this work of God's church.

What a clever attack to shut the doors of Catholic institutions and stop God's workers - by fining us because we refuse to sin.

Have you ever heard of a more effective or more diabolical method to halt charity in the name of health?

Shall we laugh or cry? Neither! Let us join together and stop this assault on the people of God.