Double Dog Dare You!

One of my favorite bloggers is Georgie from Decisionally Challenged...she is witty and smart! While reading her blog recently I discovered she had seen the movie Fireproof and the movie story line touched her. I, too had seen the movie...some of the acting is very poor including some cheesy dialogue but it's story about a young marriage and it's near failure. It moved me to tears because I have had some difficult times in my marriage.
I have had to work hard at my marriage and my Hubby even harder...I envy those who seem to easily get along and seem to have it all together...we certainly have never been that couple!
But...we still have a deep and faithful loving commitment to one another and I think that shows even when we struggle. Georgie asked if anyone else wanted to take The Love Dare with her, this is the companion book to the movie that is referenced in the story line. I said "Sure!" I mean, I am 50 and we have been married for over 30 years...surely the hard part is behind me!
Well, the dare is difficult...because if you do it correctly...it will effect all your relationships...because it is changing you and how you think about love! It's a 40 day challenge and I am on it!
I wanted to share one incident that happened to me:
This isn't about my relationship to my Husband but to a restaurant employee...yeah, it effects all relationships! I have been praying that I might be a blessing to others and then coupled with this book/dare...well, I reacted differently than I might have.
I took my daughter, daughter-in-my-heart and my two wonderful grand children out to lunch...we were all lined up in a line at the counter. My daughter had ordered, along with my grandchildren, myself and my daughter-in-my-heart! I was trying to tell the employee that I wanted to pay for ours...this woman wasn't listening! When I finally got her to listen...I could tell she wasn't hearing me! So...the food arrived and my daughter-in-my-heart who was talking to someone in line that she knew from church walked up and said "Well, that's it, right?"
This woman snapped at my daughter-in-my-heart and was dismissive to her! I was annoyed immediately!
The fact was my daughter-in-my-heart was right...that was our order! The young lady had not listened to me when I said there were three of us...she added the young lady's order my daughter-in-law was talking to with ours! Plus...I had already paid for it! I stood there for a moment while this young clerk thought this out!
My first inclination was to point it all out to her...that she hadn't listened to either of us and that I didn't care for the way she had dismissed my daughter-in-law! But...I thought about my dare and so I smiled and said "No...that is okay!" and I asked the young lady if she would join us for lunch and she did! The employee said "I can fix this!" and I smiled and said "No...I would like to do this!" "Thank you and have a good day!" and I smiled and she smiled back!
I was not annoyed any longer...I did not carry any frustration with me!
Because....I wanted to show love that day and I had prayed to be a blessing to others...and God gave me the opportunity!

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:2