A Good Meal Parallels a Good Life!

Planning:

How many - Don't do family style dinners- do it by portions

Likes/Dislikes/Dietary Issues

List- make a weekly list

Shopping- buy in bulk and freeze it in portion sizes

Storing- store veggies in portion sizes & store everything properly

Preparation:

Utensils

Mis En Plas

Timing

Procedures:

Planning

Right heat at the right time

Emergency Redemption

The Unexpected

Presentation:

Everyone eats first with their eyes! - 2nd w/nose; 3rd w/taste

Plating for portions- serve on smaller plates makes smaller portions

serve slowly- take an hour to eat your dinner

An evening activity

Clean up

Titus 2:4-5

*Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.* {NIV}

Seven Priorities of A Godly Wife

Priority # 1 - Love you HUSBAND!

(Fondness, affection, etc)

We need to have a marriage center home and not a kid center home. Meaning our kids don't run our home, but us parents do.

Titus 2:4 *... train the younger women to love their husbands...*

The number one NEED of a man is.... RESPECT

*Real LOVE is placing the needs of others before your own. It is giving to another without guarantee of getting anything back. It is giving others what they need, not what they deserve. Love is not a feeling. It is a choice, and action, a way of behaving a commitment. Love is sacrificing for others! - Rick Warren

Evaluation Question: Does your husband feel respected in your love? How could you improve?

Priority # 2 - Love your CHILDREN!

Titus 2:4 *... train the younger women to love their... children.*

Every Parent's Goal is to Help Their children Know:

WHO they are!

WHAT they are!

and to VALUE Themselves the Way God Made Them!

How do we do this?

through QUALITY (40% parents spend less time then the generation before us)

Through AFFECTION! (by telling them we love them, hugging, kissing them, etc)

Through APPRECIATION! (By telling them you appreciate them when they do good deeds; ie opening the doors for older people, manners, helping one another out)

Evaluation Question: Do your children know your love best through your attention, affection, or appreciation? How could you improve in the other two areas?

Priority # 3 - Be SENSIBLE!

Titus 2:5 *To be self-controlled...*

Proverbs 31:10 *A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more then rubies.*

Evaluation Question: What very sensible decision have you made the past 10 days? What very non-sensible decision have you made in the last 10 days? How could you be more "Sensible?"

Priority # 4 - Be PURE in Mind and Body! - Godly women

Titus 2:5 *to be pure...*

1 Timothy 2:9 *And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.* (New Living Translation)

Mind and Body- by what we read, watch, listen to, say. We need to keep our minds pure and when we keep our minds pure we keep our body pure.

Evaluation Question: How important is "purity" to you? Are there areas in your life that could us work?

Priorities # 5 - Be Workers at HOME!

Titus 2:5 *To be busy at home...*

Proverbs 31: 27-29 *she watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."

Wouldn't be great to hear our children say, *My Mom is THE BEST; she is blessed.*

Evaluation Question: Are there any areas of *homemaking* (practically, relationally, spiritually) where you could improve? How?

Priorities # 6 - Be KIND!

Titus 2:5 *to be kind...*

1 Timothy 3:11 *In the same way, their wives must be respected and must not speak evil of others. They must exercise self-control and be faithful in everything they do.*

Are you kind? Are you genuine? Do you have real LOVE?

Evaluation Question: How do you deal with your frustrations and disappointment? Would others describe you as *KIND?* How could you improve?

Priorities # 7 - Be SUBJECT to their husbands as the Lord!

Titus 2:5 *to be subject to their husbands...*

Eph. 5:22 & 1 Peter 3:1

Evaluation Question: Would your husband say you are supportive or in conflict with him? How could you improve working as a team?

so.... today in MOPS our Preacher/Pastor Roger Storms at Chandler Christian Church spoke on this subject. And I just thought it was really good that I should post it. Growing up in His church, I already know all of this, but its so nice to hear it again; helps as a reminder as how I should be, act, and raise our kids up in the Lord, and how to be a Proverbs 31 wife. And as I reflect these things, it takes me back to the Ester study by Beth Moore (if you haven't done it or heard of it, you need to check it out. WOW! Made me re-think some things.) but how I don't want to be a Mean Girl.

So whats a post without a picture?? Expecially when it suppose to be ABOUT THEM.