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| Love Dare Days 15-18 |
Day 15 Dare: Choose a way to show honor and respect to your spouse that is above your normal routine. Holding the door, putting clothes away, communication, listening, etc. Show your mate that he or she is highly esteemed in your eyes.
How did you choose to show honor? I tried to show honor in the way I spoke to him. I tend to be quite sarcastic, its my form of humor. So, I tried to lay off a little. I honor him in my actions all the time though. It is hard to come up with extra things to do for dares like this. I could do something like mow the lawn, but I'd just make a fool of myself, and half the time my husband doesn't even mow, his uncle does. I think he knows though that he is highly esteemed in my eyes.
Day 16 Dare: Begin praying today for your spouse's heart. Pray for three specific areas where you desire for God to work in your spouse's life and in your marriage.
Have you experienced the power of prayer in the past? Yes I defiantly have. God has been so faithful to me in so many ways.
What did you choose to pray about? I prayed first of all that God would help my husband to become a spiritual leader in our home. That he would stir in his heart the desire to grow in his relationship with Jesus. I think he has been in the same place for a very long time and I don't see him seeking to grow. He is very knowledgeable about the Bible, and he is very talented and uses his talents in the church, but he uses that as an excuse to not really grow. Second I pray that he will be a great dad. He already is, but we all need a little help. He needs to realize sometimes that spending time with the kids right now is really important, more important then TV, or work, or other things that he sometimes puts in front of them. I pray that he will have a little more patience with Ralphie. I also pray that God will strengthen him in our marriage and just as a person in general. He has some issues with pride and stubbornness that God needs to work on. He feels that he is better and knows more then everyone else, so he really doesn't listen to advise from anyone. I pray that God will humble him and teach him how to listen and learn to people who love him and want to help him. That God would send someone into his life that he would respect enough, or that God would humble him enough to take the advise of those around him now.
Was it easy for you, or did it feel foreign? It was very easy for me. I pray often and very often for him.
Day 17 Dare: Determine to guard your mate's secrets (unless they are dangerous to them or to you) and to pray for them. talk with your spouse and resolve the demonstrate love in spite of these issues. Really listen to them when they share personal thoughts and struggles with you. Make them feel safe.
How much of an effort is it for you to hold back from saying something critical or otherwise? It is easy to not say anything critical usually, but just not saying anything is sometimes difficult. My husband often talks about others critically behind their backs to other mutual friends. It makes me very uncomfortable and I don't like it. I know pretty much everything about my husband. We have talked for hours about every area of his past and I have kept a lot of secrets for him. I love my husband very much, but sometimes its hard. Sometimes I just need to talk to someone about things, but I don't want to tell people the things about my husband that would make them loose respect for him. I think that is a big reason why I started this. I don't know anyone who reads this, but it helps to know that someone, even if its strangers, is reading. I need to pray that God will help me to change my perspective on m husband. I don't trust him, and I don't feel like he is a man of integrity. Those things are very important. I don't want to trust him blindly because I've already been hurt that way.
Day 18 Dare: Prepare a special dinner at home, just for the two of you. The dinner can be as nice as you prefer. Focus on getting to know your spouse better. Perhaps in areas you've rarely talked about. Determine to make it an enjoyable evening for you both.
This dare happened to fall on our anniversary. I cook dinner every night, and we can't really have a dinner just for the two of us when we have 3 kids at home, so we went out to dinner. We've been doing really well lately, but he just seemed to be in a weird mood. We've had some crap going on between him some close friends of ours and I think he is really frustrated about all that. He was kind of distracted and hard to talk to the whole night. I don't know if there is anything I can "learn" about him really at this point. Sometimes I feel like I am responsible to uphold all the conversation. I am fine with sitting and not talking in a lot of situations. My family growing up were just not conversationalists. Milo has told me in the past though that I'm boring, that I have nothing to say....but he will just sit there at dinner playing on his phone or sending emails and never say a word. Again, its one of his double standards in my opinion. But I really do try to do my part and find something to talk about. Last night i just felt awkward though, and it hasn't been like that in a while. It was a nice evening though. We walked around a few stores after dinner and then came home.
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Posted by asheylady on 2009-06-23 12:18:48 | Rating: | Views: 22
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