Love Is Patient, Day 1

Challenge: 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.

Journal: Did anything happen today to cause anger toward your husband? (What about your kids?) Where you tempted to think disapproving thoughts and to let them come out in words?

Today is Day 1, Love is patient. Oh boy...here we go! Patience is not one of my strongest virtues, it is something I know, and have known it is an area I need to really work on. Patience with my husband does not seem to be that much of a challenge for me, but patience with the girls ,and with life, well that is the real challenge.

The book states, "Love will inspire you to become a patient person.". Hmmmm...I never thought about it that way, that patience and love go hand in hand. I mean my mind can grasp the concept, but have I really led my own heart to make the connection, to inspire patience within me? I mean, I know it is the right thing to do, I have been taught this from the Bible, but it never really sunk in, and it is much easier said than done!

As I write this I realize what I said is not true. I do have issues with patience with Mike at times. (An epiphany perhaps...where's that little light bulb that's supposed to be above my head?) God speaking to my heart once again. I vowed when I took on this dare that I would be real. I would face things head on and acknowledge the truth about myself. Honestly, I have a tendency to try to seek the positive in everything and I sometimes neglect to realize the reality of things as they are versus how I want them to be.

Ok, so back to Mike. Let me rephrase what I stated above, most of the time patience is not an issue for me in regards to him. Now, from his perspective about me, well that's probably a whole different story, so we'll not ask!

My morning for Day 1 started off with a bang...Mike has been asked to help out with some of the setup for VBS at Harvest and that was fine. This morning he told me that the setup time is now following church. This didn't sit well with me and I as far as the dare goes I was successful in not "saying" anything negative to him, but my attitude was all wrong. Actions speak louder than words, right? The Lord reminded me again just how selfish I am and when he gets home from work, I know that I need to ask his forgiveness for being so selfish.

As far as how I did with the girls on the dare, well considering they weren't with most of the day I did great. My parents met me at the library and dropped them off at lunch time, afterwards we ran some errands and they've been playing great together all afternoon. Praise God! But I wasn't perfect, I did react in anger a time or two when they were getting on each others nerves (not taking into consideration how tired they are), and therefore getting on my nerves. The Lord is really working on me with my short fuse and I know that as I yield to Him that He will allow me to improve in this area.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what is in store and I am going to keep on working on Dare #1 until I get it right. (It could be a while!)