For The Morning Thing Fave 5 this week, we all shared our favorite thing that happened this week. Enjoy!
The Morning Thing Fave 5 – our favorite things that have happened this week.
Artist Update!
Today on The Morning Thing we wanted to give you an update on all of the news related to your favorite artists. Here are some of the stories we talked about:
Natalie Grant’s recovery from thyroid surgery
WinterJam Lineup and dates for Ohio
Michael W. Smith releases his first single in 3 years and announces a new full studio album
Helping your home find humor and happiness – The Morning Thing 10/25/17
On Wednesday’s show, we focused on the desire to have a happy home. It is something all of us want, right?!
We shared more great advice from the wonderful website, wwwimom.com.
Here are 9 habits for a happy home from author Susan Merrill
Click HERE to see the entire article.
H – HOLD YOUR CHILD AND HUSBAND EVERY CHANCE YOU GET.
A – ANSWER EVERY CHILD’S “MOM!” AS IF AN ANGEL WAS CALLING FOR YOU.
P – PRAY DAILY, HOURLY, EVERY SECOND IF NECESSARY.
P – PUSH EVERY NEGATIVE THOUGHT INTO THE DISPOSAL AND TURN IT ON.
Y – YEARN FOR NOW, APPRECIATE THIS STAGE OF YOUR CHILD’S LIFE.
H – HAVE SUNDAY SUPPER TOGETHER IN YOUR KITCHEN WITH YOUR FAMILY.
O – ORDER YOUR DAYS EFFICIENTLY SO THAT YOU HAVE TIME TO PLAY.
M – MAINTAIN PEACE AND FORGIVE DAILY.
E – ENJOY THE BLESSING OF YOUR CHILDREN.
We also shared some tips from Focus on the Family on how to encourage family fun and humor at your house.
How can you turn your house into a place where the walls ring with laughter and where family members actually get a kick out of being together? We have a few simple suggestions:
- First, don’t take yourself so seriously. If you and the rest of your family are like most people, perspective is probably hard for you. You find it difficult to remember how small and insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. You allow your petty trials and concerns to cast a pall of gloom over the entire universe. Our advice is to lighten up and relax. Take a step back and try to get a sense of where you fit in the “bigger picture.” And remind yourself that God alone sees your situation as it really is.
- Second, resolve tolaugh even when you don’t feel like laughing. It’s precisely when you’ve had a tough day that your need for a good laugh is most urgent. At such times, a bit of humor will help wash away the stress. It will also keep your marriage and family together when you’re coming unglued.
- Next, look for the humor around you. This may require some extra work, but it’s worth the effort. Once you open your eyes, you’ll find that life is full of good comedic material. Art Linkletter had it right when he said that “people are funny.” So stay on the lookout for the comic element in everyday life. If you can’t find it, create it for yourself.
- Discover what makes your spouse and children laugh . When you hear guffaws coming from their direction, pay attention and investigate the cause. Study their individual humor styles. Learn to distinguish between sarcasm, slapstick, irony, clownishness, and absurdity. Exploit your findings at least once a day. Pay special attention to the ways in which these humor styles reflect the various temperaments and personalities of your children. Think in terms of birth order. Learn to recognize each individual’s unique role in the family system. An awareness of these issues will help you find the correct balance between humor and sensitivity.
- Finally, learn how to poke fun at one another in a light-hearted, healthy, affirming, and non-derogatory way. A certain amount of good-natured “teasing” can actually increase feelings of intimacy among the members of your household. But be careful. Some skins are thinner than others. It’s all too easy for one person’s “joke” to become another person’s raw and bleeding wound. It may be acceptable for people to laugh at one another if they share a certain kind of relationship. But when that connection is lacking, it’s best to avoid the kind of “playfulness” that is all too easily interpreted as disrespect.
Click HERE to read the entire article.
(Picture from www.imom.com)
Parenting – a tough, but rewarding job.
Today, The Morning Thing focused on parenting. We shared some incredible insight from 2 great resources.
We shared 8 truths that every parent should know from Mark W. Merrill. Mark is the president of All Pro Dad and Family First , a national non-profit organization.
Click HERE to read the entire article from www.allprodad.com
1. Parenting requires loving your child for who they are, not for what they do.
2. Parenting requires patience.
3. Parenting is “heart work.”
4. Parenting is always doing what’s best for your child.
5. Parenting requires always speaking the truth to your child and into your child’s life.
6. Parenting is about failing, forgiving, and asking for forgiveness.
7. Parenting requires prayer.
8. Parenting is putting your relationship with God, and then your spouse, ahead of your relationship with your child.
We also shared 8 warning signs that your child is headed for trouble.
Click HERE to read the entire article from www.imom.com
Here are some of the common signs of a child who’s heading the wrong direction. It is important to recognize these and take the appropriate steps to guide your child back down a positive path.
1. Mood Swings
2. Withdrawal
3. Hiding Things
4. Dropping Grades
5. Sudden Change of Friends
6. Fluctuating Weight
7. Personality Changes
8. Changing The Way They Dress
(Picture from www.allprodad.com)
Meet the Team Monday – MVNU Women’s Basketball
For our Meet the Team Monday feature, we shine the spotlight on the Mount Vernon Nazarene University Women’s Basketball Team.
WNZR’s Dan Monnin talked with Head Coach, Amanda Short about this year’s team and the season opener coming up this weekend.
Click HERE to hear their conversation.
Get YOUR team nominated for our Meet the Team feature. Fill out the form HERE.
Date your spouse – It’s good for you and your relationship!
Are you married? Good! Take a few minutes to read this blog. Today, The Morning Thing talked about the benefits of dating your spouse.
Dr. Greg Smalley is Vice President of Marriage and Family Formation at Focus on the Family and the author or co-author of several books, including Take the Date Night Challenge.
Dr. Smalley shares that when a couple spends time alone each week, their levels of happiness, positive communication and sexual satisfaction are more than three times higher than those who don’t spend that time together. That means you might be able to dramatically increase these important areas of your marriage by simply dating your wife!
The Morning Thing shared some insight from his article, “The Hidden Benefits of Dating your Wife” from www.focusonthefamily.com
Click HERE to read the entire article.
Dr. Smalley says that Date night is a fantastic way to make sure you and your wife are connecting positively and enjoying each other’s company on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. But it’s going to take time, effort and planning.
The key to a great date is to make sure you don’t administrate your marriage when you go out — don’t have conversations about finances, household responsibilities, problems with the kids or sensitive issues. You need to talk about these things, but not during a date. Date night is about enjoying each other.
Are you willing to take the Date Night Challenge? Go out on three dates in three weeks and watch how this will strengthen your marriage!
Dating takes some planning. Click HERE to read more about the heart and soul of Date Night!he best dates need to have the following characteristics:
- Regularity—You need to make time on a regular and consistent basis to enjoy one another’s company.
- Variety—Doing the same thing over and over can become monotonous. Spice up your couple time with a wide range of interesting pursuits.
- Adventure—You don’t have to plan something elaborate or expensive. Maintaining a sense of adventure simply means including an element of the new, the unusual, or the unexpected.
- Fun—This might seem obvious, but it’s more important than you think. Research shows that couples who engage in fun activities together enjoy deeper intimacy. So whatever you do during your Date Nights—and during other moments when you’re enjoying leisure time as a couple—make sure it’s FUN!
Sometimes in marriage, we forget that we need to pursue and “woo” our spouse.
Here are some more tips from Dr. Greg Smalley from Focus on the Family.
– Dress up
– Be polite and open doors
– Compliment one another
– Be affectionate – hold hands, cuddle and steal kisses
Other steps for a great date night:
Step 1: Go someplace different for dinner.
Instead of visiting the same familiar locations and eating the same old food, pick somewhere new or try a different type of cuisine.
Step 2: Enjoy your time together!
Your assignment for this Date Night is simple: do something that you both enjoy! If possible, select an activity that that has the elements of adventure, variety, and fun in it, as described above. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Play a round of miniature golf or Frisbee golf
- Take a cooking class together
- Attend a sporting event (but remember, this needs to be something you both enjoy!)
- Go ballroom dancing
- Go shopping at thrift stores and find some new treasures
- Visit an amusement park and enjoy the Ferris wheel—or tempt fate on the roller coaster!
Step 3: Relax and unwind.
After your activity, relax and emotionally connect by talking. Answer the following questions. Be sure to keep your responses positive, uplifting and encouraging.
– What was your favorite part of the evening?
– What is the one thing you learned tonight that you didn’t know about me before?
– What are some of the things we enjoy doing together?
– What memories do these activities evoke?
– What are some new activities that we’d like to consider for a future date?
– How can we make sure that we make spending enjoyable time together a regular part of our marriage?
Step 4: Home and Sweet Home
As you drive home, spend time planning your next date. Also, think about additional ways you can foster fun times together. Once you get home, however, it’s up to you what happens next. Have a great final adventure!
The Focus on the Family Marriage Assessment is designed to evaluate the strength of 12 essential traits of your marriage. Do you know your marriage’s strengths and weaknesses? Click HERE to find out more and to take the FREE test!
We also shared 6 things that keep an emotional connection in marriage. Susan Merrill writes an insightful article for www.imom.com. Click HERE to read the full article.
These 6 things will help you stay connected to your husband.
1. Be courteous and kind to each other.
2. Talk about issues before they get out of hand.
3. Support each other.
4. Date regularly.
5. Live in a “we” world.
6. Be physically intimate.
(Picture from www.imom.com)
It’s Information Overload Day! The Morning Thing wants to help you unplug.
(picture from www.daysoftheyear.com)
The world is full of noise. Some device is always buzzing or dinging sharing “important information” with us. We connect daily with our cell phones, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, etc., etc. Research has been showing that productivity is actually being hurt by the sheer amount of information flowing through our lives, with the average employee receiving no less than 93 emails a day.
Information Overload Day was created by companies to bring awareness to what happens to employees when they are overloaded. This day reminds us that there’s such a thing as too much information, and sometimes this constant inundation can actually have a negative impact on our happiness and productivity.
To help you in this fight, The Morning Thing shared some tips for avoiding information overload.
- Skip the alerts
- Personalize your feeds
- Log off
- Prioritize
- Read books
- Unfollow and unsubscribe
- Let it go
- Clean house
For the full article and details on how to avoid this information overload, click HERE.
For our Morning Thing Fave 5, we each shared our favorite way to unplug.
Practical tips for Biblical Conflict Resolution
It is Conflict Resolution Day! A day created for people to resolve conflict peacefully. People were not created for war, but fellowship and relationship. Today we focused on how to resolve conflict without violence while maintaining healthy, Christian relationships.
For information on the global event click HERE
On The Morning Thing we talked about an article from Focus on the Family about Biblical conflict resolution. Here are a few tips for honoring Christ during times for conflict and disagreement.
Define the Problem and Stick to the Issue
Clearly define the issue and stay on topic during the discussion. Conflict deteriorates when the issue that started the conflict gets lost in angry words, past issues, or hurts tossed into the mix.
Pursue Purity in Heart
Before approaching others regarding their faults and shortcomings, prayerfully face up to your own. Confess any way you might have contributed to the problem.
Affirm the Relationship
Affirm the relationship before clearly defining the problem. For example, “Our relationship is important to me. But when you don’t return my calls, I feel rejected and unimportant.” Avoid blaming the other person and saying, “You make me feel…” Instead, say, “When you do ‘A’, I feel ‘B’.”
Forgive
Forgive others as Christ has forgiven you. “Forgiveness is both an event and a process,” Don’t expect it to happen over night. In fact, you should offer forgiveness along with these four promises:
- I promise I won’t bring this up and use it against you in the future.
- I promise I’m not going to dwell on it in my own heart and mind.
- I’m not going to talk to other people about it.
- I’m not going to let it stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.
Check out the full article from Focus on the Family about healthy, Biblical conflict resolution, HERE!
(Picture from www.pintrest.com/wetzel5/conflict-resolution/ )
The 2017 Dove Award Winners have been announced!
The 48th annual Gospel Music Awards were handed out on 10/17 in Nashville, TN.
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) will exclusively air the awards show this Sunday, October 22 at 9 p.m. EST.
The 2017 Dove Award for Song of the Year went to Hillsong Worship for “What a Beautiful Name”.
The Dove Award for Artist of the Year went to MercyMe.
The Morning Thing congratulates the winners of WNZR’s Dove Awards Prediction Prize Giveaway!
Congratulations to Ruthie Johnson, Adrian Clutter and Jennifer Sperry!
These 3 ladies are winners of a 9 CD prize package with Dove Award nominees!!
9 CD Prize package includes:
Casting Crowns – The Very Next Thing
Lauren Daigle – How Can It Be (Deluxe Edition)
Lauren Daigle – Behold: A Christmas Collection
Jordan Feliz – The River (Deluxe Edition)
Danny Gokey – Rise
Natalie Grant – Be One
MercyMe – Lifer
One Sonic Society – Great are You Lord
Zach Williams – Chain Breaker
To see a complete list of the 2017 GMA Dove Award Winners, go to http://doveawards.com/2017-winners/
For more information about the Gospel Music Awards, go to www.doveawards.com
Happy Birthday Joe Rinehart!
Today (10/17), Joe Rinehart is celebrating his 49th birthday. So, The Morning Thing surprised him with special messages from the WNZR staff. We love you Joe! Have a great birthday!
Click HERE to hear our staff members share their memories and thoughts about Joe.
