Doin' Life With The Whitfields

04/05/2023

Growing girls

18/04/2023

Dear Lord,

Show us ways to serve You together as a couple. May our marriage be a reflection of Your love and grace, and may we use our gifts and talents to build Your kingdom. May we always serve others with humility and compassion.

In Jesus’ name, amen!

24/03/2023

Dear Lord,

Thank You for Your peace. We pray we would experience Your peace deep in our hearts and minds today. Anything that may cause us to worry or feel anxious, we pray You would remove and replace it with Your peace. Please help us to pursue peace in our marriage as well. Help us to be peacemakers wherever we go.

In Jesus’ name, amen!

09/06/2022

16/05/2022

Perfect weather for gardening aka weeding!

16/05/2022

Look what we found on our deck!

07/04/2022

What hurts based on your love language

28/03/2022

God wants to bring more peace into your marriage and into every other part of your life too.

22/02/2022

Dear Lord,

Thank You for the time we have today. We pray we would take advantage of today to spend time together and share how much we love and appreciate each other. Please help us to put our phones away more often. Being on a device, plugged into the world with such ease, becomes a distraction in our daily lives. We catch ourselves looking at our phones and holding our phones more than we are making eye contact. Please help us to have and to honor healthy boundaries with our technology. Please help us to use those in between moments to check on each other before we check on the news or social media. We pray we would be more mindful of this and that we would be quick to put our phones away so that our hearts and attention can focus wholly on each other in Jesus’ name AMEN!

10/02/2022

Intimacy happens when you're totally exposed and still fully loved. This is your greatest opportunity to love in marriage.

There are two core aspects of intimacy.

1) Being totally honest and open with your spouse.

2) Loving them when they are totally honest and open with you.

This is love without posturing, without faking anything. That is when love is fullest.

May you and your husband/wife be 100% honest with each other. And may you love each other 100% when imperfections are revealed.

It's risky, but always rewarding to love purely. The safety of true love isn't found in hiding imperfections or putting up a facade, but rather in your commitment to learning how to love each other even when your unloveable traits are plain to see.

Love fiercely,
Ryan & Selena

20/01/2022

Husbands: You owe it to yourself, God, your wife, and kids to be the priest of the home. Don't leave your job undone.

18/01/2022

Lord,

You have showed me the value of forgiveness. Thank You. My life would be so different if it wasn't for the forgiveness You have given me and continue to give me. Since being married, I realize that marriage would not work without forgiveness. There are just too many times that I fail my husband or my husband fails me. We hurt each other often. And there is always power in saying "I forgive you!" Those three words have brought healing in my marriage, so many times. Thank You for showing me how to forgive. I pray I can continue to be a forgiving wife, loving my husband like You love, in Jesus' name AMEN!

18/01/2022

Husband is not just a title. Husband is not just the ability to make a wife pregnant. Husband means great responsibility. Husband means houseband; the band that binds the house together. A godly husband is a Priest, a Provider and a Protector. As a Priest a husbands opens the Word and leads his family to Christ through daily family worship at the family altar. As a Provider the husband works hard to ensures that the family is well fed and decently dressed. As a Protector the husband shelters his family from physical, emotional and spiritual attacks. A godly husband; the man of the house; will stand up for his marriage and defend his wife and children.

17/01/2022

"The grass is not greener on the other side. Don't believe the lie. Live the life you’ve been blessed with & be thankful. We all have struggles, but guard your heart from things & people that will try to convince you that your life or your spouse isn't good enough. There will always be bigger, faster, or shinier, but you’ll never be satisfied with more until you’re fulfilled with what you have now." -Karen Lodato

15/01/2022

“In marriage, tenderness can & should be expressed by physical touching unless there is a medical or other reason preventing it. Skin is the largest organ of the body. While our eyes are the windows to the world, it’s our skin that, when touched, becomes the window to our heart.” (Dr. Randy Carlson) “Hugging has no unpleasant side effects & is all natural. There are no batteries to replace, it’s inflation-proof & non-fattening with no monthly payments. It’s non-taxable, non-polluting, & is, of course, fully refundable.” (Unknown author) So, hug your spouse; it's good for both of you, & your marriage!

14/01/2022

Every married person has expectations of their spouse. The question is, what are those expectations and are they warranted? For example, it's healthy and right for a wife to expect her husband to remain faithful (and the same is true for husbands of wives). And it's reasonable to expect to have a marriage marked by actions and words of love.

Problems arise when we expect something from each other that we weren't designed or called to give. Your spouse isn't called to give you ultimate meaning. Your spouse isn't equipped to give you deep emotional security (though they are responsible for providing emotional nurturing to a degree). Your husband or wife isn't meant to provide your life with purpose, identity, peace, or even soul-deep joy.

On some level, husbands and wives are called to be reminders and reflections of peace, joy, hope, and love. But the ultimate PROVIDER of those things can only be God himself.

Spouses make horrible saviors and tyrannical gods. There is only one worthy and able to give our souls the lasting peace and purpose we deeply desire, and his name is Jesus.

That's where the beauty of marriage is made even more clear! While you cannot be your spouse's savior and you cannot be their god, you both are called to be constant reminders of all God has done in Christ!

When you love your spouse when they're unloveable, you show Christ's unconditional love. When your spouse feels hopeless, you can remind him/her of the hope that was purchased on the cross. And when he/she feels lost, you can point them down the path toward the cross, where their redemption was secured for all eternity.

Don't make the mistake of looking to your spouse to fill your tank or trying to be the one who fills theirs. Instead, understand that it's only God who fills tanks and it's your job to remind each other where to go when you're lost, wandering, and running on empty.

Stay fierce,
Ryan & Selena
Fierce Marriage

02/01/2022

Happy New Year!

02/01/2022

Dear Lord,

Thank You for the body of Christ. Thank You for the support, unity, and camaraderie of believers. Thank You for the sweet fellowship we get to experience when we meet together with the body of Christ to worship You. We pray You would continue to help us to participate in Your body in all the ways You desire us to do and all the ways You have written about in Your Word. We pray we would be used by You to help believers, to lift them up and encourage them. Please help us to make our marriage strong so that we are available to help others and point them to You in Jesus’ name AMEN!

26/12/2021

#1 Reason why we’re getting a fake tree next year

03/12/2021

DEVELOPING A HUNGER FOR THE THINGS OF GOD
Lord, I pray for (name of child) to have an ever- increasing hunger for more of You. May she (he) long for Your presence—long to spend time with You in prayer, praise, and worship. Give her (him) a desire for the truth of Your Word and a love for Your laws and Your ways. Teach her (him) to live by faith and be led by the Holy Spirit, having an availability to do what You tell her (him) to do. May she (he) be so aware of the fullness of Your Holy Spirit in her (him) that when she (he) is depleted in any way she (he) will immediately run to You to be renewed and refreshed.
I pray that her (his) heart will not have any allegiances or diversions away from You, but rather that she (he) would be repulsed by ungodliness and all that is in opposition to You. May a deep reverence and love for You and Your ways color everything she (he) does and every choice she (he) makes.

(Excerpt from "The Power of a Praying Parent")

27/11/2021

Christmas tree shopping and chopping with my love

18/07/2021

Randy Whitfield II slaughtering

18/07/2021

Randy out here slaughtering

05/06/2021

Celebrating our oldest graduate!