The Love Dare 365 days
Stephen and Alex Kendrick
Stephen and Alex Kendrick
THE LOVE DARE
Day 1
God uses marriage to help us eliminate loneliness, multiply our effectiveness, establish families, raise children, enjoy life, and bless us with relational intimacy. But beyond this, marriage also shows us our need to grow and deal with our own issues and self-centeredness through the help of a lifelong partner.
Day 2
The world says to follow your heart, but if you are not leading it, then someone or something else is. The Bible says that "the heart is more deceitful than all else" (Jeremiah 17:9), and it will always pursue that which feels right at the moment.
Day 3
Love is a decision and not just a feeling. It is selfless, sacrificial, and transformational.
Day 4
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13
LOVE is PATIENT
Day 5
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. - Ephesians 4:2 NIV
Day 6
It's simply inevitable that two people living in such close proximity will irritate each other a bit, maybe a lot. So unless love is laced with patience rather than based on performance, the love inside your marriage will only be as consistent as your spouse is.
Day 7
We are born with a lifelong thirst for love. Our hearts desperately need it like our lungs need oxygen. Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it.
Day 8
Love is built on two pillars that best define what it is. Those pillars are patience and kindness. All other characteristics of love are extensions of these two attributes.
Day 9
Love will inspire you to become a patient person. When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation.
Day 10
Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm.
Day 11
Anger is usually caused when the strong desire for something is mixed with disappointment or grief. You don't get what you want and you start heating up inside. It is often an emotional reaction that flows out of our own selfishness, foolishness, or evil motives.
Day 12
Patience makes us wise. Patience stands in the doorway where anger is clawing to burst in, but waits to see the whole picture before passing judgment.
Day 13
The Bible says, "He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly" (Proverbs 14:29).
Day 14
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. - Proverbs 15:18
Day 15
Patience helps you give your spouse permission to be human.
Day 16
What would the tone and volume of your home be like if you tried this biblical approach: "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).
Day 17
Love is Not Rude: Good manners express to your wife or husband, "I value you enough to exercise some self-control around you. I want to be a person who's a pleasure to be with."
Day 18
Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. - James 1:19
LOVE is KIND
Day 19
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. - Ephesians 4:32
Day 20
Patience avoids a problem; kindness creates a blessing. Kindness is love in action.
Day 21
Love is responsible - Can your spouse say that you have wronged or wounded them in any way and never made it right? Part of taking responsibility is admitting when you've failed and asking for forgiveness. God wants there to be no unresolved issues between the two of you.
Day 22
Love makes you kind. And kindness makes you likeable. When you're kind, people want to be around you. They see you as being good to them and good for them.
Day 23
Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. - Proverbs 3:3-4
Day 24
When you're operating from kindness, you're careful how you treat your spouse, never being unnecessarily harsh. You're sensitive. Tender.
Day 25
Being kind means you meet the needs of the moment. If it's housework, you get busy. A listening ear? You give it.
Day 26
Kindness inspires you to be agreeable. A kind husband ends thousands of potential arguments by his willingness to listen first rather than demand his way.
Day 27
The kind husband or wife will be the one who greets first, smiles first, serves first, and forgives first. They don't require the other to get his or her act together before showing love.
Day 28
The Bible describes a woman whose husband and children bless and praise her. Among her noble attributes are these: "She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue" (Proverbs 31:26). How about you? How would your husband or wife describe you on the kindness meter?
Day 29
Love in its truest sense is not based on feelings. Rather, love determines to show thoughtful actions even when there seems to be no reward. You will never learn to love until you learn to demonstrate kindness.
Day 30
What is desirable in a man is his kindness. - Proverbs 19:22
LOVE is NOT SELFISH
Day 31
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor. - Romans 12:10
Day 32
If there were ever a word that basically means the opposite of love, it is selfishness.
Day 33
Love "does not seek its own" (1 Corinthians 13:5). Loving couples - the ones who are enjoying the full purpose of marriage - are bent on taking good care of the other flawed human they get to share life with.
Day 34
Choosing to love your mate will cause you to say "no" to what you want so you can say "yes" to what they need. That's putting the happiness of your partner above your own.
Day 35
When you relinquish your rights for the sake of your mate, you get a chance to lose yourself to the greater purpose of marriage.
Day 36
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. - Philippians 2:3
LOVE is THOUGHTFUL
Day 37
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
Day 38
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.
Day 39
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.
Day 40
It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. - Genesis 2:18
Day 41
A woman deeply longs for her husband to be thoughtful. It is a key to helping her feel loved.
Day 42
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.
Day 43
The thoughtful nature of love teaches you to engage your mind before engaging your lips. Love thinks before speaking. It filters words through a grid of truth and kindness.
Day 44
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.
LOVE is NOT RUDE
Day 45
Love is not Rude: To be rude is to act unbecoming, embarrassing, or irritating. In marriage, this could be a foul mouth, poor table manners, or a habit of making sarcastic quips. However you look at it, no one enjoys being around a rude person.
Day 46
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him. - Proverbs 27:14
Day 47
Be as considerate to your spouse as you are to strangers and coworkers.
Day 48
When a man is driven by love, he intentionally behaves in a way that's more pleasant for his wife to be around. If she desires to love him, she purposefully avoids things that frustrate him or cause him discomfort.
Day 49
Genuine love minds its manners. Embracing this one concept could add some fresh air to your marriage.
Day 50
When you allow love to change your behavior - even in the smallest of ways - you restore an atmosphere of honor to your relationship. People who practice good etiquette tend to raise the respect level of the environment around them.
Day 51
"It is well with the man who is gracious" (Psalm 112:5). A man of discretion will find out what is appropriate, then adjust his behavior accordingly.
Day 52
Do you wish your spouse would quit doing the things that bother you? Then it's time to stop doing the things that bother them. Will you be thoughtful and loving enough to discover and avoid the behavior that causes life to be unpleasant for your mate? Will you dare to be delightful?
Day 53
Treat your mate the same way you want to be treated. 'Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6:31).
Day 54
The words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious. - Ecclesiastes 10:12
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