I have regretfully slacked this past week in blogging. I made a decision yesterday to change the way I do things. I've been watching a video today called Inbox Zero, which is based around checking and processing my email twice a day. I'm looking at 11am and 3pm. Hopefully, two hours spent per day can process all my email. I get 300 to 500 emails per day. More than half of it is junk mail. I have trained those around me that I respond to emails immediately, so I've devised a new signature that explains my situation. I'll keep that as my default signature for about a week. Here's hoping I can organize my life and get my most important stuff done every day.
I read the entry for The Love Dare.11 on Wednesday, but never got around to blogging it. Here are my thoughts on it:
It's called "Love Cherishes," and it talks about our value and devotion to our spouse. I like the analogy of the car vs. the broken hand scenerio. We should treat our spouses as an invaluable part of ourselves and care for an nurture it without a second thought.
For example, if Led Zeppelin were to ever reunite for a tour, I would go to extraordinary steps to see a show. It's a given.
The guy that finds out his older car is going to take a lot of money and energy will, in many cases, get rid of that car. The guy that hurts his hand will immediately rush to care for it and rehabilitate it. The Bible talks about us caring for others like we care for our own body. The Apostle Paul gives some great marriage advice in Ephesians 5:28-29: "Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it."
It's a given how we love ourselves. When Jesus told us to love others like we love ourself, He assumed that we know how to love ourselves. I think sometimes we have found weird, funky ways to hate ourselves or not love ourselves and respect ourselves like we should, but surely the human default is to love ourselves. Loving my wife like myself would be an improvement over how much I love her now. It's easy to love someone when things are going good; and sometimes a crisis makes it easy to love when things are going bad; but the day to day grind can easily lead us to a default of laziness and caring-for-number-one mode. I'd like to tweak my mind and allow God to change my heart so that I see my spouse as #1.
When you look at your mate, you're looking at a part of you. So treat her well. Speak highly of him. Nourish and cherish the love of your life.
Today's Dare:
What need does your spouse have that you could meet today? Can you run an errand? Give a back rub or foot massage? Is there housework you could help with? Choose a gesture that says, "I cherish you" and do it with a smile.
It's getting hard with our busy lives to check off the dare duties each day, so I'm finding a surplus or debt of dares that I want to catch up on...
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at March 6, 2009 02:07 PM