(You can read more details explaining how we are doing the dare here:  The Love Dare with FirefighterWife)

Love Takes Delight

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life.

Ecclesiastes 9:9 HCSB

Excerpt from The Love Dare Book:

“…In your marriage relationship, you won’t always feel like loving.  It is unrealistic for your heart to constantly thrill as the thought of spending every moment with your spouse.  Nobody can maintain a burning desire for togetherness just one feelings alone.  But it’s also difficult to love someone only out of obligation.

A newlywed takes delight in the one they now call their spouse. Their love is fresh and young, and the hopes for a romantic future linger in their hearts.  However, there is something just as powerful as that fresh, new love.  It comes from the decision to delight in your spouse and to love him or her no matter how long you’ve been married.  In other words, love that chooses to love is just as powerful as love that feels like loving.  In many ways, it’s a truer love because it has its eyes wide open.

 Left to ourselves, we’ll always lean toward being disapproving of one another.  She’ll get on your nerves.  He’ll aggravate you. But our days are too short to waste in bickering over pretty things.  Life is too fleeting for that.“

Remember when you first met?  Giddy.  Stomach butterflies.  Couldn’t keep your eyes (or hands) off each other?  I specifically remember saying to my husband that no matter what we’d do everything we could to make that giddiness last.  Ha ha ha!!  Life happens.  Miraculously and without comprehension the love grows stronger.  But what happens to the playful giddiness?

I miss it.

Today I want to remember what it felt like when we held hands driving in the car.  I want to look into his eyes more deeply. I want to forget about the dishes and snuggle on the couch under a blanket.

“ Give me your heart … and let your eyes delight in my ways.  (Proverbs 23:26)”

Today’s Dare

Purposefully neglect an activity you would normally do so you can spend quality time with your spouse.  Do something he or she would love to do or a project they’d really like to work on. Just to be together.

Big question for the fire wives…..do you remember your first few dates?  What were the best parts?