Day 9 Dare:  Greet your spouse with a smile and enthusiasm.  Reflect your love for them in a greeting.  How do you greet your partner each day? 
Day 10 Dare:  Do something out of the ordinary that proves that your love is based on your choice.  Wash the car, clean the kitchen, buy/make dessert, or fold laundry.  Demonstrate your love out of sheer joy and being their partner.

Learning to demonstrate patience, kindness, and encouragement is not always an easy task when we are bombarded with outside influences.  Upon entering the door from a long day we may want to just let out everything out that has built up through out the day.  Our partners are typically the ones that get the brunt of all the energy that has built up throughout the day. 

The book, The Love Dare, tells us that you can tell a lot about the state of a couple by the way they greet each other, how they speak to each other, and the physical contact between them.  In the Bible, apostle Paul took time to encourage his readers to greet one another. He also asked the Romans to greet seventy-seven of his friends and loved ones while also listing them by name.  Jesus noted how the Pagans greeted others kindly and being godly includes being humble enough to acknowledge your enemies with kindness.  How do you greet others that you know?  How do you greet others in public?

Your energy speaks clearly through your voice, body language, and actions.  When someone greets you in a kindly manner you feel valued and important.  How your greet society sets the tone for the next actions.  Are they positive and healthy? Or are they negative and unhealthy?  Love sets the sails into the wind.  What kind of love energy are you sending into the world?  Choose love and your choices will be clear and concise unto the world.

Why do you love your wife or husband?  What would you say if someone asked you this question?  Can you remember what you would have said years ago?  How has your response changed over the years?  If the reason you love your partner is because of their qualities that have diminished over the years then your basis for love is over.  The only way you can love your partner is through unconditional love.  "Love can only be determined by the one choosing to love." 

The book, The Love Dare, goes into more detail about how the Bible refers to love by using the Greek word, agape.  There are two types of love; phileo (friendship), and eros (sexual love).  Both are important in a marriage but if one is built and rests on the foundation of one type of love then the relationship is unstable.  "If a man says to his wife, I have fallen out of love with you, he is actually saying, I never loved you unconditionally to begin with."   When you allow God to grow his love within you then love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. (I Corinthians 13:7)  Say I love you period instead of saying I love you because.......

David and I had a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant on day 7 and 8.  He wanted to take me to a sports bar but I asked if we could go to another place that was more romantic.  We had a great time even if we had to run through the torrential rain.  We spent most of our weekend getting the files organized for both of our business's.   I realized how different we are in our way of thinking.  During a session of teaching him how to do some things in Quickbooks, he got frustrated with me because he didn't understand how I was explaining a task to him while I was getting frustrated because I was repeating myself about how to accomplish what he was trying to do.  In the end we had a great laugh as I acted out how he needed each thing departmentalized and broken down into little boxes, which explains his high metal energy.  I can visualize something, look at the end result, and build upon the departments as I go along, which explains my high fire and wood energy aspects.  David needs hard facts about something while I jump in head first and worry about the facts later.  You can see where we have differences of opinions on occasions however we always mesh well together through it all.  We are each others yin and yang.

Kandi Phillips
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www.LiveYourIntention.com
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