Okay…here we go. Hope you are all ready to get started. Here is the first dare:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
—Ephesians 4:2 NIV
TODAY’S DARE
The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all. If the temptation arises, choose not to say anything. It’s better to hold your tongue than to say something you’ll regret.
Awesome – Thanks Bobanthony. I will practice this today.
I’m off to a good start so far….although I just got out of bed so it’s probably too early to start patting myself on the back.
It was easy today since most of the time I was at church………I will try to do this on a regular basis…………Psalm 15:1 “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevous words stir up anger…..Ecc 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few……Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
How did everyone do today? I think I did well…but I’m sure Bethany will reply to this comment if she disagrees. I did catch myself quite a few times today about to make a funny, sarcastic comment but I realized that what I might think was funny could be taken as a “negative” remark.
I also noticed that I have a tendency to be passive-aggressive if I have something negative to say. I skirt around the issue and imply something negative without saying it. I don’t think I did that today but I caught myself several times about to head down that path. I think we all can get in the habit of being negative to or around our spouses and not notice just how negative we really are about certain things.
Anyway, pretty good first day…looking forward to tomorrow. BoB
Yes, it was a good day for patience. The Sabbath is always a wonderful day. It seems that when one is truly receiving and enjoying the gift of the Lord’s rest on the Sabbath that it is so much easier to practice patience. That is, unless we rush through the Sabbath, and don’t receive His rest. Thanks for getting us started today in the “Love Dare”. I am looking forward to growing in love as we go through each day.
Blessings!!! Kathleen
I didn’t see valerie much that day in the morning, but it seemed everything that happened to me was negative. My wife and I have very open communication and I can’t remember the last time I said anything negative to my wife about my wife. So when I did see her later in the day and she asked me how things were I was at a lost. I tried to flip it around and say things like, “I’d really like to hear about your day”. She sees right through me and I eventually say, “I’m really trying to stay positive today and not say anything negative.” To which she interprets as me no longer wanting to keep open communication like we’ve had for the last 13 years. She starts to feel neglected and wonders what could have made me so upset that I won’t tell her about it. I eventually break and tell her about all the negative things that happened to me that day and she responds with, “That’s no big deal, why didn’t you want to share that.” When I go back and read the post I figure out that it had everything to do with not being negative at your wife; not just about being negative.
…not a good first day really, and quite the backfire.