Loving My Husband Intentionally: Love Dare Day 24

Day 23: Love Always Protects

Today I must remove anything that is hindering my relationship with Craig. This could include any addiction or influence that is stealing my affections and turning my heart away from my husband.

1 Corinthians 13:7

It (Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day but I got so much done and ended my day being on a wonderful conference call with my Girlfriends Coffee Hour ladies! DO you know about www.girlfriendscoffeehour.com ? This is an incredible women’s ministry specifically about honoring marriage and being the best wives we can possibly be, for God to get all the glory!

Timothy and Vicky are leaving this morning to drive with my parents to Pennsylvania for my cousin Jenn’s wedding on Friday. Craig and I leave tomorrow morning by plane and our oldest son James drives home Friday from college and will be here until June 22nd. Craig leaves Peoria this morning and will be back here tonight.

Woosh!

So, I have been busy getting my family ready for all this and working, coaching, etc. 😀 I am very happy to say that I was able to carve out an hour or so yesterday afternoon to pray and meditate on yesterday’s dare and the parasites the Kendrick Brothers mention that seek to destroy marriages.

These include:

Harmful Influences….. am I allowing certain habits to poison my home? Internet, television, or busy work schedules?

I would say that this is one area I have been working really hard on not letting poison my time with Craig or the kids. It is so hard because I can do my job anywhere and at different times of day, so I have to be careful to have up firm boundaries so as not to infringe on my time with my family. I don’t watch much television at all, so that really isn’t an issue for me. Both shows that I watch are over for the season.

Internet….. yes, I’m working harder than ever on this one! Turning off getting Facebook notifications to my phone has made a HUGE difference! I have put boundaries in place around the time I am spending on social media, blogging and email. I still have some work to do in this area, but I feel that both Craig and I are headed in the right direction here.

Unhealthy relationships….. Not everyone has the material to be a good “friend. “Anyone who undermines my relationships with spouse does not deserve to be given the title of “friend.”

I don’t see this as an issue for me. I’m not in touch with any bad relationships from my past. All of my friends are amazing and do what they can to help me in my marriage. Even my Monday night Bible Study friends who come to my home do what they need to do to be out of my house on time to respect my time with my family.

I have also put up boundaries around friendships in only answering phone calls, emails and txts during certain times of the day. My friends know that if it is an emergency, they need to txt me and let me know that or I will wait until it is convenient in my day to get back to them. This has helped me balance ministry and friendships so much better! Sometimes when I make new friends they have a hard time understanding this boundary, but once  I explain it to them, they usually put that boundary in place for themself as well! HAHA!

Shame…. I need to be protecting Craig’s vulnerability by never speaking negatively about him in public. Love hides the faults of others… it covers their shame.

I don’t think I have ever done this. I DID have a typo in my blog post yesterday where I said that I didn’t like Craig for a season, but that wasn’t true and I fixed it. I am so happy he pointed it out to me! I felt horrible because that wasn;t what I meant to type! 😦 I meant to say that I didn’t like the way he treated me during that season. I must remember to proof my posts better!!! I also have been very careful to ask him before I share anything personal on here so as not to cause him shame.

Parasites….. They are usually in the form of addictions…. they promise pleasure but grow like a disease and consume more and more of your thoughts, time and money. They steal away your loyalty and heart from the those you love.

The only addiction I can think of that I have had is food and THANK GOD it is a stronghold that I was finally able to break! I also have gone through seasons where I had a bit of a shopping addiction, but that stemmed from my food addiction! I was a mess, right? I felt so horrible about how I was eating that I would buy myself pretty things to try to fill the empty place that food was trying to fill. WOW!!!! Thank God I got through that and am VICTORIOUS!!!!

Read Craig’s thoughts here: www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Love are Day 24: Love vs. Lust

End it now. Identify every object of lust in your life and remove it. Single out every lie you’ve swallowed in pursuing forbidden pleasure and reject it. Lust cannot be allowed to live in a back bedroom. It must be killed and destroyed TODAY- and replaced with the sure promises of God and a heart filled with his perfect love.

1 John 2:17 

The World is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

 This has certainly been a struggle for me at times in the past…. but I’m not so sure I struggle with it now. I will really need to seek the Lord today to show me any areas of lust that I might be overlooking.

I mean, I do have a crush on Peter Furler…. many of you know this…. but it really is just a silly, funny crush. I don’t fantasize about him or anything like that. I just love his music and think he is an amazing performer… and he’s easy on the eyes! Craig has never shared with me that it makes him uncomfortable. Of course, if it does make him uncomfortable, I will certainly not even joke about it anymore. I also have silly crushes on Robert Downey Jr and the entire cast of Grimm! 😀

But this certainly isn’t lust. None of it takes away from my relationship with Craig as far as I can see and I don’t “want” these people. Is this making any sense? I guess I will need to talk this over with Craig today to make sure that none of my silly crushes are seen in his eyes as lust.

The Kendrick Brothers also mention that “we can also lust after possessions or power or prideful ambition. We see what others have and want it. Our hearts are deceived into saying, “I could be happy if I only had this.” Then we make the decision to go after it.”

I know that both Craig and I have struggled with this in the past. In fact, it got us into serious financial trouble when the money stopped coming in like it once was. It is hard because we both really like nice things. We work hard, so it is also easy for us to justify getting them!

Recently I have been majorly purging our home in preparation for a huge yard sale. It has felt so good to go through every nook and cranny to weed out all the things we really don’t need and hopefully others will be blessed by these treasures. I have needed to buy new clothes lately because I have lost enough weight now that my old clothes just don;t fit. I am intentionally being very careful not to over buy clothes, knowing that I will be in another new size soon enough!

God is our ONLY perfect portion. He is that only thing that can fill that hole in our heart that we so desperately try to fill with other things like food, sex, alcohol, shopping, drugs, internet, etc. What lusts are God laying on your heart to remove?

Dear Lord, Thank you for being my perfect portion! You never leave my feeling horrible like everything else has that I have tried to fill Your rightful place with. I am so grateful for the way you love me and complete me, Lord, and I pray that you will show me any and all things that are keeping me from my fullest relationship with Craig. I don’t want any distractions or temptations to keep me from loving him and You with all I am! Give me the wisdom and discernment today to see how I can be my best in this area and replace any of these lies with Your TRUE promises! Thank you Lord! In your Son’s name I pray, amen.