Day 2: Love s Kind; Demonstrating Affection

Love is Kind

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. 

 Why am I bad wife? My kindness is accessed when my husband is kind to me. But is that true kindness? Not according to God. Its simply not enough. If I be born again, and I am a new creature than I cannot do what the typical person does, a person who is their body and their soul alone. They rely on how their body, will and emotions respond to outside sources. They...we allow what people do to determine how we will respond. Well then, how do you change if a fickle person can control how you respond/react? If you depended on people around you to eat "right" in order for you to lose weight, you will never reach your goal. You have to make a resolute decision to do it FOR YOURSELF because NO ONE will care about what you want to do but YOU!



 
I want the mind of Christ, not my own 
Therefore, if I want the mind of Christ, to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only...I can't rely on my husband to inspire my emotions to do for him. Kindness is love in action. Patience is how love reacts in order to minimize a negative circumstance. Kindness is how love acts to MAXIMIZE a positive circumstance. Patience avoids a problem, kindness provides a blessing.

Attitude Adjustment
This is the woman I dreamed of being long ago. It wasn't just the cooking, cleaning part. It was the attitude behind it really. I just didn't know it then. My attitude stinks! it reeks! And many will wonder or ask "what is your husband doing for you" I am my husbands keeper, but I am first about my Father's business. I keep my husband, but I complete the works of my father. There is an emotional detachment with that statement. I know. But when you Christ said "nevertheless, not my will..." he was referring to his soul life, soul thoughts. But Gods will...God is Spirit.

Affection 79/143

Many of the things that hamper our ability to be tender and affectionate with each other come from the various hurts we've endured—from childhood, from others, from earlier days in our marriage. But even if by nature (or experience) you're not the touchy-feely type, you can still let love motivate you to be kind, to be helpful, to overcome any obstacles to affection by knowing what your spouse needs and enjoys from you. As The Love Dare explains, it's about "leading your heart" rather than "following your heart," choosing to delight in your one-and-only.
Some helpful verses for you to look up and seek to emulate:

1 Thessalonians 3:12 – "increase and overflow with love," always growing in your affection

Proverbs 5:18–21 – commit to "take pleasure" in your own spouse, not seeking it from others

Hebrews 13:4 – keep the marriage bed "undefiled" from threats to your trust and intimacy

1 Corinthians 7:3 – consider your affection toward your spouse a "marital responsibility"