Day 1

Day 1 is to be completed on February 3, 2009
Now these three things remain:
Faith, Hope, and Love
But the Greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

(Taken from The Love Dare)

Love is life's most powerful motivator and has far greater depth and meaning than most people every realize. We are born with a lifelong thirst for love. Our hearts desperately need it like our lungs need oxygen. Love changes motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it.

Your dare will begin with patience.

When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation. You're slow to anger. You choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm.

Patience helps you give your spouse permissions to be human. It understands everyone fails. It gives you the ability to hold on during the tough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressure. Few of us do patience very well, and none of us do it naturally.

This 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.

Day 1 Dare

The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all. If the temptation arises, choose not to say anything.