Encouragement day 14

30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge
By Nancy Leigh DeMoss

"The righteous man walks in his integrity . . ." Prov. 20:7a

Every week there are news reports about men who gave in to temptations and compromised what they said they believed. We hear countless reports about dishonest business dealings, hidden infidelity, and hypocritical leaders. It's so easy to focus on these things and ignore those who are being honest, faithful and genuine. As you continue in the "30-Day Encouragement Challenge," determine to look for ways that your husband stands against the culture.

Is your spouse a man of integrity? Is he fair in his dealings with people? Does he understand the meaning of justice? Is he honest in business? Unhypocritical in his faith? Consider all the ways a man can live in integrity, and praise your husband for one of them. As you have the opportunity—as it is appropriate—share examples of your husband's honesty and integrity with others.

Here goes... I know I probably won't do one every day, but it's good to try to keep up at least occasionally. I find it helps me focus in on specific ways to love Jesse and it also pleases him and makes him feel loved to pop over to my blog and stumble across ways I'm praising him publically. Nothing wrong with that!
Jesse stands so firmly against a culture that has gone so wrong. But one of the things I love about him is that he stands equally firmly against isolationist thinking. He is all about delving into the culture, chewing it apart, swallowing the valuable aspects of what he finds and spitting out the "bones" as they may be. For example: he loves movies. He loves to watch previews of what movies are coming out and he loves to watch and evaluate the ones that seem worth while. He is really insightful in watching movies (or listening to music) and picking out the themes, discussing them with me so we start to see things as each other sees them, and seeing the parallels to our faith in the art and creativity of the culture around us.
But he yet stands in opposition to the things wrong with society - our American society for one, but the larger human society as well. He is honest and genuine and never plays games with people, not even me. I have never once in our whole relationship felt that he has attempted to manipulate me to do his will. He lives his faith out quietly, being willing to take leadership where it is needed. His faith, while he at times questions or struggles with doubt about himself and how to obey God, is one of the most pure I've ever seen. He is not boastful or proud, but humble and loving, patient, kind, and gentle. He always gives people the benefit of the doubt, which I find so amazing, since that's so hard for me to do sometimes, and so against the grain of human nature. When I read 1 Corinthians 13, I think of my husband.

I need to tell him all of these things when he comes home from work, I think. :)

As for Sarah's idea of 2 positive things to tell our husbands (I think I have more than 2 to share this afternoon) and 1 thing to do for him to show him respect and appreciation... let's see. I plan on making him dinner, which he always appreciates. Rather than asking him to do the dishes afterward, I think I will do them, since he's been at work all day.

There. Day 14. So what if I missed 9 or 10 days in between? haha