Love Dare Update and Day Four

The Love Dare - Day Three Update

Okay as crazy as this might seem...this was the hardest one yet for me. I know...this is only the third one...but still. I can totally remember something my husband has said he wants or something he really needs any old time of the year...but give me one specific week and expect me to think of something...I can't do it. I thought and thought and looked and looked and came up with nothing. Luckily my husband unknowingly helped me out Monday night. He was looking online at treestands (apparently he NEEDS another one because 5,000 of them isn't enough...) and he found one on Ebay that he said was cheap. Well $55 to sit in a tree doesn't seem cheap to me but I really can't talk since I recently spent $50 on oils for my face. Speaking of I will be updating y'all on that tomorrow! Anyway, I convinced him that he really doesn't need it and we could really use the money for something else right now. So Tuesday when I got to work I bought it for him. :) I'm pretty excited about it. It helped me realize that although we could use the $55 on something else...it would probably end up being for me. LOL If I'm ever going to get out of this selfish state I have found myself in, I'm going to have to start doing things like this more often.

Okay I'm ready to hear what y'all ended up buying!!!

Day Four - Love is thoughtful.

"How precious also are Your thoughts to me...How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand." - Psalm 139:17-18

Love thinks. It's not a mindless feeling that rides on waves of emotion and falls asleep mentally. It keeps busy in thought, knowing that loving thoughts precede loving actions.

When you first fell in love, being thoughtful came quite naturally. You spent hours dreaming of what your loved one looked like, wondering what he or she was doing, rehearsing impressive things to say, then enjoying sweet memories of the time you spent together.

But for most couples, things begin to change after marriage. The wife finally has her man, the husband has his trophy. Sparks of romance burn into grey embers, and the motivation for thoughtfulness cools. You drift into focusing on your job, your friends, your problems, your personal desires, yourself. After a while, you unintentionally begin to ignore the needs of your mate.

If you don't learn to be thoughtful, you end up regretting missed opportunities to demonstrate love. Thoughtlessness is a silent enemy to a loving relationship.

Love requires thoughtfulness - on both sides - the kind that builds bridges through the constructive combination of patience, kindness, and selflessness. Love teaches you how to meet in the middle, to respect and appreciate how your spouse uniquely thinks.

A husband should listen to his wife and learn to be considerate of her unspoken messages. A wife should learn to communicate truthfully and not say one thing while meaning another. The thoughtful nature of love teaches you to engage your mind before engaging your lips. Love thinks before speaking.

When was the last time you spent a few minutes thinking about how you could better understand and demonstrate love to your spouse? What immediate need can you meet? What's the next event(anniversary, birthday, holiday) you could be preparing for? Great marriages come from great thinking.

Today's Dare

Contact your spouse sometime during the business of the day. Have no agenda other than asking how he or she is doing and if there is anything you could do for them.

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After completing this dare, please answer the following questions in your own notebook but also please share with us your answers too!!

What did you learn about yourself or your spouse by doing this today? How could this become a more natural, routine, and genuinely helpful part of your lifestyle?

-Taken from The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick with Lawrence Kimbrough