DARE - week 9

This week looks to be about not being selfish.  In fact today's devotion was called Love is others-centered.
This was something my husband and I have discussed after a previous devotion.  But we talked about how sin is almost always selfish, but tonight it points out that selfishness is the opposite of love.
It talks of how our culture focuses on our wants and appearance making us put our selves as the number one priority.  Not a good thing in marriage to seek your own happiness.  This is likely why there is a high divorce rate too.

This week's dare:
Buy something for your spouse that says, "I was thinking of you." (Sooo excited!)

DARE - day 55

"Love is proven by action" is the title of this devotion and goes along with this week's dare.

God gave his son to prove his love. The devotion goes on to say that God knows that we have to see love to believe it (even God knows).  So asking our spouse to show us love is not necessarily unreasonable.  Of course that doesn't mean you should expect big things, love for me is the little things like a massage or my husband making dinner.

Update on the Dare:
First off I finally tore up my list as an act of love! (My husband was like, I did that a long time ago, oh well)
This week I tried to do some little things that demonstrated kindness, my big thing was waking up at 4am with my husband to make him breakfast. And today my husband brought home some really pretty flowers!

DARE - week 8

Our devotion is about kindness.

This week's dare being about demonstrating unexpected acts of kindness to our spouse.

Any ideas of things I can do, because my husband said giving him a massage doesn't count, I guess he expects that?

DARE - day 48 & 49

Let me first start off with Church this morning.  It was our second time going to our church.  It's a nice church with lots of young people, like 4 babies were dedicated during the service!  But anyway they talked about anger during the service, and it totally fit into our devotion the past week. (Pretty cool!)
They even used some of the same verses in the Bible from Ephesians 4:26-4:32.

Church went on to talk about forgiving and not carrying our angry from season to season, and letting it build up. That forgiving is not for those who we forgive, but for our own good.
Our past two devotions were about preventing anger and showing kindness. Being careful of what we say and saying even hard things that might carry angry with kind, gentle words. Kindness is Contagious. =)

DARE - day 46

Tonight's devotion was about how selfishness can kill you.  It talked about how people wake up thinking of themselves.
When we read deeper from Luke 9:23-27, it is a passage from Jesus talking about if you are all about yourself you will lose your life, but if you give up your self everyday and follow him then you will live on.
My husband and I talked about it more trying to understand, and I liked one of the things he said.  My husband said usually when people sin it is for selfish reasons, so it makes sense that being selfish would not get you into heaven.

So far I have three things on my list for the Dare this week.  Most of them are old things that made me angry, and I feel I was more disappointed, which is like a form of anger (I guess).  I have been praying that I can let these things go.  I often think of them when I am upset and it makes me more upset.  I may even keep a list of things that I love about my husband and look at that when I start to feel angry.  (Because that is another thing that has been in the devotions this week... to notice when we are getting angry and have a plan to attack it.)

DARE - week 7

Tonight's devotion again talked about taking your time before reacting with anger.  My husband said it seems that is all the book is about, being patient/slow to anger.  He and I are both enjoying the book though!

This week's dare is to write five things our spouse has done that made us angry.  Pray asking God to be patient when you think of it and for help that you no longer hold that anger in.  Then tear up the list as an act of love.
I like this dare, I'm just trying to decide if I share my five things or not.  And no I don't know my things yet, it could take the week.

DARE - day 41

Love seeks Mentors.
Last night's devotion was about finding mentors, like a married couple that can be our support.
Helping us when we have problems, having advice from others that have likely gone through the situation before.  Because not everyone is perfect, nor are their relationships.  They would also be mentors of our christian life too.

We thought of a few people we could use when we need them.  Like our neighbors/my husband friend, or my brother or his brother.  I hope we can start actually hanging out with the neighbors more often, so I feel comfortable enough to talk with his wife so we can in the future discuss things that might be bothering us and work on them.

This week's dare is pretty good, talk about it tomorrow.

DARE - week 6, day 37

This stuck out to me, because I find it is true for many in our world right now.  That people build up their expectations that go unnoticed of their spouse and then slowly treat their spouse differently, holding them accountable for something they don't even know about.  Then they build frustration and expect happiness, still their spouse does not know what he/she wants from them.
Not sure if that makes sense, but the devotion talks about how once you love someone, your own happiness is not as important.

This week's dare is to pray about areas that make you resent/jealous of your spouse, and ask for forgiveness from God and your spouse.

I hope we can continue to do this and talk to each other about our feelings.  I found one area that I will continue to pray about, so as to not put anything more on my husband when I am upset.  He is great at forgiving me! =)

DARE - week 5 part 2

I have been inconsistent obviously. I've been sick, but I need to stop making excuses.

Here are a few things I liked about week 5, then tomorrow I will talk about our new dare.
Week 5 again was about patience but had different things it talked about each day compared to week 4.

Day 30 - I liked how today's devotion started. It stated how the Bible seems just too big to understand, an "impossible challenge."  Which of course I feel like it is. But it encourages us to start reading scripture together, and so far we have not, although we discussed it.
Day 32 - Today talked about how God does have reasons to be angry.  The last sentence in the devotion saying "Righteous anger speaks the truth in love and has the goal of restoration rather than destruction."  I feel if I become angry, I must remember my love before I decide to act upon it.  Of course easier said than done, but hopefully the next time I can remember and eventually it may come to mind each time I am angry.
Day 33 - This relates how your anger can come from pride.  Anger sets off what has been building and hiding, and because of pride you act like you are superior, which turns to more anger when you realize it is not the case.  That's not exactly what the passage said, but I feel it just doesn't want you to be defense and prideful when you are angry.
Day 34 - I felt this devotion was directed some what at me.  Today's devotion was about being a wise person compared to a fool.  A fool will take a comment that they feel was directed at them in a negative way, and turn it on the person.  I feel this happens often in most relationships.  People can not take criticism be it constructive or not, and when they hear it they feel they have to counter it.  I know I do this at times, and I told my husband that, he said he has caught himself in that situation too.  But we will work on it, and hopefully we can catch it before we do it. =)

DARE - week 5

Last week was super busy getting ready for our housewarming party. And all week our devotion talked about patience, and I think I did rather well having patience and getting things done with my husband. I am proud of the both of us, b/c even when I remember slipping up and being negative, we were quick to apologize. I love him and words do slip up, sorry sweetie.

This week we apparently are talking about patience again, now I have to try and think of a specific area to show patience to my husband. So far neither of us have an idea. But that's our Dare of the week.