The Love Dare...

There it sat. On top of the other DVD's. Staring, taunting. The copy of Fireproof that Jennifer and I had borrowed from her parents~months ago~unwatched. I had no interest in viewing it because "I felt I had a good marriage".
Date night came for Jen & me (these are few and far between for us, so to watch a movie is not what I envisioned for this evening). Rhianna was at Nana & Papa's with a cousin or two so we (Jen) thought it would be a good opportunity for us to finally watch this movie.
I reluctantly pulled this DVD out of it's case, popped it in the player, sat down on the couch next to Jen and waited for Kirk Cameron to tell me what a crappy husband I am.
Thinking this movie doesn't apply to me, I half-heartedly watched this selfish, egotistical, porn addicted Firefighter captain (Cameron) whose wife was about to leave him evolve into something beautiful at the hands of a book his father gave him-"The Love Dare".
As time went on I began seeing similarities between this captain and me. The yelling, the selfishness, the "because I am the husband and you are the wife" attitude. I was getting into this movie (as corny as it was) because I started relating to this guy. My marriage wasn't as good as I thought it was. It was a lot like this one.
With the help of this book, he was becoming a different man. His friends could see it. His wife could see it. I could see it.
When the movie finished, I asked Jen if I could purchase this "Love Dare" book. She said her parents had a copy if I was really interested. I was, so in the next day or two we borrowed this book.
A few chapters into it, I realized that I was not the husband God wanted me to be. I was selfish, controlling, and not uplifting. Every day there was a new "dare" that I needed to accomplish, i.e., only saying things that uplift your spouse, doing little things around the house that you normally wouldn't do, spending more time in prayer. I started them with the thoughts of "if Kirk can do these, I can do these". Not yelling? Not pointing out what she's doing wrong? This was hard. Could I really do this? So I prayed..."Father, help me accomplish these dares so I may be the husband you planned Jennifer to have". With God's help and this book, our marriage is now better. It's not perfect, but it's better.