Something Wicked This Way Comes-Part 2, the anti-Christ explored

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that anti-Christ shall come, even now are there many anti-Christs; whereby we know that it is the last time-1 John 2:18

The Chasm is deep and wide. It permeates every corner of our lives: government, church, schools and universities, and the main stream media. The Winter Olympics is marred by it. Hey, it even touched my Alma Mater and my weaving supply store this week! Crazy right? As time goes by and wickedness has been allowed to grow, everything is polluted by it. I wish I could just live in a world free of such problems but, that’s not the world that Adam and Eve left us with. 

The weeks since Winter Storm Fern occurred has been a battle with the winter elements. The weather was and is dangerously cold. You can get hypothermia very quickly without the proper gear, your plumbing pipes can freeze and machinery can stop working.. Having grown up in and around New York City I have procured the skills for working in this type of weather but, I am constantly fussing after my husband who grew up in a warm weather climate. He would say that he has learned to navigate the northeast American climate after living here for some time. 

However, I always feel the need to watch out for him in winter. I believe that if you did not grow up in this kind of climate your instinct is never the same as a person who did. My husband grew up in a sunny and frost-free environment so the notion of going to war with the winter elements is something he might read in a book but never might one hundred per cent get. He unconsciously thinks the weather is his friend. Ha ha! So did my father, who was also born in a warm climate. Hey did I marry my father? I digress.

This week as I look out my bedroom window I see icicles so big and long that I feel like I’m trapped in the palace of the Snow Queen just waiting for spring to come and rescue me. My husband had to be cajoled to zip up his jacket and put on a hat. See what I mean. I imagine him being taken captive by the Snow Queen and taken to her cold, cold lair. I would have to rescue him if I remember that story correctly and battle her to save his life.

Trapped in the palace of the Snow Queen until spring with my first winter head cold gives me time to think about all that is happening in the world. The Winter Olympics has begun in Italy. The Italians had to deal with Russian hackers. The Russians aren’t too happy that they were not invited to the party. The Americans were booed at the Olympic Games because they do not want open borders and have acted to arrest people who are illegally within those borders. Just a refresher, this is what the American people overwhelmingly voted for. It is great to have a President who is doing the job that he was elected to do.  

The Europeans don’t agree with our immigration laws. They are entitled to their opinion. Their policies show what they believe. The Islamic population in Europe in the year 2000 was 500,000 and now it is close to 50 million. That did not happen by accident but, by design. People who voted for Trump did not vote for that sort of paradigm shift. However, didn’t the Olympics have goals of bringing the world together and finding something to unite about?

Maybe the Olympics can’t achieve that goal anymore. Is it time to give that dream up? The Iranians have killed their own citizens, the Syrians are wiping out the Kurds, and the Nigerian and Somalian conflicts continue in Africa. We know why the Russians aren’t at the party. Do we finally have more that divides us than unites us? Do we really hate each other too much to come together for a short sporting event without throwing shade at one another? Something Wicked This Way Comes-Part 2, the anti-Christ explored is looking at this question. Achoo! Excuse me.. 

The Wicked Thing that has been revealed to the world as of late is the Jeffrey Epstein Files. I can barely read any of those stories because it is too deep and too dark. It almost seems like sin unbounded. The Bible tells us who’s behind it all. That would be Satan. Jeffrey Epstein, anarchy, wars and rumors of wars are all just the tell-tale portents of the person who is the puppet master behind the scenes. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one-Matthew 6:13

In my little world, institutions such as my Alma Mater are showing signs of what is to come. My university used to be a place known for its’ moral code but now, it goes along with the winds of every popular leftist movement instead of the timeless doctrines of the Bible. I learned through sources involved in the University that that it’s gone LGBTQ and become anti-Turning Point USA. I wrote them an email decrying recent decisions that they have made in favor of the former and in opposition to the latter. If that isn’t enough while I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee and checking my emails the other day, I received a message from my weaving supply company that disturbed me. Their emails used to be fun and mean seeing new yarn offers, patterns for weaving, and educational weaving opportunities. Expecting something like that, I happily opened an email only to find out that the company I had enjoyed so much had gone crazy. It was now encouraging people to craft secretly coded anti-ICE and revolutionary messages into their next woven textiles and to donate money to the anti-ICE movement.

Dropping a whole lot of money in a short amount of time meant nothing to this new brand of businesswoman. The maxim that “the customer is always right” did not apply. When I sent a letter supporting the law enforcement community and the President of the United States she let me have it. Ouch. Next, I let loose with premise, argument and logical conclusion and she in turn went illogical hog wild crazy on me. This has happened to me before. Seems the craft world is full of lefty anarchists. Who’d a thunk? This is not my mother’s craft world anymore. I wish it were. 

Today, you find that companies are more interested in politics than in making or selling their product. There was a famous online knitting company who refused permission for knitters to post a pattern depicting messages of support for Donald Trump on hat patterns. However, they allowed the democrats to post a pattern supporting their candidate. Does that seem fair to all their customers or just outright biased? Pussy hat patterns and anti-ICE hats sure, but MAGA hats no.  I won’t subscribe to this very popular online knitting resource as a result. A European knitting company that has great knitting kits also made no secret of their left leaning politics a while back and so I had to stop ordering from them too. This is a world that is rapidly lining up on one of two sides and I know who is behind it all.

The whole thing about the anti-Christ is that the world gets to the point of bringing him onto the scene  because they have lost all moral clarity. We call evil things good these days. So, we will call the anti-Christ good at some point and we will follow him instead of God Almighty. It’s no different from following a cult leader because we think they are telling us something good. It’s no different from following political parties that end up doing evil things. It’s no different from dating someone who is anti-social and wondering why they are a terrible mate. 

There are several passages in the Bible that reflect some of the things we have been pondering. So just who is the anti-Christ? The name anti-Christ has two meanings. It refers in general to anyone who is in opposition to the Lord, Jesus Christ. The name also refers to Satan and his role in opposition to God in the end of days. The Bible is clear that a person will appear who convinces people that the dream of peace in our day is possible. 1 Thessalonians 5:3- While people are saying,”peace and safety” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Eventually, he will seek to rule the world and we will be in danger of a one world government. 

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.That is why it was called Babel-because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth-Genesis 11:8-9

One world government had its’ day in the early part of the Bible and is explored in the story of the Tower of Babel. This story seems to embody the dream of a complete world unity. The unity that we keep trying for is a fiction. Is the United Nations all that great? The Olympics? The idea of worldwide cohension is a naive fantasy that will ultimately work against us when the anti-Christ uses it against us. It has always been my impression that God opposed the idea of world unity in the Tower of Babel story because a one world government is one of the conditions that must be met before the anti-Christ’s arrival. He will step into a position of a world leader just when we are all ready to give up national sovereignty. In other words, when we embrace complete open borders.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God-2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

NEXT WEEK: Something Wicked this Way Comes-Part 3, the anti-Christ and A.I.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Is it the upcoming “Winter Storm Fern” that has me on edge, is it the Middle Eastern paradigm shift, Minnesota madness or something more ominous? The title of this blog post “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is taken from a Ray Bradbury novel, who himself got that title from a line in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. All in all, the title captures something of the general apprehension that I feel at the moment. 

They say there is something in the air before a storm. In the case of a snow storm, it is even said that due to a barely perceptible change in humidity and colder temperatures that a person could actually have a heightened sense of smell. Is that what I am feeling?

All this week, I have felt the sense that there is more going on than meets the eye. I sought to squelch this thought and feeling because it seemed to be distracting me from my list of things to do. But, I haven’t had such a pervasive sense of foreboding in a long time. I have often said that I always follow my instincts and the occasional times that I do not, it is a mistake. My instinct is part Holy Spirit power and life experience, all of which God wants us to be aware of and utilize when necessary. 

In Ray Bradbury’s tale we are introduced to two young lads who are busy living the life of boyhood pleasures and innocence unaware of an approaching storm and the underlying spiritual nature of life. The sense of worse things to come like growing up, death and the spiritual realm is almost palpable from the first page of the novel. There is something about this novel that captures the essence of an ordinary life that senses and contacts the spiritual undercurrents of their life when least expected. Am I having a Ray Bradbury moment? 

I must be because, here I am doing what ordinary people do everyday like cooking up a storm during a storm, having a blast with my newest craft hobby weaving but, crazy things are going on all around me sort of like that crazy carnival coming to town in Bradbury’s novel. Yes, I think the crazy carnival with all the freaky things that happened is a great metaphor for our world right now. Are we all like the innocent and not so innocent people in the story who get caught up in the drama when wickedness comes to town?

Iranian revolution, what’s going to happen with that. I’m on the edge of my seat with this. Is the regime about to end? Has the Iranian Revolution of 1979 run its’ course? Will the Peace Board make the United Nations go the way of the League of Nations? Will Gaza go from being a hell-hole to a world class center of something or other? Is NATO falling apart, or is it still relevant? Will a Greenland deal keep the fed-up United States on board and happy with those petulant Europeans? Is the Anti-Christ about to make the scene?

Something Wicked This Way Comes as the world changes rapidly before our eyes. The character of Mr. Dark in Ray Bradbury’s novel could be played by any number of candidates currently on the world scene. If I remember my high school reading correctly there is a side-kick too. Hmm, whom could that be? Could the approach of the Biblical anti-Christ and his false prophet be on the horizon? There are so many reasons to think that the answer to that is “yes.”

For instance, the Gospel of Matthew 24:6 tells us before the end of days, there will be “wars and rumors of war.” I would say affirmative to that. This will put the world on edge and make it long for a more peaceful existence. The history of this planet has included awful and deadly conflicts. The desire to finally overcome our bloody past will lead the world into the clutches of the anti-Christ.

The anti-Christ will come in with promises of “no more wars.” There will be those who support him and one sponsor in particular will be the so-called “false prophet.” This concept follows the notion that any movement in history that was of any significance always had a philosophical, politcal and spiritual system in place. Every society is based upon that and the anti-Christ system will be no different. Let’s get into some scriptures to give us guidance on the matter.

On the topic of peace deals and the anti-Christ, Daniel 9:27 begins by stating that, And he (meaning the anti-Christ) shall confirm the covenant with many. This seems to point to countries coming together in agreement in a peace deal. The deal had to be in existence already or else they could not confirm it. So the question arises is the peace deal currently being discussed for Gaza, THAT DEAL? Is the United Nations or the new Gaza Peace Board going to be instrumental in bringing THAT DEAL into existence, and will the anti-Christ being involved in that process be a springboard for his evil career? 

This mysterious anti-Christ figure will promise the peace that has alluded humanity since the beginning of time. The anti-Christ will not come in as a warrior king to subdue the world. He will eventually move in that direction but not at first. So, it will be hard to see him coming because he will not be what he appears to be at first. That happens in Ray Bradbury’s novel too. 

This is not surprising since most all of Western Civilization’s literature is a commentary on the Bible. Judeo-Christian beliefs are an important foundation of Western Civilization and consciously or un-consciously author’s test its’ precepts. So, perhaps unconsciously as this long ago read book comes to my mind, I am really examining world events in light of the biblical principles of good versus evil as Bradbury did.

I am disturbed by the moral breakdown of society. Minnesota riots are part of it. A certain segment of the population thinks it okay to disregard the legal system of the USA and they are well-organized and funded. They are formenting a revolution. The latest killing that some are outraged over entail a man bringing a loaded 9 mm. high-capacity handgun to confront ICE agents with. Let’s sum this up, literature teaching how to disrupt law enforcement, encrypted messages, weaponizing vehicles, biting off fingers, and bringing handguns are the modus operandi of this group. Some of the group even disrupted a church service with Communist 101 rhetoric. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to relive it. Lucky for me, I have read a lot of history plus my bible so, I am not buying any of this. 

The moral front and the anti-Christ- I want to join the voices who are calling for a boycott of the upcoming Super Bowl LX Game on February 8th. Every year the half-time show gets dirtier and dirtier. It reminds me of the debauched carnival depicted in Ray Bradbury’s novel. When someone calls himself Bad Bunny where can you go from there? I mean he gives bunnies a bad name. This Puerto Rican singer is supposed to come out in a dress. No pun intended. The entertainment is heavily weighed in this direction and that is by design.

Jesus states that the end times will not come until there is a falling away. The scriptures in various places tell us that people will not listen to the moral teachings of the church any longer in the lead up to end time events. It is the prophesied falling away of the church. That time is surely now. Just look around at all the moral decay and situational ethics that abounds. Anything goes as far as sexuality, right and wrong has been turned upside down. Greed and narcissism has replaced the concept of emulating Jesus and serving one another as he taught us to. 

Peace deals, moral decay, Winter Storm Fern all heightened my sense of preparedness for what comes ahead. As I complete this blog post, we are all cleaning up from the storm which has dumped 10- 15 inches or snow in my area. The icicles and snowbanks will be around for a while as an extended cold weather advisory is in effect. 

The issues of peace and morality portent something wicked in the future. It’s not Wicked Good, it’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. During the winter months when I am indoors more than usual I try to go through and discard various documents that I no longer need whether they are physical pages or in the document files on my computer. I know some financial instruments are coming due and I have to make decisions about future investments. Cooking and cleaning out closets is also a winter activity for a housewife such as myself. Will my feelings of foreboding wane now that Winter Storm Fern has passed or will I be blogging, Something Wicked This Way Comes Part 2-The anti-Christ explored?

New Year’s Revolution

No, that is not a typo. I did not mean to name this blog post New Year’s Resolution. The name of this week’s blog post is New Year’s Revolution. I began writing this post very early last Sunday morning. Sunday is the day that I set my alarm extra early in the morning in order to prepare to worship the Lord collectively in a church worship service. I take a forty-five minute drive over hilly terrain and past now deserted farm fields awaiting warmer spring days to come. I behold the aspects of the winter landscape stretched out before me on my drive to the little church in the country that I attend. 

It seems a lot is happening all over the globe as I ready to head out the door. What the heck is going on because the morning headlines are full of revolutionary protests and actions? Iranian citizens are having a revolution.They have endured rolling blackouts in their country on a daily basis, water problems which impede their everyday life and their currency has to be wheeled about town in wheel barrels like pre-World War II Germany. Their economy is a disaster and people have lost hope for a better future. 

Instead of tackling these problems and allocating money towards ameliorating those problems they chose to fund Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi's in the regimes plan to destroy Israel. The Iranian regimes quest to be a regional superpower has bankrupted their nation. They were oil rich and they used that money in an irresponsible and incompetent way. The sanctions are their fault because decisions have consequences. The Iranian regime is fighting a losing battle and every merchant and housewife in the country knows it, and that's the formula for a New Year’s Revolution.

I have been talking about the shifting world situation for several years at least. The Middle East is now in a new normal since I began to explore this topic even though skirmishes break out from time to time in the region. What’s certain is that the Assad dynasty is dead as a door nail. The Arabian peninsula has shown their shift to a diversified economic model, traditional Islamic / world culture mix, plus brave political pivots working to outmaneuver the Iranian model. 

The Abrahamic Accords show that the Middle East has made a gesture towards trying to live in peace with their neighbors in a nod to the historic roots they share as evidenced in the naming of this treaty. The Iranian regime might be the last one to know this though. Polymarket agrees with me too. Is that why Russian planes are picking up Iranian gold and helping some in the regime to solidify an escape plan should one be necessary. I wonder will the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps slaughter their wives, mothers and teenage nephews on the street as they cry out for a better life? What do you think? I pray that the answer is no even though there is early evidence that the army is firing indiscriminately at its’ citizens. 

The Israelis have also busted some moves after October 7th. The “never again” sentiment just grew exponentially after October 7th. The Jewish nation is now in regional supremacy over Iran. I think Egypt has quietly settled into an economic approach towards improvement. Good idea, Iran should have done that. I think change is happening in the Middle East because of brave new thinking and because of the possibility of a new silk route venture. People are turning away from war plans and are instead imagining and focusing on new and brighter economic and educational opportunities for growth in the region.

My title New Year’s Revolution also refers to what has been going on in Venezuela. Last Saturday brought news of Maduro’s regime being toppled. I cried tears of joy knowing how the mess that once thriving Venezuela has become was slowing coming to an end. There has to be better things on the horizon for them. Venezuela was once a thriving, cultured and prosperous place but as of late it had become the new Cuba. Speaking of Cuba, how bad is it over there? I got this recent update from a Puerto Rican man that I know named Manny*. Manny, who is a good Christian man ran into marriage problems shortly after converting to Christianity. He did not want a divorce and was very lonely after his wife left him. He did not meet anyone at church or in the community that he liked. Honestly, he likes Cubanas. So, he somehow managed to get a mail-order bride from Cuba. I don’t want to know the details of that. He went there to meet her and gave me a summary on just how awful things were in that country. He said they are beyond dismal.The above description of Iran is also how Manny describes the current situation in Cuba. It helps explains how Manny and Mariela,* two desperate people, have recently come together. It may also somewhat explain the alliance of Iran and Venezuela too. There’s a theme here, i.e. Communism, Socialism or Dictatorships don’t work.

Yeah, but you ask what does this have to do with my January relationship reset theme? I do have another tip this week for you and I to improve our personal relationships but first, yikes the world is in a paradigm shift! I will finish with my thoughts on South America and get to it, I promise! South America is in play again, more so than it has been in a long time. They are at a moment of pregnancy and what will be born is up to them. Will the baby be born healthy? Free of drugs? China and Russia prop up dictators, and facilitate the drug trade in that region. This allows them to work their agenda against the United States including to stultify any possibility of unity in the western hemisphere or even in South America. Weapons can be pointed at the United States too. But, are China, Russia and Iran really looking out for South American interests? At this moment South American success is within its’ grasp finally but, they have to have a vision for what it could be and stay the course towards democracy and capitalism. I know they have it within their collective religious, cultural and intellectual capabilities to make it this time.

For the first time in a long time I can see hope on the horizon for that region. There have been false starts and then backward trending. There has been romance with the socialist / communist model. There has also been a dream and experimentation with freedom that the Venezuelans, Bolivians, Colombians and others have flirted with. I see an openness to it in the region again. Benjamin Franklin cleverly remarked as he and others engaged in setting up the United States system of government that, “It’s a republic if you can keep it.” That advice would be wisely adhered to in South America if a stable future is to be built there and the region to move forward. Stay the course. I am also hoping that we in the United States could again take Franklin’s advice seriously too. 

That’s because in the United States a non-grassroots movement is looking for and manufacturing opportunities to protest and bring down the U.S. government where no such reasons exist. Even after an election victory too big to rig occurred, and the majority of Americans voted overwhelmingly to bring President Trump and the Republican Party into office, the well-funded and relentless revolutionaries are still continuing to try and bring a Marxist revolution to the United States. Law enforcement is under attack in their homes, and on the job. This has never happened in this country before. Their families are being harassed, stalked, assaulted and even killed. Politicians too. Our duly-elected Vice-President J.D.Vance’s had his home vandalized this past week. His family and the President’s family continue to be harassed by the violent and hate-filled leftist movement. It’s not an accident that Minneapolis is trying to use a situation of their own diabolical making to begin riling up the uninformed, unwell and ungodly and trying to get a revolution out of it. 

There are many well-organized groups right now training people on the finer points of how to harass police and other law enforcement. Legal, duly sworn agents who are following the moral and legal frameworks of the United States of America are being cast as the bad guys even though that’s not the truth. They are turning everything upside down. They are calling right wrong and wrong right. Who does that? The Bible says that is what the end-time warriors will do. The group in Minneapolis are called “ICE warriors.” They are called that because they are fighting the agency (ICE) tasked with stemming the flow of criminals who flooded this country during the Biden presidency. The ICE warriors are not nice people. They are the dregs of society: anarchists, haters of the Judeo-Christian faiths, democracy and violent extremists. I pray for them constantly.

Unlike Venezuela or Iran where people are desperately trying to get free elections and economic improvement, the United States already has that. It’s like these ICE warriors are fighting some sort of a Don Quixote windmill. This crowd is trying to bring chaos and thereby use a well-known technique for bringing in a New Year’s Revolution. Their organizers are well-versed in the methods of Che Guevara, Marx and 1960’s radical movement. Their revolution will bring destruction to anywhere where they can succeed. They are crazy and think they will bring in a utopia but they would really make the United States the new Cuba. With all this going on how’s a Christian Housewife gonna focus on giving  another relationship tip for January or finish putting my Christmas decorations away? It’s hard but it’s important to do the things we must accomplish every day.

Our God is a God of order, not chaos. The author of chaos is the devil. We all have to decide whose side we are on in 2026. Those who are trying to bring chaos are not of God. God brought the universe into being out of chaos. His model is harmony with himself, nature and one another. Unity and godly order begins at home and extends to our world. We can not bring utopia to this world, only God can. The Bible tells us in the end we will be so unsuccessful that God will have to bring judgement on the nations and eventually God Almighty will have to stop this craziness. 

So what can we build in our homes and in our earthly government? The founding fathers of the United States created a system of government with enough checks and balances on government power to be able to successfully bring control towards a citizen rule. These men understood their bibles and out of an abundance of biblical wisdom understood that since mankind has a sin problem it must be mitigated by taking that into account when building any nation. They understood there is no such thing as a utopian nation, only a nation which gave its’ people a fighting chance to stay free. It took 250 years before their system would begin to falter and that happened when the United States started to lose sight of their faith. 

When the United States began to abandon its’ faith in the Judeo-Christian God that was officially the beginning of the United States New Year’s Revolution. Those who have thoroughly studied American history know that the early founder’s said as much and cautioned that only a godly populace could continue the ideals of freedom that they had envisioned. So where are we now? Half the population believes in God and half do not. Half of the country supports the god-fearing ICE agent who had to defend himself when a crazed woman refused to follow his directions. This is the second time that illegal or illegal supporting godless people have used their car as a weapon against this agent to thwart the legal laws of entry into the United States. The left are teaching their activivists to do this. It has also happened in another bastion of liberal politics, Portland, Oregon recently. 

If this woman had understood the rule of law, the right to a peaceful protest and what that means, and had chosen the right way to change laws, she would still be alive today! All indications are that she was out looking to foment Revolution. If her car had been in parking mode and she was poised to follow law enforcements’ directions her car would not have rolled when she got shot as the video shows. She had that car in drive and treated the officer’s life as if it was of no value and she would have run him down had he not protected himself. They would then treat her like Luigi Mangione in short course.

She and many like her stop traffic not for legitimate change and growth (because they already have power to do that) but because they are trying to wreak havoc.They can simply tell voters what they believe in, run for office and then allow the citizens to decide the winner. They don’t want to do that though.They lost the election and they don’t want to wait for the next election they would prefer to take control illegitimately before then. Even in New York, my former home, we see communism taking root through elections. New York City has elected a communist mayor. They have AOC too. I was born and raised there and I no longer want to live there because New York has become a stronghold of all that is wrong with my nation. They will go the way of Cuba as time goes by or return to sanity. 

The half of the country who ridicule God and call harassment, stalking, and even justify murder if it further’s their cause, is currently supporting the leftist uprising in Minneapolis. Their crazy and soundly defeated Governor Walz who lost his bid to be a Vice-President of the United States and is currently at the center of a billion dollar scandal has called for others to take to the streets in solidarity with the revolutionaries in his state. Of course he did. Wag the tail maybe? Or is it by “any means necessary Tim?” I know as a Christian the means by which things happen are paramount for me to contemplate. There is a difference between legitimate change and illegitimate change. There is a difference between self-defense and murder. Only God has given us true clarity on that. So, I know we are fighting those who don’t understand those principles.

Today, I wanted to finish packing and putting away my Christmas decorations until next season’s holiday, I wanted to write a blog highlighting a story with relationship tips but my husband made me feel better when he said that “some things are more important than putting away your Christmas ornaments. You might have to put that task off for another time.” The New Year’s Revolution in our homes and relationship is just as important as everything else going on unless of course the revolution comes to our own doors. Then, we are swept up in it. I pray that we do not face that test.

Relationship Tip of the Week: We all should decide this week to practice receiving feedback from our boss, partner, friend or family member in a mature way. In order to have any good relationship we need to be able to take constructive criticism when it comes. We should also practice giving or receiving such information in a way to others that shows respect. No sarcasm, no name calling just a mature discussion about whatever the issue is. We must begin with letting down our defenses with that person that we seek to be in relationship with. That is what real friendship, love, or family relations require. Defensiveness often creates communication problems and blocks problem-solving solutions. Just ask the Ayatollah and President Pezeshkian.

* the names are changed to protect the privacy of others.

New Year-New Relationship?

Nope, I am not necessarily recommending that you break up with your boyfriend. Instead, I am calling for 2026 to be the year of the Relationship Reset. The New Year represents a new start. Of course, we can have a fresh start anytime that we want to but, New Year’s seems to bring more societal focus on the concept of growth and change. Every year I try to make January the month where I make changes in my life. Sometimes there are small changes and sometimes large. There have been issues concerning organization, healthy or godly living. It always means thinking about the practical steps that are needed to achieve those goals.

What is missing in your life? Is it God? That’s the most important first step that you can take towards living a better life both now and for eternity. Next, what is the quality of your relationships with others,(friends, family or at work)? Are you happy, do you feel loved and understood? Are you and your partner just talking at each other and not to each other? Do you fight all the time or do you just want different things?That’s not good, but it’s not too late to work through your problems and fall in love again. It’s not too late to honor your mother or father or make amends with friends, family or at work

This year my inspiration for change and growth comes from observations made during the holiday season. It seems like many people are not all that happy with their relationships and the holiday season acts to magnify any problems that already exist. Far too many people seem to squabble over petty things. Should we chalk it up to “holiday stress” or is it something more indicative than that? Worse yet people more and more seem to lack boundaries and no longer filter out unkind words in polite company. Why? Because they either call it normal behavior, don’t even know they have a problem, or overall have poor coping skills.

What happens when you have a disagreement do you give the person the silent treatment or name call? Does your partner do that? Do you or he fly into a rage or belittle one another? Have you stopped appreciating each other? Someone being taken for granted? This holiday season, it was crazy to see how many cases of criticism that existed just concerning family meals. It may seem trivial but it’s not. Take Jenny* & Teddy* for example. Teddy cooked a huge Thanksgiving meal for friends and family. There were sweet potatoes, dressing, asparagus, and corn. He smoked and cooked a large turkey. Everything looked great but, when Jenny took her first bite of the turkey she let her opinion be known in front of all the guests that day. “Teddy, that meat is too dry. You overcooked it.”

In truth it was dry but who cares, this was a completely rude comment to make. It was belittling and showed no appreciation for the time and effort that her husband had put into cooking the entire meal. Isn’t that what gravy is for anyway? When somebody cooks the whole meal for me, I shut up and just enjoy it. Come on, free food, no work. Hip hip hooray. When I am tempted to criticize a meal I stop and think that I could just as easily have been the one to overcook the white meat in order that the dark meat is thoroughly cooked. Where is the “love covers a multitude of sins” attitude when you need it. A little love and gravy would cover the dry meat so why make Teddy feel bad after all his hard work?

Teddy never speaks up when Jenny says these things to him. However, he just waits to get her back by saying something equally as nasty later on when he has an opening to do so. He gives as good as he gets.They are in a vicious cycle and yet I can honestly tell you that these two people love each other very much. So what gives?

It is funny how many people love each other but, they have awful coping skills or next to no manners in dealing with that person. One of the skills I see lacking is the ability to have a disagreement and to just try to talk and work out a solution constructively and respectfully. Keeping to the topic for one is important. If you talk about whose turn it is to wash the dishes and you end up bringing each others’ mothers into it, you know you are not fighting fair.

I think it has something to do with people letting too much build up before they decide to deal with it, or it could be just following the comfortable dysfunctional pattern that someone’s parents role modeled to them. If you don’t question what you have seen others do then that behavior can often become one’s default setting. Some people just want to be right all the time and can not admit if they are wrong. That is not gonna get you into heaven folks so let’s stop that right now. We all make mistakes and we need to admit it and ask God and one another for forgivensss.

People make excuses for their behavior all the time but, they don’t give that same grace to their partner and often seem ready to pounce on them for the smallest reasons.Yet, the Bible tells us to do the opposite to all the above behavior. Jenny and Teddy are Christians. They have both been discussing these issues with me for some time and after some prayer and thoughtful consideration, I have begun to redirect them.

The first thing they needed to do was to stop blaming the other person for all the relational havoc and start looking straight into the mirror. Both Jenny and Teddy talk about how their spouse is the problem. It was time for them to dig into some well-known bible verses and take them to heart. Starting with: “Thus says the Lord of host: Consider thy ways”-Haggai:1:6. This verse is just one of many in the Bible asking us to look at our life and think about what we are saying or doing. I asked both Jenny and Teddy to begin to change their focus from thinking about what the other person is doing and instead to put the spotlight on themselves instead. I could see what a revolution this verse alone did to pull them from their usual pattern.

Initially, it was gratifying to see how they were starting to self-reflect in their relationship until the first challenge occurred which is when they both got the flu.* it hit Jenny first. She was so sick that she had to go to the emergency room, Teddy was able to cope at home when he came down with it a week later. Both of them backslide spiritually and almost immediately their marriage started to suffer. The next verse that I left them with was from Matthew 7:3 and it states, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” As Christians, I can tell right away that they understood the intent of this verse. Too often we Christians need reminding not of the verse so much as the significance that it has in our own lives. It is only the beginning of January but I can already see huge differences with Jenny and Teddy’s marriage.

They are not the only ones getting into conflict. Don’t we all need a New Year-New Relationship? Will you take the Relationship Reset Challenge with me during the month of January? Every week I will suggest one small step for you and I to take to begin to improve a relationship. The first step is to do the very simple thing that Jenny and Teddy are doing, that is self-reflect. Do a moral inventory of your responsibility in that relationship. If there is a conflict think of your part in it and stop justifying all your actions. Develop a different response to the usual triggers. It all starts with what you can do to make things better.

Still need convincing? The last bible reference regards a certain great King of Israel, King David. He had sinned against God and others but could not see his part in all that had transpired. He was self-satisfied and unable to see the truth until a certain prophet told him the story of a sinful man. While David was all too willing to condemn the actions of this transgressor he was unwilling to see his own transgressions until he found out the sinner was him.

Psalm 51:1-Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; blot out my transgressions.




* the names and the illness is changed to protect privacy.