Journey to Surrender

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after a marvelous extended family vacation over the holidays. I have a few other posts in the queue, but I decided to kick the year off by looking back over 2011 and looking ahead to 2012 over the course of the next few posts.

I've been recognized recently by a couple of marriage blog lists, but by far the greatest honor I had during 2011 was in deepening friendships with several terrific marriage bloggers whom I greatly respect.  This includes the chance I had to meet several of them in person.

I’m hoping for even more of the same in 2012.

Lori Byerly, who runs the cornerstone marriage blog “The Generous Wife,” recently named my blog as a 2011 Grow Your Marriage Award recipient.

The award was under the category “For Making Us All Think."  Lori describes this category as follows, "These folks regular turn out challenging, thought provoking posts (and I know how much work goes into something like that), kudos."

If you don't already follow Lori's daily tips on how to be a generous wife, I really hope you'll go check out her blog and subscribe.

Sheila Gregoire, who writes at www.tolovehonorandvacuum.com, put up a list of her Top Fifty Marriage Quotes for 2011. I was honored to get two mentions in her list:

Marriage is meant to be more about your surrender than about your satisfaction.

From my post, “Concluding Thoughts on Sexual Surrender,“ the wind-up post in my sexual surrender series.

As husbands, I think one reason we have some trouble with Paul’s command to love our wives “as Christ loved the church,” is that we don’t really fully know how Christ loves the church.

From my post “What Kind of Love is This?” my recent post that retells the Christmas story as a love story from heaven's perspective.

Be sure to check out Sheila's blog, which is on my own do-not-miss list. And watch for her new book coming out soon, "Girl's Guide to Great Sex."

I greatly appreciate the recognition by Lori and Sheila. I'm honored to be counted among some terrific blogging company on both of these lists.  I encourage you to go check them all out.