Life can be hard. But what we usually mean is that our life can be hard. We’re the first to feel it when we’re the ones being mistreated or inconvenienced. We’re quick to sulk when we’re the ones who feel deprived or unappreciated. When life is difficult for us, we notice.

But too often the only way we notice that life is hard for our mate is when they start complaining about it. Then instead of genuinely caring or rushing in to help, we might think they just have a bad attitude. The pain and pressure they’re under don’t register with us the way it does when it’s our pain and pressure. When we want to complain, we expect everyone to understand and feel sorry for us.

This doesn’t happen when love is at work. Love doesn’t have to be jarred awake by your mate’s obvious signs of distress. Before worries and troubles have begun to bury them, love has already gone into action mode. It sees the weight beginning to pile up and it steps in to help. That’s because love wants you to be sensitive to your spouse.

Love makes sacrifices. It keeps you so tuned in to what your spouse needs that you often respond without being asked. And when you don’t notice ahead of time and must be told what’s happening, love responds to the heart of the problem.

Even when your mate’s stress comes out in words of personal accusation, love shows compassion rather than becoming defensive. Love inspires you to say “no” to what you want, in order to say “yes” to what your spouse needs.

That’s what Jesus did. “He laid down His life for us” to show us that “we should also lay down our lives” for others. He taught us that the evidence of love is found in seeing a need in others, then doing all we can to satisfy it. “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me” (Matthew 23:35-36).

These are the types of needs you should be looking for in your wife or husband. Instead of sitting around upset that they’re not treating you the way you think they should, let love pick you up out of your self-pity and turn your attention to their needs.

Is he “hungry” – needing you sexually, even when you don’t feel like it?

Is she “thirsty” – craving the time and attention you seem to be able to give everyone else?

Does he feel like a “stranger” – insecure in his work, needing home to be a refuge and sanctuary?

Is she “naked” – frightened or ashamed, desperate for the warm covering of your loving affirmation?

Is he feeling “sick” – physically tired and needing you to help guard him from interruptions?

Does she feel in “prison” – fearful and depressed, needing some safety and intervention?

Love is willing to make sacrifices to see that the needs of your spouse are given your very best effort and focus. When your mate is overwhelmed and under the gun, love calls you to set aside what seems so essential in your own life to help, even if it’s merely the gift of a listening ear.

Often all they really need is just to talk this situation out. They need to see in your two attentive eyes that you truly care about what this is costing them, and you’re serious about helping them seek answers. They need you to pray with them about what to do, and then keep following up to see how it’s going.

The words “How can I help you?” need to stay fresh on your lips.

The solutions may be simple and easy for you to do, or they may be complex and expensive, requiring time, energy and great effort. Either way, you should do whatever you can to meet the real needs of the one who is a part of who you are. After all, when you help them, you are also helping yourself. That’s the beautiful part of sacrificing for your spouse. Jesus did it for us. And He extends the grace to do it for others.

When the New Testament believers began to walk in love, their lives together were marked by sharing and sacrifice. Their heartbeat was to worship the Lord and to serve His people. “All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have “need” (Acts 2:44-45). As Paul said to one of these churches in a later decade, “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Lives that have been raised from death by Jesus sacrifice should be ready and willing to make daily sacrifices to meet the needs of others.

He laid down His life for us.  We should also lay down our lives for our brothers. – 1 John 3:16 HCSB

Today’s Dare

What is one of the greatest needs in your spouse’s life right now? Is there a need you could lift from their shoulders today by a daring act of sacrifice on your part?  Whether the need is big or small, purpose to do what you can to meet the need.

Once again I find myself enjoying multiple ironies …. early this morn, after an 8-9 year struggle it would appear my mother in law is ready to finish the race ….. of life. She has battled Alzheimer’s to the point where her body is little better than a shell.. withering away to my estimation is 65 pounds or less. My father in law and I have battled like Matterhorns over hospice and when my M texted/ called early this morn I was unfortunately cynical about his willingness and acceptance of what needs to happen. I was most encouraged though after rearranging thoughts for the day , making my 2.0 understand that life changes like these MUST be accepted and embraced. God has a bigger plan! Upon my arrival, dad embraced me and spoke not only of hospice coming, but also talking openly for the first time about what we need to do next….. and he was not sure what to do next.
So while she is in her eleventh hour … today we celebrate veterans everywhere past present and even the future as this day was chosen many years ago to firstly commemorate the end of the Great War in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
I began today’s workout with 11 SSH, 11 imp walkers and 11 merkins all in cadence to honor this Veterans Day finalizing it with a rare pledge said after a warm up as I preferred to do it in this fashion today!
The music choice is from the concert I recently took the fam to ,,,,,Crowder …. their latest release American Prodigal, I had tweeted that we were going to church and we did as David Crowder told the crowd much of the show. Incidentally they put on an amazing show, Mercy Me was great and we also enjoyed Micah Tyler who we were not familiar with.
So the workout was simple in form
Using two bricks ( I used 5 pound weights )
MNC/ curls/ tricep ext/ press
The intermission was done without weight/ bricks …. lbc/ flutters and American hammers
The timing was 10 first round then increase to 20, 30, decrease to 20 and 10 ….. and we completed this cycle twice and even had time for 5 burpees, 10 corkscrews each side ( thanks to Broke … never done these and I’m stealing them!!) obliques 10(?) each side and 10 big boys.
Plenty of running races coming p200 there’s almost enough for 3 teams!!
Remember to post at Starkville and San Quentin to keep these going
Shirts up for sale
Remember to wAtch those calories and keep track of efforts / success
Prayers for Oompa and Clavins M s
Rockabilly
Veterans past present and future
High school friend of Hipaa who was murdered

Lastly I wish to especially thank Oompa Loompa for offering to cover for me if I needed help and even more so for joining us in the workout …. I know that his shoulder troubles him much, but it was great to see him join us … great work!

Lambskin and I came in hot at 0659.  I woke him up when I called him from his driveway at 0645.  He threw on a t-shirt and shorts and headed out to the gloom.  T-shirt may not have been the best choice since the temp was around freezing.  Meeting us there was a group of pax including an FNG I had been EHing for a while.  Also, Tiny Tank was back from the beach for a beatdown!

Full disclaimer was given for the FNG.  But he already knew I was an idiot.

Mosey over to the parking lot on Glenway for some corewood.  I had all of the activities written on my weinke, but my M threw it away before I was able to write this backlast so I don’t remember all of them.  I’m sure crunchy frogs was one of the activities during corewood.

Like I usually do I sprinkled some trivia questions in throughout the workout.  The pax would have some time to deliberate on an answer.  If they got the question right, we would move on to the next activity.  If they got it wrong, we all had to do five burpees.  They got the first few questions right, so I tried to dial up the level of difficulty.  But to no avail, these guys were on their trivia game.

Mosey to the Field of Dreams for an accumulator.  From what I can recall the activities during the accumulator were SSHs, squats, merkins, shoulder taps, LBCs and one or two others.  The way it worked was we did one activity for 60 seconds, took a lap.  Did a new activity for 60 seconds then the first activity for 60 seconds, took a lap…  I think we did about 6 rounds.

Mosey to the fountain for some Mary.  Since I couldn’t trip this group of geniuses up on any of my trivia, which meant no burpees, the first thing Boudin called for in Mary was 10 burpees.

Fellowship mosey to the Yank where we explained to the FNG the five core principles.

Announcements

Prayer Requests
Tiny Tank – two friends recently commit suicide including an F3 brother from Cape Fear
Boudin – Son and family are going through struggles
Tiger – Ms

COT

Thanks fellas!

Marriage has a way of altering our vision. We go in expecting our mate to fulfill our hopes and to make us happy. But this is an impossible order for our spouse to fill. Unrealistic expectations breed disappointment. The higher your expectations, the more likely your spouse will fail you and cause you frustration.

If a wife expects her husband to always be on time, clean up after himself, and understand all her needs, she will likely live most her married life in constant disappointment. But if she gets realistic and understands that he’s human, forgetful, and sometimes thoughtless, then she will be more delighted when he is responsible, loving, and kind.

Divorce is nearly inevitable when people refuse to allow their spouses to be human. So there needs to be a transition in your thinking. You must choose to live by encouragement rather than by expectations. The way your spouse has been for the last ten years is likely what he or she will be in the future apart from your loving encouragement and an intervention from God. Love puts the focus on personal responsibility and improving yourself rather than on demanding more from others.

Jesus painted a picture of this when He talked about the person who saw the “speck” in his brother’s eye but didn’t notice the “log” in his own.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:4-5).

Does your spouse feel like they’re living with a speck inspector? Are they routinely on edge, fearful of not living up to your expectations? Would they say they spend most days sensing more of your disapproval than your acceptance?

Perhaps you’d respond by saying that the problem is not with you but with them. If they really do come up short in a lot of areas, why is that your fault? As far as you’re concerned, it takes both of you doing everything you can to make marriage work. If your mate doesn’t want you to be so critical, they need to realize that the issues you bring up are legitimate. You’re not saying you’re perfect, by any mean, but it does seem like you should be able to say what you think. Right?

The problem with this kind of attitude is that few people are able to respond to criticism with total objectivity. When it seems clear that someone is unhappy with you – whether by direct confrontation or the silent treatment – it’s hard not to take their displeasure personally. Especially in marriage.

After all, unlike any other friendship, your relationship with your spouse began with both of you bending over backwards to please the other. When your mate was your boyfriend or girlfriend, they were completely charmed by your personality. You could almost do no wrong. Your life together was so much easier. And though you didn’t expect it to stay that way forever, you certainly didn’t see them being so sinful and getting so angry with you. You never expected that this man or woman who promised to love you could get to where they didn’t even seem to like you.

So when this stark contrast becomes living reality, your natural reaction is to resist it. During the early days of marriage, you may have been more inclined to listen and make subtle changes. But as the years go by, your spouse’s disapproval only tends to entrench you. Rather than making you want to correct things, it makes you want to dig in even deeper.

Love is too smart for that. Instead of putting your mate in a position to rebel, love teaches you to give them room to be themselves. Even if you’re the goal-oriented type who places high demands on yourself, love calls you not to project your hard-driving ways onto your mate’s performance. You must realize that marriage is a relationship to be enjoyed and savored along the way. It’s a unique friendship designed by God Himself where two people live together in flawed imperfection but deal with it by encouraging each other, not discouraging them.

The Bible says, “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble” (Isaiah 35:3). “Encourage one another and build up one another … Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14).

Don’t you want married life to be a place where you can enjoy free expression of who you are, growing within a safe environment that encourages you even when you fail? Your spouse does too – and love gives them that privilege. If your wife or husband has told you on more than one occasion that you make them feel beat down and defeated, you need to take these words to heart. Make a commitment to daily let go of unrealistic expectations and become your spouse’s greatest encourager. And the person they’re created by God to be will begin to emerge with new confidence and love for you.

Guard my soul and deliver me; do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. – Psalm 25:20

Today’s Dare

Eliminate the poison of unrealistic expectations in your home. Think of one area where your spouse has told you you’re expecting too much, and tell them you’re sorry for being so hard on them about it.  Promise them you’ll seek to understand, and assure them of your unconditional love.

Earlier in the week, I realized that not only did I have a rare Saturday off with no commitments other than a 2:00 football game (2.0) …. so do I want Pain Lab ? Nah …. I have Starkville Monday … so what’s LinuS got? Wait !!?! He’s lined up for the Yank? And Gashouse is left hanging and flapping in the Arctic wind? Can’t have that !! I grab it and put together the rest of a weinke.
However last night as I’m slipping into unconsciousness, my M awakens me that her good friend Sharlene ( Oompa Loompas M ) was just involved in a bad accident where a young man misread traffic light, entered intersection and both cars became toast. Thankfully they both are only sore and banged up. It was a rough night to sleep knowing my M would stay up texting until The Oompas made it home from ER. Plus I prayed for health and well being of all… so before beginning today’s workout I disclosed this to all assembled and asked for a brief moment to thank God for their health and recovery ….
After the silent reflection I call for pledge , give disclaimer seeing no FNG..
Since it’s cold, I tell all we’ll warm up nice and slow …. take it easy ….
… in cadence …. jump lunges!!! 10
6 burpees
+/- mountain climbers 20 Ic
10 merkins
Lastly 5 donkey kicks ( figured this might be harder than usual since you must balance without a wall to kick against)

My next exercise comes from Rudolph a few weeks … months maybe ….. back … since I intended on using arena at Schiele front doors, I asked Watts Up if he was using area and informed him of what I had in store. He likes it so much he wanted us all to join together …. pain Lab took a few to get on over so we completed 40- 100 SSH while waiting.

Pain lab remained back and may or may not have caught instructions , I felt that they’d catch on once they saw what we were doing and Watts Up scolded all as if he were the teacher catching the class mistreating the Substitute.
Climb onto slopes area, bear crawl up and along top run change to crab walk down next run lunge walk left lungs walk right and finish with lungs walk …. complete cycle twice over…. now we REALLY split up.
Mosey over to steps at First Presby for merkins 2 per step all the way up and crawl bear down …. uhh that sucked so bad even I did not want a repeat …. so bunny hop each step all the way up and move over to outdoor chapel for 10 abyss merkins
10 more abyss merkins and 10 lbcs
10 AByss, 20 flutter kicks hanging legs off bench and 10 lbcs
10 abyss, 10 dying cockroaches, 20 flutters and 10 lbcs
Mosey long way to Sherwood assemble ar Playground
Run halfway around track switch to Nur and complete with 5 pull-ups do this twice as nice
Next karaoke one direction halfway switch and finish with 5 pull-ups doing twice again
Some did extra lbcs planking and / or dying cockroaches until all ready to move over to hilly area for one more crawl bear down ( I did promise another since I Omahad a second trip on steps down… extra fun with the frost.
Mosey back to planetarium and 10 suspension merkins wall sits, wall sits with arms up, marching wall sits, punching bags, more suspensions, hip slappers twice more wall sits and suspensions before wondering if we should rejoin Pain lab …. while they finished current timed exercise I called 6 Burpees! Timed perfectly !! Windshield wipers, merkins, dying cockroaches
Jane Fondels and lastly ski abs….. there’s no bells ( wait for 3-4 seconds …) ah … there it is!!!!
Early signups for Tuna
Christmas town 5k coming up
Please consider posting at newest AOs Starkville ( Monday’s ) and San Quentin( Friday’s) both at 6pm from Biggerstaff in Dallas
Prayers for Oompa Loompa and M
Freights family
Easy Rider family

It was truly a great morning to be here even though it was cold I really appreciate this rare opportunity not only to lead a Saturday but to post for whole workout! Thank you men!!

Post soon, post often, Hell,,,, just post!!