Journal ~ A Word from the Lord, Love Dare Book

Hello Sisters!

Well, I've had a really good week, and none of it was to my credit, but only to His credit...things, EVERYTHING, goes so much better when we are spending time with the Father! AMEN!

A few mornings ago I got up late and had only about 20 minutes to spend reading the Word and talking to the Lord. I was disappointed in myself for being lazy and sleeping in when I said, "Lord, I know this lady and that lady and they say they only spend 15 minutes a day with you, why do I have to spend so much time with you?" And He spoke back to me, "BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THEY NEED, THEY ONLY WANT HELP WITH THE NATURAL, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU WANT, YOU WANT THE SUPERNATURAL." wow!!!!!!!!!!!! I just about jumped up and started shouting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes Lord, YES LORD, I said, I don't want the natural, I do want the supernatural, I've tasted and seen that the Lord HE IS GOOD and I don't ever want to go back to mundane, natural living, I want to be always increasing in the things of the Lord!!!!

A neighbor bought me the book "Love Dare" from the movie Fireproof, which by the way I really enjoyed (so did my hubby!) I worked on day 1 today, which is PATIENCE. Love is HELD UP by 2 pillars. One pillar is patience and the other is kindness. Together patience (practicing patience lets us avoid problems) and kindness (kindness causes blessings) ALLOWS LOVE TO WORK. I decided to go through the book with my children every morning because it's not only relevant to the husband/wife relationship, but also the sibling/sibling relationship. This morning we drew and made wood rods. One rod says PATIENCE, the other says KINDNESS, and they are holding up the rod of LOVE. To give you a better visual, LOVE is the curtain rod and PATIENCE and KINDNESS are the curtains on each side. I wasn't planning on doing this or even reading the book, but I'm quite glad I am. :) Throughout our day we see our drawings and the wood statue on the dining room table and we ALL really did exercise patience! :)

Here was our scripture today...

"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but ALWAYS SEEK AFTER THAT WHICH IS GOOD FOR ONE ANOTHER." 1 Thess. 5:15

What came to my mind is how many times I am offended by my hubby, how I can get very touchy. When this happens I feel like, "yea, thanks for blowing me off, o.k. you wanted some tea? Go get it yourself buster!" That's what I FEEL like. But TRUE LOVE is not swayed by feelings, TRUE LOVE is motivated by faith in God's Word. We can overlook our husband's transgression because our Father overlooks ours and I can speak for myself when I say if we are counting transgressions (and by the way we're not) my would be double of my husband's, probably even triple!

When I don't want to be favorable towards my hubby it does help me to not "look" at my hubby, but instead just look unto Jesus and do it for Him. It may not be the RIGHT motive, but it helps me during that moment when I feel like I'm going to explode. And, it works for our benefit anyhow because later on when the house is quiet and hubby snuggles up next to you, we get to reap the benefits. :)

Blessings,
Shannon