Today's 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.My husband hasnt been feeling well lately, so I decided I would go to his house today with my son and help him with some house chores. I ended up cleaning the kitchen, doing the dishes & taking out the garbage before I had to leave for work. I find myself really enjoying doing things for him, even if he tells me there is nothing he needs help with (which is usually the case). He is still pretty distant toward me, but I try not to let it bother me too much. I remind myself it's baby steps. I know he isn't himself right now and he has been in a dark place for along time and the only way to help him out of that is to remind him how much I love him and that God loves him. To not give up on him, because God never gives up on us.
I love how the first paragraph in this chapter talk about how we want so badly for our spouses to change, here it is...
"You cannot change your spouse. As much as you may want to, you cannot play God and reach into their heart and mold them into what you want them to be. But that's what most couples spend a large part of their time trying to do- change their spouse."
We have both been very guilty of this and nothing but frustration has been the result.
Since I started this journey, I have never relied on prayer so much to get me through tough moments and days. I mean REALLY desperately praying and listening for the still, small voice. Now, it's the first thing I do every morning before my feet hit the floor. I pray multiple times a day and think about God more than I ever have. I pray in the car, when I'm at work, and throughout the day thanking My creator for a certain circumstance that just happened. He needs to be constantly on our minds. We need to become Christ obsessed. That's the only way to stay centered and living out our entire day fully in His presence and doing His will, not our own. To be "on fire" for God and stay completely focused on the Holy Spirit working through each of us. It's so difficult. It takes complete surrender and goes against everything we want to do as sinful, selfish people. Like my husband has asked me many times before and it's a good reminder for us all..."am I being emotion lead or spirit lead?" Most of us react to situations being emotion lead. We get angry, we snap back, we get the last word, we send the next rude text back, we yell, we fight, we are sarcastic, we are lead by our emotions.
To be (holy) spirit lead allows us to hold back and think before reacting. To say something kind in response to a negative comment. To do kind acts even when we don't feel like it. To not let our ego and pridefulness take control.
This chapters dare asks to pray for 3 specific areas where you desire for God to work in your spous life and your marriage. Here are my answers:
1. I pray that God can heal his heart and help him love me again to start being vulnerable and not withdrawn from me.
2. That we both can be more affectionate toward each other and welcome each other's love.
3. That we can forgive one another for past hurts and let go of resentments.
http://www.klove.com/blog/post/2010/01/21/Love-Dare-Day-16.aspx
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