~Equallyoked~

For the last 2 decades of my life, I have contemplated the meaning of 2 Corinthians 6:14, and have discovered in my latter years how far-reaching this passage is concerning Christ-centered love. There are so many ways to be unequally yoked, as the Word of God clearly outlines , often times resulting in more discord with a fellow believer than would be expected. Did you know that you can be “unequally yoked” with a another Christian? 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 runs deeper than the obvious not pairing your heart with an unbeliever in Christ; a Christian couple can have subtle differences that may seem on the surface as a hairline crack that in time reveals a hidden canyon underneath! Issues in temperaments, financial perspectives, education, communication styles, and parenting (to name a few) can truly wreck the foundation of a Christian relationship or courtship.

However, the most paramount of all is being unequally yoked in where each follower’s relationship stands with Christ. What do I mean by this? Suffice it to say, each believer’s journey with Christ is unique and is what makes Jesus such a personal Savior who can meet us where we’re at and develop/strengthen our relationship with him accordingly. Nonetheless, there are certain foundational elements in our beliefs in who God-Jesus-Holy Spirit is and His Word that should unify all Christians (1 Corinthians 12:12). If the building blocks of faith, salvation, and worship of Our Creator is in discord, how can a couple/friendship/business partnership/family fortify each other’s growth in The Lord ? What are the things that can’t be compromised on, and what can be?

It’s already challenging enough to nourish kinships of love in this world without the difficulty of also finding compatibility with another believer on topics we should be at peace with. However, I thank Our Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) for exemplifying love and elements of companionship in His relationship with us. With His Word as an infallible guide, we can endeavor to understand and appreciate the dynamics of our own courtships & relationships. As a result, we can furnish our hope in materializing an earthly companionship centered in Christ and satisfying in everlasting love.

http://equallyoked.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/equallyokedhome/

5 Things a Husband can do to have a Happy Wife and a Happy Life

Here we are again, taking a look at relationships. In my previous blog entry on marriage which is ti

http://ourfathershouse.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/5-things-a-husband-can-do-to-have-a-happy-wife-and-a-happy-life/

Post Videos from Your iPhone or iPad

Would you like to post videos to your blog while you’re on the go? Are you interested in a photography theme that’s also video-friendly? Well, look no further, because we have some news for you.

The VideoPress upgrade, which allows you to upload and embed your own videos on your blog, now comfortably handles videos from iPhones and iPads. You can shoot vertically or horizontally, and we’ll take care of rotating it for you so that your video looks great when it’s published on your site.

If you don’t already have VideoPress on your WordPress.com account, head on over to VideoPress.com, we’ll get you up and running in no time. And don’t forget to install the free WordPress App on your iPhone or iPad!

Duotone: Now Video-Friendly

If you’re a photoblogger, you’re probably familiar with the cool Duotone theme, which changes color to match the first image in every post and page. The big news is that Duotone now seamlessly supports VideoPress videos, so now you can engage visitors with photographs and videos!

Learn More about VideoPress

If you use VideoPress on your self-hosted WordPress site, keep an eye on the VideoPress Blog – we have some exciting annoucements coming out soon, just for you!

You can find more details about VideoPress by checking out the following resources:

• VideoPress.com
• WordPress Support: VideoPress

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/videopress-duotone/

New Themes: Currents and Debut

Today, I’m excited to introduce the latest additions to our collection of premium themes.

Designed by Andy Rutledge, Currents, is a responsive, minimal yet attractive premium theme from WooThemes.

Currents is perfect for news driven sites. The phrase, “less is more” couldn’t be more true. This clean and minimal design maximises your reader’s focus on the content. Having said that, the theme is packed with many customization options — a wide featured post slider, custom news areas, six alternative color styles, and more. Together, all of these features help you to control how to present current events you want to share with your readers.

Think your readers might check your site on a mobile device? No problem! Currents makes your site look great on an iPad, iPhone or any other mobile device.

This is not all about this great theme, Currents — so be sure to read about it on the Theme Showcase.

Next up is Debut – a beautifully designed theme by Luke McDonald of Press75.

Debut is a mobile-ready theme custom tailored to present your content in a professional and eye-catching manner. Five beautifully designed post formats provide you the flexibility needed to display media of all types. Musicians may be specially interested in the audio post format which expands into a multi-track playlist. Highlighting specific content couldn’t be easier with Debut’s Home page template which includes an innovative, customizable content slider as well as a featured area that can display in both grid and list styles.

Read about its features in detail in the Theme Showcase!

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/new-themes-currents-and-debut/

Import from Tumblr in 3 Easy Steps

We’ve recently noticed that a fair number of you have been bringing your tumblelogs over from Tumblr to WordPress.com using one of the variety of Tumblr to WXR conversion tools which exist on the web. We thought you would appreciate an easier way to import your content, so we bring you 3 easy steps to import your content.

Authenticate with Tumblr

To bring your tumblelog’s content to WordPress.com, head to Tools → Import in your WordPress.com dashboard and look for the Tumblr importer. If you don’t already have an account here on WordPress.com then head over and sign up first.

Click the link to get started and then enter the email address you used to sign up to Tumblr, your Tumblr password and click Connect to Tumblr.

Start the Import

The importer will then fetch a list of your blogs and let you pick which one to import. Click Import this blog to get going.

Once you have started, the import progress will be shown on the import page and you will be sent an email when the import is finished. We try super hard to make sure that all your Tumblr content, including your Videos, are imported into your WordPress.com blog. Videos you had uploaded to Tumblr are imported into VideoPress and other embeds are converted to use shortcodes. Sometimes the importer finds an embed it can’t convert and a list of these is included in the import completion email for you to check.

If your Tumblr site has a custom domain (like you.com instead of you.tumblr.com), then you’ll need to disable the custom domain temporarily while the import is processed. You can do this by going to your Tumblr Dashboard, clicking on the Settings button and then un-ticking the “Use a Custom Domain” checkbox:

Then you’ll want to set up Domain Mapping on your WordPress.com blog so that your readers can use the same domain to reach your site as before.

Style Your New Site

WordPress.com supports Post Formats which allow you to distinguish between the different types of content you post on your site. While you wait for your content to be imported why not customize the design of your site by picking one of our post-format-enabled, Tumblelog-ready themes.

If you have any trouble importing your blog  you’re welcome to contact support where one of our Happiness Engineers will be glad to help out. To learn all about WordPress.com’s features, we encourage you to check out our handy tutorial. We also provide comprehensive feature documentation at our support site.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/import-from-tumblr-in-3-easy-steps/

Chrome Users: Try the WordPress.com Extension

Want to receive WordPress.com notifications instantly, even when you’re not on WordPress.com?

Add the new WordPress.com extension for Chrome and as soon as you get a new follower or a new like on one of your posts, a notification will appear in your browser:

Simply click the icon to view your latest WordPress.com notifications:

Start following new blogs without visiting WordPress.com

The Chrome extension also makes it easy to follow sites from your WordPress.com account by displaying a Follow button whenever you’re browsing a site that has an RSS feed.

Clicking the Follow button will add new posts from the website to your reader, and send you an email each time an update is published. (You can change your default email settings if you like.)

When you visit a WordPress.com site, you’ll notice that the extension icon will turn blue, but keep in mind that you can follow blogs on Blogger, Tumblr, and other services, too.

Quickly post cool stuff you find while browsing the web

Press This is a lightning-fast way to publish content on your blog without ever visiting WordPress.com. Click the WordPress.com extension, then select Press This whenever you find something on the web that you’d like to share on your blog, and a pop-up editor will appear:

Select the blog you’d like to post to, then hit publish to share a link to the site. Your blog will be updated, and you can continue browsing the web from wherever you left off.

If you’d like to publish an excerpt of text along with the link to the site, simply highlight the material with your cursor before clicking Press This:

And it will appear in the editor for you to publish along with the link:

We hope this makes it easier for you to share cool stuff on your blog quickly! If there’s anything you’d like to see in future versions of the extension, be sure to let us know.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/chrome-extension/

Your Stats Have a New Home

Are you addicted to checking your site stats? You are not alone. The stats dashboard has always been one of the most popular admin screens. It’s gratifying to know that people are visiting your place online.

With the WordPress.com front page evolving into a one-stop shop for posting, exploring, following and reading blogs, it seemed natural to put your blog stats there, too.  Stats are becoming more and more about interacting with your readers and other bloggers.

You’ll still see your summary stats and chart on your main dashboard, and the full stats page in your dashboard will remain for a while, but the My Stats tab on the WordPress.com front page will soon become the home for the most comprehensive view of your stats.  Stats will also continue to be available by clicking on the sparkline in the admin bar at the top.

While adding the My Stats tab to the front page, we also gave it an updated look by making the panels regularly spaced, using rounded gravatars for your commenters, and giving it an overall lighter feel:

We’ll be adding even more features to your stats and the WordPress.com front page soon.  We’re working on adding country stats of your visitors, which many of you have requested.

If you’d like to attract more visitors to your site, check out these great resources on boosting your blog readership:

• Learn WordPress.com: Get Famous
• WordPress.com Support: Getting More Traffic

(Note to Jetpack users: Your stats will still be available in your wp-admin dashboard. However, you may still enjoy viewing your stats on WordPress.com.)

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/your-stats-have-a-new-home/

Reblogging is Back!

As we mentioned last week, you can like and reblog posts directly from your reader, which displays a stream of all the updates published on all the blogs you follow from your WordPress.com account.

We’ve also brought the reblog button back to the toolbar that appears at the top of the screen when you’re logged into WordPress.com. Note that you’ll only see the like and reblog options while you’re looking at individual posts.

For example, you’ll see this on the left side of your toolbar while viewing http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/read-blogs:

And your toolbar will look like this while you’re browsing the home page of en.blog.wordpress.com:

How does reblogging work?

Reblogging is a quick way to share posts published by other WordPress.com users on your own blog. People have been reblogging others’ posts since blogging started, but our new reblogging system enables authors to retain greater control over their content.

When a post is reblogged, it shows up with a link back to the blog it came from, the first image in the post, an excerpt of the post’s introduction (if it contains text), and thumbnails of any other images that the post contains. It also shows any comments left by the person who reblogged the post:

Reblogs published on blogs you follow will also appear in your reader:

What happens when my posts get reblogged?

An excerpt of your post will be published on the reblogger’s site (with a link back to your original post), and you’ll receive a reblog notification in the post comments (you might need to approve it first):

You’ll also receive an email notification of the reblog.

Do I get credit when someone else reblogs one of my posts?

Absolutely! All reblogs contain a link back to your original post, so the more people reblog your posts, the more likely it is that you’ll attract new visitors (and perhaps new followers, too!).

What happens if I reblog a reblog?

If, for example, Stephane reblogs a WordPress.com announcement on his site and Lori reblogs Stephane’s reblog, Lori only re-publishes any comments Stephane made about the announcement. If Lori wants to share the original announcement, she should reblog the post from en.blog.wordpress.com, not from Stephane’s reblog. But if Stephane leaves a really clever comment, Lori might want to share it by reblogging his reblog on her site.

Can I edit a post I’ve reblogged?

You can go back and edit the comments you left when you reblogged a post, but you cannot edit any parts of the original post excerpt (including the post title). If you like, you can add categories or tags to the post. Reblogs show up under Posts → All Posts in your dashboard, and they can be edited the same way you edit your own posts.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/reblogging-is-back/

Happy Hour

It’s the end of another week, and what a great week it’s been. We are happy to share with you that Debi’s “project” she’s been working on is a book based on the life of her Grandmother. This has been a dream of hers for over 20 years. It has been a work in progress for the past decade. Finally, we’ve signed the book deal, and it will be published early next year. We will be sure to let you know when it’s available for purchase.

Now for our “Specials of the Week!”

A Grown Up Marriage

• Change – How well do you embrace change? We’re not talking change outside of your marriage, but the kind that requires you to actually CHANGE? Great post!

Encourage Your Spouse

• Reflections Good or Bad? – An excellent metaphor about the picture our words reflect about our spouse. What reflection do your words create?

Happy Wives Club

• Peer Pressure…The Good Kind – This is a guest post by Lori Byerly of The Generous Wife blog. We love how the marriage blog community supports each other.  See Lori’s blog below for a guest post by Fawn of the Happy Wives Club.

Journey To Surrender

• My Wife’s First Post - In August we had the privilege of sitting down with Scott and Jenni for dinner. We listened as Jenni shared story after story of how Scott romances his bride. All we could say was, “Wow!” And, “You have to share these stories with your readers!” This is her first post (and we hope it isn’t her last) sharing her husband’s gift for romantic ideas.
• A Marriage Full of Grace – Part three of a three part series on Glory and Grace in marriage. Good stuff! If you have a hint of shame in your marriage then please, take time to read this – it may change your life and marriage forever!

Marriage Gems

• The Longer We’re Married, The Better It Gets - a great post. Please read my comment at the end too. You’ll see my recent thoughts on this idea.
• First Kiss To Lasting Bliss Interview – Lori has a book coming out on December 8th – in perfect time for Christmas gift giving. Check out this interview to hear all about it.
• 10 Ways To Get More Adventure Into Your Marriage – feeling bored lately? Then, check out this excellent list for new ideas. They may stretch you a bit, but who doesn’t need to be stretched from time to time.

Marriage Life

• Live For Today – Great advice if you’re tempted with regret.

Marriage Missions International

• Nitpicking – If you read the title and had the thought, “I don’t want to read that!” Then, may we encourage you this is all the more reason why you may need to. An excellent and convicting post!

One Flesh Marriage

• License To Complain – Excellent post by Kate on how we justify this sin in our lives and our marriage.
• Hen-Pecking Party – Brad’s turn. If you read the first post please take the time to hear his response.

The Generous Husband

• Do Something, Do ANYTHING! – Sage advice for those in a troubled place in their marriage.

The Generous Wife

• Twinkle In The Holidays – We love how Lori offers quick and simple ideas to help make your marriage better.
• Happiness Is A Choice – by guest blogger, Fawn with The Happy Wives Club. Do you choose happiness each day?

http://theromanticvineyard.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/happy-hour-26/

Bishop Eddie Long Divorce Buzz: A Few Personal Thoughts…

In light of the recent news concerning Bishop Eddie Long & his wife divorcing/not divorcing, I’ve observed and participated in a few discussions on the matter. I have a few things I’d like to offer my opinion on concerning this publicly displayed private family matter: Read more

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