Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Finding Peace and Sustaining Love: A Journey Through Faith, Music, and Marriage
Have you ever wondered how to truly find peace amid life's chaos, or what it takes to sustain a marriage for over four decades? This week on Starting Right with Danny Mac, I'm inviting you on a journey through faith, music, and the intricacies of marriage. Kicking off with our Music Monday segment, we dive into the profound message of Hope Darst's "Peace Be Still," inspired by the biblical story of Jesus calming the storm. As we reflect on this powerful theme, we find solace in the promise of divine tranquility during turbulent times. Later in the week, I open up about my 45 years of marital experience, sharing cherished lessons about embracing change, keeping the romance alive, and the ongoing journey of learning together as a couple. It’s an episode filled with heartfelt insights for anyone seeking to strengthen their relationships and faith.
As the week draws to a close, I extend an invitation to savor moments of spiritual reflection and quality time with loved ones. Emphasizing the importance of sharing God's love, we explore the joy of being a blessing to others. With a sense of community and shared spiritual growth, each week becomes a stepping stone for deeper connections and meaningful conversations. Join me every Monday through Friday as we continue this enriching journey together, and let's make this weekend a time of peace and spiritual renewal. Thank you for being part of this ongoing conversation that uplifts and inspires.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Good morning everybody, and welcome to our Friday Roundup. Our episodes this week were all very special and very good, starting with our Music Monday presentation of the song Peace Be Still by Hope Darst. This song reaches out and touches the people who hear it because it speaks so clearly about God's love and care for us.
Speaker 1:Most of us are very familiar with the story from Scripture where, in Mark, chapter 4, jesus and his disciples were crossing the sea when, all of a sudden, a storm came up. And the storm was so powerful that the disciples feared that they would all die. Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat. Finally, the disciples woke Jesus up, saying Don't you care that we're about to die? And Jesus stood up and looked at the storm and said Peace be still. And then he turned to the disciples and said why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? God's promise to each one of us is that he wants to bring life and hope and love and peace to our lives. He is there to help us in every situation we're up against. When we are going through a storm in our lives, god can come to us and give us a peace that we can't understand. It's all about God's love for us and His desire to care for us in every situation. It is a wonderful song that will speak to you and it will encourage you. Peace Be Still by Hope Darst.
Speaker 1:On Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday, we presented a mini-series about marriage. My wife and I have been married for 45 years and I know that there are many people who struggle, and we have struggled. We've gone through some very difficult times, but I know that God has answers for all of us. So we talked about some things that help our marriage. In Tuesday and Wednesday, we shared six things that are essential for every marriage, and then on Thursday, we talked about the foundational element that can keep any marriage alive and powerful and growing through anything. So on Tuesday, we talked about three things. The first one was embracing change, because it is going to happen. Our challenge is to not let the changes scare us, but rather to embrace the changes that are taking place and enjoy our lives in the new experiences that we face. Secondly, we talked about keeping the romance alive, which is really about making sure you're still dating, you're having fun together, you're going out and doing romantic things. This is really important for our marriages to keep them strong and growing, because we absolutely need that romantic time with each other. And the third thing we talked about was making sure that we're still communicating, that we're not ignoring each other, that there will be times when we'll need our own space, and that's absolutely fine. But we have to learn to communicate and to grow together, and one of the greatest keys of communication is learning to laugh, laugh together and enjoy the moment. So we encourage you to try something fun, go someplace or do something you haven't done before. You might be surprised how much you really enjoy doing it together.
Speaker 1:That was Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we added three more things that will keep your marriage growing. The first one there was respect, and respect includes support. Those are essential elements for our lives. Respect means that you value your partner's thoughts, their feelings, their desires, especially and even when they are different from your own. It really is all about helping and supporting each other to grow and to know that God still has his hand on you and your family and you can trust him as he leads you into those new experiences in your life.
Speaker 1:Number five was keep learning together. Try learning something that you've not done before. It actually helps to keep your brain younger and it helps you to laugh, and laughter releases an enormous amount of stress in your life. Learn something new, enjoy something together. Don't be afraid of something new just because you're getting a bit older, but embrace that new thing and you might even become very good at it and have a brand new skill. Or you might even fail miserably, and you'll still have something to laugh about. The sixth item, or the third one on Wednesday we talked about, is making sure that you treasure and remember and are grateful for the small things, the small things that you do for your spouse and what they do for you. Recognize them, be thankful for them and know that those small moments, those short moments, mean so much more than the act itself. It is a statement of their love for you. Then yesterday we gave the cornerstone, the foundation, of what every marriage needs to have to be able to survive, and if you embrace this in your lives, your marriage can go through anything. You virtually have a fireproof marriage if you do what we talked about yesterday.
Speaker 1:This key is found in Matthew, chapter 22,. Verses 37 to 39. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment of all is to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus is teaching us that the most important thing in all of our lives is that for each of us to have a relationship with Him, that we are serving God, that we are walking with God in our lives, and when both a husband and wife are in that relationship with God, they also will have a much stronger relationship with each other. But there are a couple keys. The first and most important key is that the relationship with God must always be the number one in their lives. The relationship with each other is the number two. That way, as husband and wife, they will always be stronger because they are under God's direction and working in their lives. God has so much for us when we believe that he is there, that he is working for us, that he wants to be a part of our lives and we give ourselves to Him. And God tells us that our relationship with Him is our foundation, the greatest foundation we can have, not only for ourselves but for everybody that we are connected to. A husband and wife under the Lordship of Jesus Christ can face anything and come through it stronger, knowing that God was with them and he worked wonders when they needed Him too.
Speaker 1:So, my friends, my question for you today is this what is the most important thing to you in your life? Is it your job? Is it your home? Is it your spouse or is it your kids, or is it your relationship with God? There's nothing in that list that is bad, but the greatest relationship and the most important one that you can have needs to be with Jesus Christ, because that impacts all of the other relationships that to Him, asking Him to show you what you need to do, how you can be stronger and how you can be a more loving parent or father or mother or grandparent by using His wisdom in your life. This was a different week, but I'm glad we did it and I'm very pleased that you were with me.
Speaker 1:I hope you have a wonderful weekend, spend time with your family and spend time with the Lord. He will bless you, and don't forget when you are blessed we also need to be a blessing to someone else. Share God's love wherever you go. Have a great weekend, my friends, and we will talk on Monday. Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, and we will talk on Monday. Thank you for joining us today and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right, with Danny Mac.
