LOVE IS ... THOUGHTFUL

I (Barnie) started the year in January by renewing and strengthening my relationship with my LORD.  This second month of February, being the love month, I have embarked on a journey of renewing and strengthening my most important relationship here on earth by going through "THE LOVE DARE". Remember THE LOVE DARE from the movie FIREPROOF?

The Love Dare is a forty day journey that endeavors to define what love is. Love is more than just some gushy feelings, it is active. Why I like it is that it is action oriented and has daily challenges that make you move from just a good intention to action. Like yesterday I was on the fourth day of this journey, and the topic was "Love is thoughtful" When you first fell in love, being thoughtful came quite naturally. But after a few years in marriage, we get distracted with other things, take our spouse for granted and think only on those things that we think are important. No wonder we men especially can even forget her birthday or our anniversary. We rarely include this person in our thoughts and thus don't do certain things to them that would have kept our love going.

Lack of thoughtfulness also makes us speak harshly to our spouse when we become angry and frustrated. But the thoughtful nature of love teaches you to engage your mind before engaging your mouth. How often have I spoken and said things to Grace that I later regretted. Things that really hurt her. I didn't engage my mind before engaging my mouth. Love thinks before speaking, so next time you are upset with something or even with him/her, think before you speak. Make it your goal this year to always think before you speak especially to your spouse when you are upset.

So my challenge to us is this, "When is the last time you spent a few minutes thinking about how could better understand and demonstrate love to your spouse? What ONE thing are you going to do today to better understand and demonstrate love to your spouse? Think about that and then do it. See how that will affect your relationship and try and make it your habit this year of constantly thinking about how you could better understand and demonstrate your love to your BAE.