I participated in Melinda’s Tweet Me Tuesday and as fate would have it, I found Stacy’s blog. She linked up to her post on the Love Dare, and how she took the dare up about a year ago, and is now in the process of doing it all over again.

Like Stacy, I first heard of the Love Dare through the movie Fireproof. My Man and I watched it together, and at the time I remember thinking to myself how awfully hard it must be to go through with that dare.

And today, after reading Stacy’s post, I am challenged to do just that.

Mind you, my marriage isn’t in shambles, and this is not a desperate attempt on my part to save it. But I’m the first to admit that there are a lot of areas in my character that need improvement. I’d rather not wait for the day when my marriage will need saving, and instead work on those areas in my nature that need fine-tuning now. Thinking on it further, I know I can use this dare to improve my parenting skills too – which is good, considering the following:

– Today of all days, my Little Miss decides to resist ALL her naptimes;

– As a result, she is crankier than she has ever been

– And has been crying and screaming when she doesn’t get her way (i.e. when I try to make her stop pitching her toys over the side of the crib, or I won’t let her pound away on my keyboard or play monkey bars with my bra strap)

The book’s introduction says that the process takes courage. “It is a challenging and often difficult process, but an incredibly fulfilling one. To take this dare requires a resolute mind and a steadfast determination.” The warning alone is daunting, to say the least. BUT, I have resolved and made a commitment to take up this Love Dare. For the next 40 days, I will be taking on the book’s challenges – I’m thinking some of them may be easier than others and may require me to dwell on them for more than just 1 day. However, I will try taking it one day at a time. Today’s lesson and dare is (cue drum roll):

LOVE IS PATIENT.

Admittedly, patience is something that I don’t have much of these days I have been praying to God to teach me, and failing to learn for the most part. Hence, I get lessons, over and over and over again. I imagine it’s something that everyone has to truly work on, so it comes as no surprise that this is the first dare the book tackles.

Some key points in the dare are:

– No one likes to be around an impatient person. (Ouch.)

– It is a choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you.

– Patience doesn’t rush to judgment but listens to what the other person is saying. (Sigh. Ouch again. I confess I tend to be snarky.)

– It understands that everyone fails.

The book dares me to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to My Man, AT ALL. I was determined to do just that, no matter how hard it may get. And guess what. There was nothing he did today that warranted any kind of negativity from me which leads me to think he’s one step ahead of me on this dare!

I’m fairly certain though, that there will still be days when God will test me in this and I hope, with His guidance, to learn to be more patient.

Like Stacy, I dare you to take on this 40-day challenge with me.

This post is linked to Simply Complicated… That’s Just Me… who started this journey a couple of days before I did and inspired Stacy’s post.