"Love is Patient"

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Ephesians 4:2 NIV

 

Yesterday I took away from my book that love is built on two things: patience and kindness. Love should inspire me to be a more patient person, and to be slow to anger. Patience should stop our problems in their tracks rather than getting angry and causing more problems.
My book posed a couple questions that did make me stop and think. "If your spouse offends you, do you quickly retaliate, or do you stay under control? Do you find that anger is your emotional default when treated unfairly? If so, you are spreading poison rather than medicine."
"Patience helps you give your spouse permission to be human. It understands that everyone fails. When a mistake is made, it chooses to give them more time than they deserve to correct it. It gives you the ability to hold on during the tough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressure."

"See that no one repays another with evil for evil,

but always seek after that which is good for one another."

1 Thessalonians 5:15

That, my friends, brings me to yesterday's dare. "The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and say nothing negative to your spouse at all. If the temptation arises, chose to say nothing. It's better to hold your tounge than to say something you will regret."

"Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger."

James 1:19



Needless to say this dare wasn't easy. If Andrew was doing the dare too and had to keep his mouth shut when he wanted to be mean this would be simpler. However, since I am the only one taking this exact endeavour, it's going to be tough. It was hard for me not to retaliate at him when he would say things. I do feel like I've done better with it than I thought. Toughest time for me was when I asked him to help clean up the house for our pre move inspection and he said he would while I was at work, I came home to him having not touched anything but played his video game all night. I was upset with him for that, he told me he would, he didn't have a hard day yesterday he could've ran the vacuum or the dishwasher. But rather than spout off about it, I said well we have until the fourth, I'd love it if you could please help.

Anyway, I'm still trying to decide when the best time to post these is. Either early the next morning or at like 11 p.m. my time...either way keep checking back.