For today’s dare, get two sheets of paper. On the first one, spend a few minutes writing out positives things about your spouse. Then do the same with negative things on the second sheet. Place both sheets in a secret place for another day. There is a different purpose and plan for each. At some point during the remainder of the day, pick a positive attribute from the first list and thank your spouse for having this characteristic.
The Love Dare speaks of how if we meditate on the positive attributes of our spouse, our appreciation for them increases. It continues by labeling this appreciation as the “Appreciation Room” in our hearts. My daddy actually made a sign labeling the bedroom as an ”Appreciation Room” while my mom was at work. How cute! I LOVED it!!
Typically relationships begin with each other trying to impress one another. Some even say it was love at first sight or that they got fuzzy feelings when they were around their significant other.
I have to admit…I thought Andrew and I were the abnormal couple. We didn’t start out with the ‘impress’ each other phase (although Andrew did once he started having feelings for his friend). I would go out a lot with him and the guys, then gradually…it was just me and him. Nothing awkward…just fun. In fact, that’s when his heart changed and started to like me. He’d take me out to eat and intentionally ask me questions to get to know me. I on the other hand wasn’t so serious and didn’t get it at first. Even then, I was not dating exclusively . They were just all friends – or so I thought. Andrew would tell me to have a good time and all the while, thinking of me by helping me with job applications/interviews and take me shopping for an interview outfit. He even bought me earrings to pretty me up just for the movies. I however was clueless and ditsy. My friends, though warned me, “I think he likes you”. “Oh, nah! We’re just good friends!” I told them. It wasn’t until later that Andrew worked up enough courage to tell me that he liked me more than just as a friend. I was hesitant at first, but he won me over before several other guys expressed their feelings to me – whew!
Because of his persistence and his love for me…I have grown tremendous appreciation for him. This day, we had to write out positives and negatives and were competing! Our positive list was 3x’s longer than our negative list. Probably because we are once again…newly-weds. We were like elementary kids with our arm over our paper…I had a long list of positives and Andrew would peek over and saw it growing…somehow his grew, too :) My negatives were pretty minor partly because I didn’t include any nit-picking attributes. The negatives were mainly related to communication – men and women obviously do so differently. Imagine living with someone who doesn’t hear well. I get frustrated at myself, but Andrew loves that about me…he sees the humor in it and thinks it’s so cute at times – “egh”.
Rule of thumb…never stop appreciating each other!
If there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. ~Philippians 4:8
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