Challenge #13

I hope everyone was able to provide their spouse with their favorite meal or dessert yesterday evening. Whether you bought it or made it yourself, just the fact that you thought of them shows that you care and love them.

Be honest, has it become easier to complete these daily challenges? I sure hope so! If we can demonstrate our love for our spouses in some special way each day, we can't help but feel a certain sense of accomplishment. Whether they notice it or not, we know our goal and we should feel great when we accomplish it daily!

 So speaking of goals! We know what our main goal here is: a better marriage as a result of demonstrating love through selflessness to our spouses. But one extremely important goal we should have and certainly accomplish is to know our spouse. I heard someone put it something like this: When we're dating, we want to know all about our mate - their likes and dislikes, what they love, what they hate, etc. When we get married, we feel like we have attained our goal: we have "graduated" from the school of knowledge of our spouse - not realizing that we have only obtained a high school diploma and should be seeking higher education! Maybe I didn't hear someone put it quite that way, but I'm putting it that way now lol!

After we get married, we should seek a college degree in knowledge of our spouse. Truthfully, we should always be continuing education, so plan on graduate school, a doctorate, and constant refresher courses throughout your life to keep your skills honed and up to date. People grow and change constantly and especially over long periods of time. If you've been married a few years, your spouse is likely not the person you married. They have grown and changed in some way. You should be constantly getting to know them! Otherwise, you will wake up one day realizing that you don't in fact know them - you have grown apart and you have to start getting to know them all over again! Don't let that happen - stay in tune with who your spouse is and what's important to them. Be just as interested in knowing their likes and dislikes as you were when you two were dating, no doubt some of these have changed since then!

So finally today's challenge: Does your spouse have a short-term or long-term goal that you can help them take a step toward accomplishing today? Encourage them and support them in - and if you can, help them get closer to accomplishing it! If your spouse doesn't have any goals that you know of, ask them about their goals or future plans. Use this as an opportunity to learn about your spouse and to grow closer together.

A friend of mine posted this reminder yesterday: "Love is something you do for someone else, not something you do for yourself." from the Five Love Languages. If we can remember that, we'll be alright!!!