Mortgage Ratios

Q.  Do you have a guideline ratio for mortgage debt to income?

A.  When it comes to buying a home, I always tell people to get a 15-year, fixed rate mortgage, with monthly payments that are no more than 25 percent of their take home pay. This type of mortgage is the only debt I don’t beat up people for having. Still, I urge folks to pay off these loans in less than 15 years.

Each year on The Meeting House program, I list and explore the “Top 10 Topics” impacting the Christian community from the previous year.  Here are the “Top 10 Topics of 2017.”

The human brain pushes individuals to relate in groups, families, and the community. As well, and most importantly, humans have the drive to be in “meaningful” relationships (from marriages, friendships, even children/parents). There are healthy relationships that have “manageable problems”, and then there are toxic relationships that are destructive to mind, body, and spirit.

When and where were you two married? What are your fondest memories of your wedding and the days leading up to it?

Alice:  We got married on August 19, 2017 at the Oaks Plantation in Pike Road, Alabama.  My fondest memory is all of my family being together.  I am the baby of four and I have ten nieces and nephews who were all in the wedding.  Anywhere we go, it tends to be a party due to how big our family is. We had a small family ceremony and a brunch afterward with more friends and family. It was very special to be surrounded by the many people who have impacted our lives so greatly.

With catering, flowers, music, and a myriad of other details to arrange, planning your wedding can be both exhilarating and anxiety provoking.  Discover the latest trends and follow these tips to reduce stress and survive the months leading up to your big day.

Selma is like so many people I know: “My marriage is stale. I thought our love would last forever when I met Devon, but now…” Finding love in this love-crazy culture is often easy, but finding real love, staying in love, and keeping that love alive requires hard work, which we  are often reluctant to do.  The passionate, romantic love we desire in our marital relationships, or a dating relationship, means we must be willing to put forth time and energy to give to our boyfriend or spouse what we wish to receive from them.

A self-sacrificing love.

A husband’s love is self-sacrificing. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” (Ephesians 5:25).  Every husband knows that he is called to love his wife to such a degree that he would be willing to die for her. But God calls for far more than this. “It is easy for men to think of dying dramatically—and bloodily—for our wives in some grand gesture. But what Paul specifically has in mind is for husbands to live sacrificially for their wives. This means a dying to self-interest to place her needs before your own. It means a willingness to crucify your sins and selfish habits and unworthy character traits. I remember a husband who told me he had always thought that if a man came into the house with a knife to attack his wife, sure, he would be willing to die defending her. ‘Then I realized,’ he said, ‘that emotionally and spiritually, I am that man who assaults my wife and threatens her well-being. What God calls me to do is put my own sinful self to death’.” Exactly so. You would die for your wife, but will you live for her?

Every journey, every venture, every project has three stages: beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning there is the promise of adventure and the quest of the unknown. At the end there is a sense of accomplishment. But in the middle, that is where the whole experience can just seem like a lot of work. Things are not so new anymore and the end seems far away. That’s when we are all tempted to stop halfway through and settle for less than we had hoped for. But if we do that, we miss God’s best for us.

Love Thy Body

by Nancy Pearcey

It is always a big deal when Nancy Pearcey releases a new book. It’s a special pleasure when that release is timed for the beginning of a new year. Such is the case with Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality. In this new work she brings her unique voice to some of the most pressing moral issues of our day.

Ah, the sounds of wedding bells are in the air with this month’s Wedding & Marriage Issue of River Region’s Journey! I’ve been married to my wife going on 35 years. To this day I know that, other than trusting Jesus as my Savior, it was the best decision I ever made.