This is one of my favorite pictures from our son's wedding. It shows Michael's bride (Jessica) gazing at him with adoring eyes, awaiting a verbal expression of his love for her and his commitment to her. It reminds me of Proverbs 18:22. "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and he obtains favor from the Lord." I wonder if part of the "favor" God gives to a husband is the privilege of living with a woman who will look at him with adoring eyes – or at the least, has a desire to do so, if only she can see beyond his faults, foibles, and generally disappointing behaviors. So perhaps one of the daily challenges of a godly husband is to give his wife a reason to look at him adoringly.
This fits in with Day 11 of the Love Dare, which asks us to do something for our spouse or with our spouse that would say, "I cherish you." It's surely easier to gaze adoringly at someone who cherishes you, so I worked at this today. I chose to deliver the message verbally, with expressions of encouragement, praise, optimism, etc., though I delivered some of the messages in the middle of hugs, which never hurts.
So, did I get the adoring gaze? Well, it’s hard to gaze adoringly between coughs and an ongoing battle with a runny nose! A doc once said to Karen, “It’s hard to feel spiritual when you’re throwing up!” Karen isn’t that far under the weather, but she’s not feeling the best right now, so I’ll give her a break on the adoring gaze. She did curl up against my shoulder in our small group tonight, and that was reward enough for me. I took it as “favor from the Lord.”
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