Take the Love Dare

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)

Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything. Proverbs 13:3

In the movie Fireproof, the Dad challenges his son (Kirk Cameron) to take the Love Dare, to help repair his marriage. The first day of the Love Dare is refusing to say anything negative to your spouse. No matter what they say or do, you will not say anything rude, offensive, sarcastic or argumentative back to them. Kirk Cameron’s character has a hard time with this first day.

Thinking back over your life, aren’t there words you wish you could shove back into your mouth and swallow. But’s that not possible, is it? Wouldn’t it be great if you carefully guarded your spoken words and didn’t need to undo all the mess your negative words caused.

Even in Jesus’ worst moments, He did not respond with negativity. Look at His verbal interchange with Judas on the night of his betrayal:

“As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

‘What you are about to do, so quickly,’ Jesus told him…” John 13: 27 (NIV)

Imagine what we would have said in Jesus’ place: ‘I see your dirty, blackheart’ or ‘Peter, James and John, Judas is the traitor. Deal with him.’ Or in a sarcastic tone, ‘I can’t believe you think betraying Me is a good thing.’

Personally, there are moments when one of my family members, has come to me excited about sharing with me something from their life with me. How did I respond? I regret to say I tossed cold water on their enthusiasm with my negative words. They immediately retreat and silence themselves. Why? Because it is no longer a safe place to share hopes, dreams and excitement. How I wish I could have guarded my tongue better.

How about you? Who are you negative with? Does your biting wit or sarcasm shut down conversations? Or do your angry words escalate the argument?

Will you take the Love Dare this week? Take the challenge. Make the decision.

Dear Jesus, Too long I have not used my words in a loving way. This week help me to take the Love Dare and change how I respond to those around me. Amen.

G is for Graduation

Faith crosses the stage at North Greenville College on May, 2008.

Faith with her sisters, Hope and Charity.

Faith with her maternal grandmother and her paternal grandparents.

F is for Family

These are pictures from Easter 2008. At some holidays, we gather at my Mom's house in Cleveland County. You will notice that all of these pictures were taken outside. Though my Mom has a large house, we are much too noisy for the inside. So, as much as we can, we play outside.

The youngest grandchild in my family is Madison. She is all girl but can hold her own with her brothers. She is dramatic like my oldest and youngest.

This is Winston. He is the middle child of my youngest brother, Richie. He is the one we tease about girls and also love on, if he gives us a chance.

This strapping young man is Doyle. He and Winston are the best of friends and love to play together. Doyle loves, loves, loves football. When he was small, he would play football by himself all afternoon.


In this picture are my niece, Laura and my Hope. Hope probables hates this picture because she no longer has her braces. When Hope was younger, she could not have a birthday party without her cousins, Laura and Ashley.


This is Laura's sister, Ashley and Ashley's friend. Ashley is one year older than my Hope and Laura, her sister, is one year younger than Hope. Hope always had cousins to play with at all the holidays.

This is my other brother, Richie, whose full name is Richard Dan. He has 3 children: Austin, Winston and Madison. He works at Smurftstone in Shelby.



This is my sister, Karen, who works at Home Health is Shelby and she has 2 children, Chris, who is one year younger than my Charity and Jenny, who is one year older than my Faith. This is other brother, Butch (his real name is Conan Doyle, III), who works with the city of Shelby and has three children: Ashley, Laura and Doyle. (Can you guess where that name came from?)