The Love Dare Challenge: Days 11-15

Here we go...entering the third week of participating in the Love Dare Challenge along with Moogie Mama. Have you missed out on the journey so far? You can catch up here:
- Joining the Challenge
- Days 1-5
- Days 6-10

All caught up? Okay, then I am ready to get started on the next week if you are!

Monday (day 11) - Love cherishes. Wow, you NEED to read this day (click on day 11 and it will take you to the page from the book). What an amazing comparison that puts into perspective how we should choose to view marriage. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to hurt myself yet when I hurt my husband that is exactly what I am doing. Today's dare: What need does your spouse have that you could meet today? My husband is working a 12 hour shift, stopping home long enough to change clothes and then is heading off to a meeting that will last 2 hours. I think that when he gets home he could probably use (and will greatly appreciate!) a warm meal and a chance to relax. Simple but something that sometimes doesn't happen when he isn't here at dinnertime. This really reminds me to look at his day and think about what I would want from him if it was me in his place.

Tuesday (day 12) - Love lets the other win. Today's topic really hits on the fact that often we are so bent on being right or getting things our way that we totally plow over our spouse and cause unnecessary arguments to continue on much longer than needed. I know that I am guilty of standing firm on something just because it is what I want without even stopping for a moment to consider what my husband wants. I love the line from this day that says, "...you are choosing to give strong consideration to their preferences as a way of valuing them." The dare: Demonstrate love by willingly choosing to give in to an area of disagreement between you and your spouse. Now I could not think of anything off the top of my head that was a continued disagreement. I spent a day praying that God would reveal that area to me. I even asked my husband...who also couldn't think of a specific area. So my dare to myself is to be aware of this during future disagreements and to choose to give in.

Wednesday (day 13) - Love fights fair. I strongly recommend that you read this day and get some great ideas on "we" and "me" boundaries to set before arguments break out between you and your spouse. I know that we have established some from that very list - divorce is not even allowed in our vocabulary because it isn't an option for either of us and using it during a disagreement is both hurtful and destructive. Today's dare is to talk with your spouse about establishing healthy rules of engagement. While we have done this before, I definitely think a refresher doesn't hurt. Things are always changing and growing within our relationship and it is good to reevaluate areas that may be in need of tuning up.

Thursday (day 14) - Love takes delight. Today I am supposed to purposefully neglect an activity I would normally do to spend quality time with my spouse. I am actually going to apply this to tomorrow. I would normally go yard-selling (I don't even know if that is a word!) with some of my friends for most of the morning but I am going to skip it to take advantage of my husband's day off. He is working a lot of overtime right now and I know it is important to make the most of the time we do have together. I am also choosing not telling him that I would have liked to have gone because he would feel bad that I was missing it and insist I go. In the past I would have been a martyr as I sacrificed my own desires for his...I am learning that that kind of defeats the purpose! See, I am learning:)

Friday (day 15) - Love is honorable. The challenge is to choose a way to show my husband honor and respect that is above my normal routine. Tomorrow he is working 10 hours of overtime and so I decided to make his lunch for him. I usually try to have leftovers from dinner to make it easy for him to through together a lunch but that doesn't always happen. I know that it would give him one less thing to worry about if I got his lunch together for work so that is something I did for him tonight and he was very grateful.

Want to join us in The Love Dare Challenge? It's not too late, there are still 25 more days to go. Come over and link up at me at Moogie Mama:

 Also linking up over at Heart and Soul Pursuits: