Relationships

Did you ever have one of those times when something started out terribly and ended up absolutely great?! 

The Good News
21 Sep 2022
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great

Good News Wants to Know….Did you ever have one of those years, months, weekends, nights, days when something started out so terribly and ended up absolutely great?!  In 2020 a massive wildfire started in Santa Rosa Beach, FL, and was spreading rapidly throughout the area. We rushed out of our home with only a single bag per person and piled into our SUV. As word got to our church family of the danger, a prayer chain began among the members while staff simultaneously leaped to action securing temporary housing for our family. The wildfire, after destroying multiple neighborhoods, stopped right at […]

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Living Our Vows

Lisa May
12 Sep 2022
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My immediate family has our first wedding. My daughter and her husband, yes, her husband, were married last year at the courthouse before moving to New York City. Because of COVID, no one was allowed to go with them; they were pronounced legally married, not husband and wife. Our immediate family and close friend, Bill Davell, stood outside the courthouse, threw flowers, hugged, and went home for a family dinner. In December, they will have a second wedding in a church reciting their vows before God, family, and friends. As we all know, it’s an exciting time with lots of […]

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Marriage is Like Hiking

Lisa May
10 Aug 2022
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marriage

The Live the Life South Florida team had the blessing of attending the National Alliance for Marriage & Relationship Education conference in Utah a few weeks ago. Most of us went a few days early to take in some sights. Unbeknownst to most of you, I have a sense of adventure, so when someone offers that opportunity, I’m usually game! My daughter Amanda always looks for fun and the once-in-a-lifetime activity when traveling, so she researched and said, “We have to go to Sundance and hike to Stewart Falls.” My only question was how difficult it was, and her answer […]

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Is the Destruction of our Families Fostering Mental Illness?

Lisa May
6 Jul 2022
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In the light of current events, our entire country is collectively moving through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and inevitably for some, acceptance. While the motivating factors are different, the overarching question resounds in the same outcry: WHY? Why must the innocent, our children, be the object of suffering and hatred? When we blow away the chaff, what’s left is the family or the lack thereof.  What defines families? While the world defines family in many ways, the Biblical definition has remained the same: two parents, a father and a mother, guiding children through childhood, adolescence […]

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mental

Love Well by Meeting the Need

Lisa May
3 May 2022
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need

God created us for an intimate relationship with Him and others. We are born with biological needs for bonding and closeness. We’re physically needy. We need food, clothing, water and shelter to survive. We’re spiritually needy. Man needs communion with God and freedom from guilt and shame; we need forgiveness, mercy and grace. We’re also emotionally and relationally needy. We need a relationship with God and others. We’re intellectually needy; we’re born with intellectual capacity, but we need instruction and information.  Unaware, many of our deepest and most potent desires are wrapped up in our desire to have our needs […]

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To Forgive Is to Obey

Lisa May
7 Apr 2022
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This year I’ve chosen to read the New Testament chronologically. Initially, I didn’t enjoy the process, but as I’ve read the gospel accounts leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross, I’ve thought a lot about obedience and its connection to forgiveness. Jesus, in His humanity, has experienced the hurts and betrayals of humankind, and in His humanness, He prayed and asked God to let the cup of suffering pass. Knowing He was God made man, being fully aware of the agony he’d experience, He still chose to humble himself and yield to the will of God. He had a […]

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forgive

Dealing with Relationship Cancer: Anger

Dr. Bob Barnes and Torrey Roberts
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anger

Some children hear the word “No” and they become frustrated or argue. They are disappointed, but they remain in control. Other children hear the same word and explode into rage. Some adults can discuss differences of opinion and work through conflict. Other adults only need to be inconvenienced the least bit on the highway and they explode into rage. It is all about anger! Anger is arguably the most debilitating relationship cancer there is. When a parent sees rage explode out of their child, there is a feeling of helplessness. When an adult sees rage erupt from their spouse, fear […]

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Live The Life South Florida is ALL IN for Marriages and Families

Shelly Pond
1 Feb 2022
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At a time when our society is in turmoil and many families are in crisis, dealing with more stressors than ever before, Life the Life South Florida is launching a 10-year initiative entitled “All In” for marriage and families, designed to transform Broward Country for the better through healthy relationship education beginning in middle school through senior adults. Live the Life’s board of directors is comprised of South Florida power couples with a strong commitment to families and a collaborative plan to achieve four key objectives: increase marriage decrease divorce decrease nonmarital childbearing, and increase church attendance.   “If we […]

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all in

Find the YES!

Lisa May
6 Dec 2021
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yes

I’ve been reading the New Testament chronologically. I’ve read the New Testament many times but never chronologically. The stories and teachings are more than familiar. Still, I hold fast to the truth of Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” I believe that a person’s soul and intents of the heart can and will be changed if they read the Scriptures, even in the absence of […]

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Good News Wants to Know… – Thanksgiving “Thank You”

The Good News
2 Nov 2021
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As we approach Thanksgiving, Good News Wants to Know…To whom would you like to write a “thank you” note right now (e.g., a childhood friend, business colleague, neighbor?) and why? If I can write anyone a thank you note right now, it would be to my grandfather. His name was Peter, but we called him Pop. Not only was he the nicest, most loving, caring person that I ever met, but he was the first person that ever brought my brother and I to church. I never met a person that did not like Pop. He would travel through a blizzard to […]

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