Recap of 11/11 and Polar Express Night

Hey Mamas, Hope everyone is staying warm today. My apologies for not posting the recap of our last meeting yet. It's been a little crazier than normal around here. Bear with me as this post will be a little longer than normal but will include info about our Polar Express Night coming up this Monday.

Thank you Shellie Carriker, AGAIN, for taking notes and compiling a summary of last week's topic. Here is the summary from Susie Roger's talk last week:

Susie Rogers spoke on Monsters-in-law or Mentors-in-law. She started with: Begin with the End. She challenged us to begin again if the relationship is not we had hoped it to be God has a plan and HE knows the beginning and the end Change Your Perspective: God calls us to choose a different perspective what us our focus on or what is it lacking?  Our perspective can affect us during this time Love is an ACTION your attitude leads to behavior which leads to change for yourself & perspective choose to LOVE even when you don’t feel like it. Susie asked us some hard questions but ones we should all consider. 

How many of us have perfect husbands? friends? mothers? fathers? brothers? sisters? We need realize the answer is no & stop thinking our mother-in-laws need to be as well. We need to acknowledge God is LOVE! He is powerful enough to change life’s so why not a relationship?

1. Do you want to change your perspective?
2. Do you want to LOVE her?
3. Am I thinking about the end game?
4. If things go well do we assume all the credit?
 5. Do we long for a do over?

We need realize we can not change our husbands, friends, sisters, brothers etc…so we can not change her! However, there are things we can do!
*We can pray over her & the relationship
* We can live a life that leads by LOVE(the verb which requires action)
* Words have power(never underestimate the power of words so choose them carefully)
*Build Blessings by the way we treat her
*God has brought her to us & we need to have a grateful heart
*Give her lots of grace
*Encourage her If you are in a tough situation just remember “hurt people, hurt people.”

She (MIL) also did not plan for the relationship to go this direction nor did she dream it this way. No mother-in-law wants this transition to go bad. When the wedding & honeymoon is over the in-laws have a hard time handing that relationship over. Regardless of age of parents they still want respect & honor. Deut 5:16 “Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God commanded you. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Eph 6:2 Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: Analyze your guilt, True Guilt will convict you through prayer. Maybe you are in an unhealthy relationship. Ask God for forgiveness if any is needed. False guilt plays in your head “I have not been all they want me to be.” You are are about pleasing them instead of God. Susie had a wise counselor give us 3 important standards to live by when dealing with in-laws

1. be sure to keep lines of communication open with your husband
2. allow him to talk to mother in law(or father)
3. have zero ultimatums

 The best part of the night was when Susie shared these wise words: Someday we too will be mother-in-laws Our children area watching us You can choose Godly responses We are young! There is time! Remember SHE raised our husbands so have a grateful heart, she did so something right or you would not be where you are today!

 Book to consider: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman Thank you, again, Shellie for the summary.

 Our next MOPS meeting is this Monday, November 25. Our theme is "Polar Express Night." WEAR YOUR PAJAMAS!!! Seriously, come dressed in your pj's. How exciting is that?!? Our speaker for the evening will be Jennifer Unnasch. Here talk is titled "A Christmas in Focus." Her is a little about Jennifer:

 Jennifer is wife to Aaron for 13 years, a stay at home, homeschool mom to 3 amazing boys (if she must say so herself) who are 12, 9, and 4. She loves to be outside, and if it were possible, she would go on a daytrip every day of the year. She has a passion for "intentional parenting" and believes we need to make the most of teachable moments with our kids. She has worked or volunteered in ministry with preschoolers for 11 years now. Most importantly, she loves Christ and gratefully accepts His grace daily!

 I'm excited to hear what Jennifer has to say and super excited I get to listen in my pj's. Hope to see everyone there! Have a great weekend.

(Sorry about all the typos. When the post was originally published the format messed up causing several mess ups in spacing and punctuation. I tried to fix it but I'm sure I missed some.)