Love Dare Day 22

Love is a choice not a feeling. It is an initiated action, not a knee jerk reaction. Choose today to be committed to love even if your spouse has lost most of their interest in receiving it. Say to them today in words similar to these, "I love you. Period. I choose to love you even if you do not love me in return."



Feel free to post your thoughts/experiences on this dare



As Christians, love is the base of our whole identity. Our spiritual birth came about because . When asked to clarify what the greatest commandments of all were, Jesus answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart......and your neighbor as yourself ."

Our love for each other is the root and groun of our existence. It is the quality we are always supossed to be getting better at, and becoming increasingly defined by it.

So if love is what we were created to share, what do you do when your love is rejected? How do you handle it when the one whom you've pledged your life stops accepting the love you're called to give?


God is like this story. At times we have acted shamefully and rejected him, yet he still loves us and remains faithful. Even so, his love does not keep him from calling us to account for our mistreatment of him. We pay more price for our mistreatment of him than we often realize. Yet he still responds with grace and mercy. In him we have the model of what rejected love does, it stays faithful.

Jesus called us to this kind of love in the passage known as the Sermon on the Mount.

From your wedding day, you never dreamed the person you married might later be one to who you would need to love as an act of almost total sacrifice. And yet far too often, in marriage, the relationship does dwindle down to that level. Even to the point of betrayal, or sadly, to unfaithfulness. For many, this is the beginning of the end. Some respond rapidly by moving toward a tragic divorce. Others, more protective of their reputation than their happiness keep the charade going. But they have no intention of liking it, much less of loving each other again.

This is not the model of followers of Christ. It love is to be like his, it must love even when its overtures are returned unwanted. And for love to be like that, it must be his love to begin with.

You can give undeserved love to your spouse, because God gave undeserved love to you-repeatedly, enduringly. Love is often expressed the most, to those who deserve it the least.

Ask him to fill you with the love only he can provide, then purpose to give it to your mate in a way that reflects your gratefulness to God for loving you.