Had to be creative today, given that Karen and I barely crossed paths and neither one of us was home at the same time until after 9 pm, except for a quick supper. So I decided to exercise my Love Dare on Pastor Mark and Jeremy Good, who I was spending the day with in a prayer/planning retreat at Cedar Springs Camp (our district campgrounds). Here's what I did. After praying and talking together for about six hours, I noticed that I interrupt a lot when other people are talking, which seems kind of rude. So I made a commitment to stop! In all our remaining discussions, I would hear each guy out before I jumped in with my own thoughts and opinions, of which I have many on virtually every subject! And that's what I did, though not without several deliberate applications of self control! But then, self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and if I'm going to be a Christ-like lover of people, I need the Spirit to show up in my life. And the Spirit did show up! I waited my turn in the rest of our discussions. That was my Love Dare.
"That's not creative," you might be thinking. Well, would you rather have me write another blog about doing the dishes for Karen again, which I also did today? (I didn't think so.) I saw a flaw in the way I relate to people, and I did something to address it. I applied James 1:19 - "Everyone must be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger." So don't tempt me on the last part of that verse by suggesting that I wasn't being creative!!!
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