Easter 2009

Another day full of events, another reason to thank God for our church. Easter is an amazing day to realizes the grace that we live in. God amazing love is to give himself to us in order to save us. One of my favorite parts of the bible is reading Isiah 53:4-12. The amazing tangible words of his love is moving every time I read it.

Back to yesterday where we had an amazing time, the Church will decorated really nice and the choir did a great job singing. It is a blessing to have such committed people. It is the reason behind the success of the church is having committed heart behind every ministry and service.
Soon after church, we enjoyed a sit down dinner that uncle Reno and other prepared. What a great service he does. His heart to help always humbles me.

Tony and Bisho opened their home again afterwords and we went to their home and enjoyed watching an Arabic Movie. Silvia and Micheal showed up and we celebrated their birthday before they take off to Egypt.
Again, We are blessed to have such amazing people and friends. You are a blessing and source of encouragement.

For full screen pictures click
Slide Show

Arabic Church on Twitter

Yesterday we celebrated an amazing day of Easter when we enjoyed every one company at a sit down dinner at the church. Tony Zaki took this picture during dinner. He posted on the new Arabic Church Twitter, to follow what goes around the church and any events please go to Arabic Church Twitter and click follow.
At the same time you can follow what Z Couple are doing by going to Z Couple Twitter.
I am going to post the Easter pictures by this evening...

Couples: Make Love vs. Fall in Love

I didn't know how to word my title this time around, but I thought it may bring your attention and make you read til the end.

Our society teaches us about how to fall in love and how great it is. It commercializes the passion and the emotions that love brings to our lives. We grow up watching, learning and fantasizing about the day we fall in love and live above the clouds.

I am not here to declare war over the emotions of love and how up lifting it is, but I want to explain that real love is not all about the emotions and living above the clouds.

Let me give you an example, The Christan love isn't words of hope only, when Jesus promises for example to love us and protect us, He isn't just giving us words of hope, love and emotions of security. No, His words are tangible love the goes beyond the words and the emotions. Real love is what keep couple together when the emotions fades away. Maybe I shouldn't say fades away, I should have said, Love is behaviors that we take after the heat of the emotions cools down.

So, I am encouraging every one: after falling in love, is to start making love to your partner. I am not only encouraging you, but challenging you to develop those behaviors that shows/express and make love. Try to make it a habit to make love and express it in away that your partner recognize it.

Here is what I mean, find every thing you know about your partner that make him/ her feel loved and start taking a daily tasks to express it to him or her. Start expressing/making love to your partner on daily basis. Don't let your love stops at the emotion limits, instead take it beyond that commercialized boundaries and stand strong for the reality of love that support, protect, encourage and love without seizing.

Remember I Cor 13.4-8a ... Love does not seek its own.

Couple: Pray for your Partner

Recently, I had this thought on my heart. How much time do I really allocate to pray for my wife? In my last post, I talked about how to take a deeper look inside of ourselves and find what is it that we need to change in us in order to become the person that pleases God and your partner.

Here, I have to confess that I failed to continue on with my prayers to my partner. Yes, we pray together every night, but the question here, how much you spend on your own putting your partner in front of God asking Him to bless, heal and give wisdom to your partner.

Remember, The prayer purpose isn't asking God to change your partner. It isn't for the purpose of complaining about your partner and every thing that he or she does wrong. Instead it is the time that you lift your partner to God's hand and ask Him to work on him or her without any bitterness and emotions of complaining.

For example, If it is your wife, pray that God uses her up to her capability to be the wife, and the mother that pleases God. If it is your husband, pray that God uses him to lead the family to the right path that God allows to you.
Here is a few things that we all need to remember as we pray for our families and partners.

• Know for fact that God loves them as it is and that you aren't praying for them to show you are better than them.
• Praying with faith, know that God is Good and capable.
• Pray with patience and persistence, make it also a priority.
• Pray with a humble, repentant heart, acknowledge your own faults as you pray.

The greatest encouragement I can offer you about praying for your family is to ask God to search your heart and show you anything that needs removing from your life. The release of God’s Spirit upon their lives begins in your heart and soul. Find a time and place to meet with God. Get to know Him as “our Father.” See how mighty He is in heaven.

Don't forget to pray that you be the positive influence person in your partner life and that God uses you to implement God's plan in your family and into your partner life.

Couple: One Wish

Over the weekend, I was asked a question by a friend of mine. The question was, if you had to make one wish, what it would be? To be honest, I surprised my self with the answer I gave. I answered my friend that I would like to wish to do the right thing only 90% of the time. My friend, responded as well with a surprised face and asked, only 90% of the times, why?
I said that many times we want to do the right thing and unfortunately we don't. So, when it comes to the times when we do wrong decision we/I can't figure away to fix it as a result of not knowing what to do at those situations.
In relationships, many times we hurt those people who are so close to us, and we end up watching them hurt and not take a step to correct the situation. So, my wish to every one in a relationship is to learn from that 10% that when we do wrong things to the people who love us is to figure out away to repair what was damaged.

In many situations we avoid wrong doing and hurting people. However, the important thing that you need to pay attention to is that every time you do wrong thing it is an opportunity for you and me to realize what hurt your partner and find solutions to that hurt.
Don't stand still watching on the sideline, but take steps toward a positive action. Don't hesitate, but be a risk taker in solving the problem. Don't wait to be told what to do, take the initiative to fix what is wrong. Be part of the healing process to your partner.

Remember that your partner is more important than the risk that you may take in order to resolve the matter. Remember it is an expression of love when you take the first steps toward uniting what is had been broken. However, you must be patient with your partner.

Couples: Hard Things are worth trying

Look at your self and look at your relationship. Find what makes it hard? Find what it is hard for you and your partner to communicate and get closer. Find what can make your relationship better.

Read carefully, I am saying, look at yourself and your relationship, not at your partner. The purpose of this exercise is to find out what it is hard on you to make your relationship more enjoyable and better.

Here are some of mine that I am working on:

Forgiveness after getting hurt

Letting go of bitterness

Assuming the worse out of my partner or being quick to judge.

Opening up to my partner and allow her to hear my feelings

Actively listen and respond

Once you make your list, try to change them one at a time. Understand that is it hard to change and know it isn't easy. But the question that you need to remind yourself with each time is: Is it worth it? See, you need to look at the change in you and your life as an investment, an investment toward your relationship and marriage. This hard investment, will only pay when you stick with it for long time and you don't sell out even when the market in down ( not getting good feedback from your partner)

Believe me, when I tell you that those hard things are worth trying, not only that but it is an expression of love. You partner should pay a closer look to your progress and notice your change and encourage you. But my advice is to keep on going and try hard to change those hard things. Remeber to to Think Potential and understand it is worth it to let go of those hard things in order to win what is more important than those hard things.

Couples: Think Potential

Potential is defined as Possible, as opposed to actual.

With this words, I came to conclusion that I am not prefect nor I should claim that I am. In relationships we expect our spouse to be prefect. Know what to say and when to say it and how to say it, all in prefect time. However, the last few weeks examining my self showed me how far I fall short of being the prefect husband.

Our expectations in relationships are mostly high, and that leads to major frustration toward our partner. So, here is my advice and confession to you and to my partner. Always tell me what I fall short of your expectations, but most importantly, expect me to get better and know that I am trying. Don't look only to my mistakes but look at my potential. Encourage and motivate your partner by looking ahead of the problem. Don't allow the exsitance of the problem henders you down from looking to the potential of growing free.

Think of it as a tree growing and you can't allow the slowness of growing of looking after and watering the tree. As you expect me to be prefect, expect me to want to grow prefect knowing that I am trying.