The Love Dare journey is a process, and the first thing you must resolve to possess is patience. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. But it's a race worth running.
For our first wedding anniversary, we received the book The Love Dare from my parents. I have a confession, I glanced at the book, and then put it on our bookshelf only to collect dust for several months. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the gift, or wasn't interested, it was more that I didn't think Derek and I needed a book on how to love each other. I didn't want to take the time to read this book with my husband and see what it had to say.
You see, we had read another book not too long ago, Sacred Marriage, and had read great reviews on the book. After reading the book we were pretty disappointed with what we had read and didn't feel as if it really helped us see something new or change our relationship at all. In fact, we felt slightly ripped off and wanted our money back.
Where am I going with this? Since we've had a baby, Derek and I have had a difficult time finding time for us, just him and I. Between working, changing diapers, feeding Dax, putting Dax to sleep, playing with him, and getting in sleep to do it all over the next day, we seem to have left ourselves in the dust, and have forgotten that we need to make our marriage a priority as well. Not getting enough sleep, having new responsibilities, and trying to adjust to one of the biggest changes that we have ever gone through can sometimes leave us a little stressed, tense, and crabby - especially with each other. Without wanting to spend a lot of money, but recognizing that we need to do something to spend more time together, a light switch went off in my head - we have a book, and we can read it together!
This is a 40-day challenge, we will read each day together, read the Bible verse(s) that they share, and then after the 2 page reading, there's a dare or challenge that each person has to try and do for the other. Today's dare, "Love is Patient". I'm excited for this new journey, to see where this takes our marriage, and more importantly I'm excited about the time Derek and I will be spending together to strengthen our marriage and fall even more in love with each other.
How fun! I hope you'll update as you go through the book. At the very least you'll have to let us know how the book was and if we should read it too! Parenthood can certainly put a wedge between a married couple. How great that you're making an effort early on! Have you seen Fireproof? I'm not sure if the book was written for the movie, or vice versa but it's a good one.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't watched it yet, that was also part of the anniversary gift that was put on the bookshelf, lol - i literally wiped a thick layer of dust off of the book and the dvd. i think the book was inspired by the movie, i want to watch it, we might find time this weekend.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post, Arwen! I hope that you learn some new and helpful things. I think even without kids, it's easy to become complacent in marriage - it's like you get TOO used to each other and take things for granted... my hubs and I were talking about this just yesterday. Bravo to all of us for grabbing the bull by the horns and addressing these inevitable issues now... so that we are strong life-long!
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