Dedicated to God, Dedicated to Each Other

Blessed are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate their lives and their home to Christ and practice the teachings of Christ in their home by being unselfish, loyal, and loving. Author unknown

According to Webster the word dedicate means to set apart for a definite use, to commit to a goal or way of life, to offer, donate, and bestow. We dedicate ourselves to our favorite sport as we train to be the best at it. We dedicate ourselves to our job or a hobby we love, to the point where that is all we seem to do. When we get married we dedicate our lives to our spouse as we promise to love honor and obey them.

We like the sound of dedicating our lives to a sport, hobby, or job but when someone mentions being dedicated to our spouse we tend to cringe. Whether we like it or not this is the way God set it up to be. We were made to be together dedicating our lives, families, and home to Christ.

One must ask the question, “What does it take to be dedicated?” It certainly takes strength, determination, and the will to succeed. We need to be willing to give it our all and hold back nothing. Strong enough to weather the storms and diverse enough to live our lives together with the one we love instead of letting our attitude of, “It’s my way or the highway” separate us emotionally and spiritually.

In the amplified Bible they give the definition of blessed as “happy, fortunate, to be envied.” If you put the two definitions of blessed and dedicated together you come up with, “Blessed or happy, fortunate, to be envied are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate, set apart their family for a definite use, to commit to the goal or way of life that is found in Christ.”

Wow, that is a wonderful definition that we need to hold on to and remember. Remember like we should commit to memory the first time we fell in love with our spouse. Once when I was at Disneyland with a friend every time I saw a couple that was kissing and smiling at one another I prayed for them to “remember Disneyland.” Later in their lives as it happens to everyone, there will be moments of doubt, stress, and difficult times that will make anyone wonder if they really were in love in the first place.

We need to remember our commitment to one another and to Christ as well. Living daily, in spite of the season we are in at the time, loyal, loving, and unselfish lives. Dedicated to doing well, to stand by Christ and the commandments He has given us to follow and stand by each other. As we would never in our lives forget we were dedicated to the sport of football or the hobby of oil painting we should never forget our dedication to each other.

Someone once said the longest sentence in the English language is, “I do.” How long that sentence is, how well it is spent, the good moments we get out of it all depends on us and our attitude going in and our dedication to Christ to succeed. But what about if …….. this or ……….. that happens! STOP! We can't live our lives on the “what ifs.” We need to move forward in our dedication and leave the rest to the Lord. No worries about the “what ifs” only the determination to succeed whether we truly do or not.

My husband sometimes probably thinks he got the raw end of the deal going into our marriage. He should have checked my medical records but they weren’t created yet. A week after being married I had a grand mal seizure, lost my job, my driver’s license was taken away and I was disabled for 12 years before being cured. Twenty years would pass and I would be diagnosed with breast and bone cancer. Was this what he signed up for? More or less, yes, as our marriage license didn’t assure us smooth sailing ahead but our dedication to each other and to God would assure us success, strength, and the ability to endure, together, dedicated to Jesus and that is where we all need to be.

Love you Don, thanks for loving me through the thick and thin of life.

Our host today is Urailak at her blog , LivingforGod it’s a must that you go there and read and share with others what they have to say about today’s quote. For some it’s not a happy subject as things have happened in their relationships but with God we are still able to move forward, to rise above those moments, take our struggles and learn from them instead of allowing ourselves to fall a victim to what deck of cards life has handed us.

God's Pages not the Yellow Pages

“The littleness of Christians of this age results from the littleness of their consecration to Christ.” ~C. H. Spurgeon, Samson Conquered a sermon from November 21, 1858


What a sad thing to think there could be any such a thing as “a littleness of Christians.” Unfortunately that is exactly what has happened. Charles Spurgeon saw it in his time. Dr. Vernon McGee saw it in his. Amazingly enough Paul himself saw it during his time. That one really surprises me because it was at a time when the strong movement of Christianity should have been at its peak. Christ had just been in the area, his preaching and teaching should have been strong in their hearts and heads but yet it didn’t take them long to forget and wander away.

It’s important to get straight here what Spurgeon is talking about. Many non-believers have tried to pin that label on Christians for years. The label that they are below the world, narrow minded, insignificant, worthless, enslaved to an agenda that keeps them anything but free.

Perhaps I have it all wrong but what I see Spurgeon talking about here is our effectiveness as Christians, our ability to rise above situations, issues, and troubles. People full of zeal for Christ who carry a strong message with the eagerness to share it. Indeed ones who make a difference in their community instead of blending into the woodwork with everyone else.

I think if I was sitting in Spurgeon’s church that Sunday the hair on the back of my neck would have stood up as I felt offended. “How dare he say something like that here in church,” would have been my thinking. My next move would have been to look around to point at least ten fingers and a few good toes at the people in the church I thought were the guilty ones he was talking about. Unfortunately, the only picture I would have painted is one of a corpse in a state of tremendous rigor mortis. Instead of taking the message home to example my own self I probably would have went home to look at the yellow pages to find me a new church.

Tell me, who would be the one suffering from “littleness.” It would have been me. We need to be like an owl that can turn its head full circle stopping it when it comes back around to us in order to examine deeply our commitment, dedication, and consecration in Christ. Are we there yet? Evidently not.

We have no problem being deeply dedicated or consecrated into a cause, sport, hobby, habit, or frame of mind but we struggle with doing so with Christ. We think its good enough to believe in Him without any other effort on our part. After all, going to church faithfully every Sunday shows I’m dedicated to Christ doesn’t it? No, it’s what we carry into the week in between Sunday’s that will paint that picture.

Our state of littleness doesn’t come from the world it comes from within, from our own actions and choices. Next time a Charles Spurgeon comes along with a similar message don’t go diving for the yellow pages to find a new church, dive into the pages of God’s word to find a new you.



Our host today is Miriam on her blog, Miriam Pauline’s Monologue rush on over there and join in the fun.

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing