Stay Connected“I am deeply appreciative of everything Michael shares from personal experience. To me, it is the most reassuring and helpful of all.” A listener.
Conversations about love wrapped in stories from my biggest failures. Learn with me the best ways to be kind when your spouse, kids, parents, siblings, and friends are being turds!
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One of the glaring omissions in the book of Esther is God. Yes, you are reading this correctly! We do not know who wrote the book of Esther. If you read it, you are not going to read about God. Fact-check me on this one.
The rest of my notes are in the VIP Inner Circle membership. 24/7 digital access to coaching from Dr. Michael Smalley (me), a growing library of videos, a path towards healing your pain, tools to shape your communication and intimacy, assessments to guide you, and a community of support from people who will cheer you on as you journey to the relationship you want. START NOW
Welcome to Be an Esther and Win Back Your Husband online experience! It is an honor to be part of your journey in winning back the heart of your husband. I want to share something important straight away, which may come as a shock to you……... I am not a woman. Phew! Got that off my chest!
The rest of my notes are in the VIP Inner Circle membership. 24/7 digital access to coaching from Dr. Michael Smalley (me), a growing library of videos, a path towards healing your pain, tools to shape your communication and intimacy, assessments to guide you, and a community of support from people who will cheer you on as you journey to the relationship you want. START NOW
Today is a special day because I got to interview Seth and Melanie Studley! They have the Anatomy of Marriage Podcast that is a huge success! They share things you just don't normally hear from a couple, especially where one of them is a licensed marriage and family therapist! Don't miss out on this episode. It's a new take on couples therapy and relationship advice. “This is the podcast that we wish we could have had 9 years ago when our marriage was falling apart!” Seth & Melanie Studley
Let’s talk about the social behind social media, what you think you know may surprise you, and what you don’t...well that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Along with a new segment we are calling “A Completely Unrelated Distraction of the Day” where I will share with you fun, strange, inspirational and often times totally unbelievable news from around the world. Wait till you hear what a pizza delivery guy did for someone in hospice. Amy Morin, PsychologyToday.com wrote, "Throughout the last couple of decades, our ability to connect with people around the globe has exploded. Initially, the internet allowed us to chat, join newsgroups, or email anyone in the world. The invention of cellphones allowed us to talk to people when we were away from our desks and outside of our homes. Then, social networks allowed us to connect with our neighbors, childhood pals, college buddies, and co—workers with a click of a button. Finally, smartphones made it easier than ever to connect with anyone we wanted around the clock. So you'd think we'd be feeling good about our social lives, right? After all, never in the history of the universe has communicating with people been so simple and accessible."
Serving others is the greatest tool for influencing them and setting them up to change for the better. There is no greater act of love than to serve and what we’ve learned throughout this 28 day journey is that love transforms. So what kind of servant should you be? "We weren’t created to be warm, safe, and comfortable. You and I were made to be 'turned on'—to put our love to work, to apply our patience in difficult, trying situations..." (Ted Engstrom)
The benefits of being a disciple and discipleship are overwhelming! Joy, peace and happiness result from following Jesus Christ, together with the hope of being like him and with him in heaven. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 The heart of Jesus is that his disciples go out to all the world and make more disciples.
"So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God." Matthew 5:23-24 NLT In v23 Jesus is likely talking about someone you have legitimately offended. You probably did do something wrong and you need to go immediately and make it right. Jesus says there’s more to this commandment than simply not murdering. We must tackle our anger by forgiving each other. Even if we are at the most sacred moment of our year—poised to offer a gift to God—forgiveness is more important. We must leave our gift and make peace with the person with whom we are so angry. (Knowles, Andrew. The Bible Guide.)
Jesus is demanding a radical kind of love, to forgive when they don’t deserve it. Peter’s question in v21 comes from the teaching in verses 15-20. One of the new things I learned here was that the typical rabbinic consensus was that you would need to forgive a brother three times. But Jesus radically challenges this idea. Not three but seven times seventy! "Jesus does more than forbid vengeance; he transposes a cry of revenge (see Gen. 4:15, 23–24) into a call for forgiveness. Whether he says “seventy-seven times” (NIV) or “seventy times seven” (NIV marg.), his words reject a calculating, quantitative approach to forgiveness. Love within the church “is expressed by an indefatigable capacity to forgive the brethren.”25 The ensuing parable illustrates the lesson." (Chamblin, J. Knox. “Matthew.” Evangelical Commentary on the Bible.)
"The picture of forgiveness in verse 38 is of a measuring jar in which the corn is pressed down so that it will hold more, shaken together so that every crack is filled, and poured over the top so that it overflows. Just as God has generously given to his own, so the disciple should give an overflowing amount to others." “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37
Imagine going to the doctor's office for a check-up. The doctor says to you, "You are a magnificent physical specimen. You have the body of an Olympian. You are to be congratulated." Later that day while climbing the stairs, your heart gives out. You find out later your arteries were so clogged that you were like one jelly doughnut away from the grim reaper. You go back to the doctor and say, "Why didn't you tell me?" The doctor says, "Well, I knew your body is in worse shape than the Pillsbury doughboy, but if I tell people stuff like that, they get kind of offended. It's kind of bad for business. They don't come back. I want this to be a safe place where you feel loved and accepted." You'd be furious! You'd say to the doctor, "When it comes to my body, I want the truth!" (Illustration by John Ortberg)
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