Today's Dare
What is one of the greatest needs in your spouse's life right now? Is there a need you could lift from their shoulders today by a daring act of sacrifice on your part? Whether the need is big or small, purpose to do what you can to meet the need.Over the past couple weeks, I have had many needs that haven't been met. The frustration has made me lose focus on Gods work in me and made me have more self-pity and irritability toward my spouse all the while, losing confidence and it takes days for me to get focused on the dare I'm on or the lesson the Lord is trying to teach me. I have verbally told him of the emotionally needs and get upset when they aren't met. So I turn inward and I get selfish.
I don't want to give him what he wants either because my needs aren't being met as well, and the horrible ego and pride-filled cycle happens once more! "I'm not going to give you what you want, because I'm not getting what I want!"....Sound familiar!?
It takes one person to put down the pride sword, say your sorry, try to mend the wounds you caused each other during that fight and SACRIFICE! Sacrifice your pride, ego and your own personal desires for the other and make it right! Why is this soooo hard to do? I think it's because we are all obsessed with me, me, me all the time that we forget about WE, WE, WE!
It's hard for us to help our spouse when we are so focused on our own pain that we forget they need our constant encouragement as well. As I'm writing this and saying this to you, it is also a reminder for myself. I am FAR from a perfect spouse! Most the time, I would never want to be married to myself, so I need to give my husband room to falter and make mistakes. He's far from the perfect spouse either, so I can't expect him to meet my every need. We need to let our spouses know that we care about them, that we hear them and they matter to us!
Like this chapter says, the words "How can I help you?" need to stay fresh on our lips!
Maybe it's just listening to your spouse while they vent about their bad day (they don't always need you to fix it, just listen), maybe do something they want to do on an outing this time and you do what you want next time, or letting them pick the movie, or doing a chore for them that you know they really hate. Just anything to let them know that you care! Love sacrificially! That's a lesson I'm having to re-learn over and over and struggle terribly with some days.
I am so guilty of not doing this enough, and that's very convicting for me.
The lesson I'm learning this week is that the more we help them, the more we are helping ourselves.
"Love isn't about feeling good. It's about doing what you DON'T want to do, over and over again, if it needs to be done, for the sake of someone else. Love is really about self-sacrifice." -Meg Meeker, MD
http://www.klove.com/blog/post/2010/02/02/Love-Dare-Day-28.aspx
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