"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 4:6-7

Through prayer, we can lay our cares, concerns, and gratitude before the Lord. We can express our hearts to Him. And we can also express our trust by recognizing the many ways He can and does meet our deepest needs.

There are many names for God, and each one touches on a different aspect of God's character and a different way He relates to us.

Her View

My friend Sandy slipped a package into my bag. 

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Love and Respect. It’s a book my husband and I have been reading and it’s changed our marriage.” Sandy, knowing I was getting married in a few weeks, was taking no chances. I was going to experience this marriage-changing book.

Even before Sandy and the secret package, I knew the truth that was taught in Sunday school classes and Wednesday night meetings all over the country. 

Women need love. 

Men need respect. 

And Roger and I have worked hard at both of those things in our marriage. But here is the other secret that I’ve learned over the past several years:

Both of us need both.

My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. —1 John 3:18-19 (ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴇssᴀɢᴇ)

In our book Happy Habits for Every Couple, one of the projects we ask you to do for your spouse is to take something they don’t like doing off of their plate, demonstrating signs of true love. Here is how true love shows up in our marriage...

***

Her View

I’m putting the leftovers away, and I think to myself, It’s been a weird day.

My husband and I have been missing each other all day long. 

I was up and out of the house before he got up.

He got home and had to go straight to his office to work; I was downstairs finishing up dinner. 

Barely ten words have been exchanged all day. 

This is not how a marriage is supposed to go. 

The question of whether America is mentioned in end-times Bible prophecy has been the subject of much debate through the years. Some say yes, and others say no. Many theories on the issue have been speculative and far-fetched. Others have taken a more reasoned approach. I will consider two major viewpoints in the debate: (1) America is only indirectly mentioned in Bible prophecy, and (2) America is not mentioned in Bible prophecy at all. We will cover the second view in this article.

Not Mentioned in Bible Prophecy at All

A major viewpoint in this debate is that America is not mentioned in Bible prophecy at all. If this assessment is correct, a question arises: Why? Prophecy students have proposed a number of possible explanations.

The question of whether America is mentioned in end-times Bible prophecy has been the subject of much debate through the years. Some say yes, and others say no. Many theories on the issue have been speculative and far-fetched. Others have taken a more reasoned approach. I will consider two major viewpoints in the debate: (1) America is only indirectly mentioned in Bible prophecy, and (2) America is not mentioned in Bible prophecy at all. We will cover the first view in this article.

Only Indirectly Mentioned in Bible Prophecy

Some prophecy enthusiasts believe Bible prophecy includes no direct references to the United States, but it may mention America indirectly. Following are some possible indirect references.

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s said that 80 percent of unfocused time produces 20 percent of the effort needed to accomplish something (like keeping your home clean and organized). On the flip side, 20 percent of focused time can accomplish 80 percent of the work that needs to be done. The lesson here? We probably don’t need to become time-management experts, but by spending a few moments considering how best to accomplish the tasks before us, we can make better use of our precious time—and that leaves us more time for doing the things we like best. Here are eight time-saving tips that will keep your home humming and you and your family happier. 

1. Start by setting up a few house rules, such as “put it away right away,” or “keep it in the room where it lives.” Help teach your young ones to corral their messes and put them away. (Same goes for the grown-ups in the family!) Your home may need a good vacuuming or dusting, but if things are picked up and dirty dishes aren’t piled high in the sink, you’ll feel more in control of your day.

2. Haven’t been following a list of house rules yet? It could be that chaos is an unwanted guest, and the thought of getting your home shipshape is daunting. Instead of being put off by the amount of work that needs to be done, spend just five minutes each day organizing and de-cluttering your home. Before you know it, you will be enjoying an organized, peaceful home.

Your coauthor, Mindy Starns Clark, mentioned in a previous interview here on the Harvest House blog that her husband came up with the initial plot idea for the first book in this series, The Amish Groom. What inspired the premise for this sequel, The Amish Blacksmith?

Susan: When Mindy and I spent a long weekend in Lancaster County at an Amish farmhouse, I had the opportunity to shadow an Amish blacksmith for a day. He was so very open to my being there and my peppering him with questions hour after hour. I could tell he loved his work, he loved horses, and he and his brother had a heart for troubled horses. The first scene in The Amish Blacksmith nearly played itself out in front of me on that day, although I changed all the little details. When we started plotting this book, we knew we wanted a story that borrowed from the idea that horses must be dealt with gently to deal with traumatic events from the past, just as we must also be.

Given the skills of the hero and heroine in this book, are either you or Mindy horsewomen or horse-lovers to some degree?

Susan: I am actually rather scared of horses, strangely enough!

How to Pray

Jesus prays, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

A kingdom is a place where a king rules and reigns. When you ask God’s kingdom to come, you are asking God to sit on the throne of your heart and your life so that his will will be done in both.

This is the hardest part of this prayer. The number one priority of prayer is not to get God to do what you want, but to surrender to God—to get him to do what he wants.

That is why this part of the prayer is difficult. Before you ask for anything, before you tell him what you want, before you tell him what you need, say right up front, “I am taking my plans, my ambitions, my goals, my agendas, my desires, and I am surrendering them all to you.”

You can’t move forward with God in any prayer until you get this issue settled. Before you get to your wants, your desires, your agenda, you have to go to God and say, “I want your will to be done.”

As you work on building your home, remember it's not the kind of place or the size of the place you call home, but the tone and the atmosphere of that place that you are seeking to create. 

Be Dedicated to Your Home

Be committed, dedicated, and devoted to the smooth running of your home. As writer and speaker Elisabeth Elliot observes, "A sloppy life speaks of a sloppy faith." We are careful in our faith and our spiritual growth. So why shouldn't we be careful about how we manage our home?

Be a Woman of Prayer

Prayer changes your housework. How? Because it changes the heart of the homemaker. As you are faithful to pray about this realm of your work, the principle of Matthew 6:21 once again goes into effect—"Where your treasure is [in this case, the treasure of your time and spiritual effort spent praying for your home and homemaking], there your heart will be also." 

Once you acknowledge that you want to pray and know that you need to pray, then...how should you pray? Here's a handful of guidelines right out of the Bible to help you get started on the how-to's of praying.

Pray regularly. Jesus didn't say, "If you pray." He said, "When you pray" (Matthew 6:5-7). Our Lord assumed that prayer would be the habit of our lives...as it was for Him. He assumed that we would yearn to communicate with our Father...as He did. He assumed that drawing upon God for spiritual strength would be as needful and as natural for us as breathing and taking in air is for sustaining physical life.