I had it all planned out. My friend was able to bring my little guy to her day care, then I was free to make Valentines Day as memorable as possible. Only, the first store was not open for another fifteen minutes, daggone it! Having to wait a few minutes did not deter me at all from my goals, but unfortunately, the Exchange did not have everything I needed. Moving on, I went to Wal-Mart. In general, Wal-Mart tends to have everything a person could need for any holiday, but not on the actual day of the holiday. Wal-Mart was bone dry in regards to Valentines Day. I searched through the dregs and went to a few other departments, but I was still missing a few key items. If all else fails, go back to the store where you first saw the item for sale. Rouses, here I come! I was looking for Valentines Day static cling window decals and Rouses had them with Snoopy characters. James loves Snoopy. Here is my list of attained items from my three store shopping trip: Card, bag of red balloons, Motown love CD, Brach's conversation hearts, static clings, tacky putty, and red window paint. My plan was to decorate James's truck while he worked.
James and I were also meeting for lunch for our Valentines Day date. We went out for Philly subs. Not the standard meal for such a holiday, but the sandwiches were delicious. As we arrived back to his work, he mentioned how he needed to go to the Exchange to try on a new uniform. Well, he could not very well take his truck from the parking lot when I needed to decorate it! I volunteered, "I'll take you to the exchange, honey!" So off we went to the Exchange where I would stand and wait for him to try on uniform sizes for the next 45 minutes. I dropped him off at his building, drove away, and came right back to the parking lot in front of his building. Time to get busy!
First, I hopped in his truck and put the CD in his CD player; I made sure that when he turned on his stereo the song, "Baby, I Need Your Loving", would come on. Then I proceeded to blow up the entire bag of red balloons securing them on the tops of the seatbelts, placing one on the front of his truck under the windshield wiper blade, and the rest all over his seats. I signed the card and left it behind the CD in his center console. The outside of his truck was next. I pulled off static cling after static cling and put them all over the windows of his truck, and then I joined them with conversation hearts attached by the tacky putty. The final touch was completed by writing “I Love You” on the driver's side window. A hint of embarrassment mixed with a whole lot of love, perfect!
Sure he was a little bit self-conscious about having a truck covered in hearts, but he loved it. James said that he even contemplated driving home a different way from work just so more people could see how much his wife loved him. I guess love is embarrassing sometimes, but isn't it great?
Back to the dare, the Seventh Dare challenged me to get two pieces of paper and to write all of the positive things about my spouse on one and all of the negative things about my spouse on the other. From the positive list, I was to thank James for having one of the positive traits. The dare also explained that each list was going to be used in later dares.
My "good list" was sufficient, but as I wrote I realized that I rarely think about his good traits like I used to do. I used to be enamored by his intellect and thrilled with his musical talents on the trumpet, but now, I was used to his positive traits. He had them, and that was that. However, shouldn't I spend more time thinking about how excellent he is? The Bible says in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." This should definitely apply to my thoughts about my spouse. As The Love Dare states, I need to spend my time in the "Good Room" and dwell on the wonderful things about James.
The "bad list" was plentiful. I had no trouble filling the lines with the all the little things that bug me and things at which my husband fails. However, I know that if James made a similar list about me, he would probably have to fill two pages or more to cover every aspect. The list shows that I spend much more time in the "Bad Room" going over all of his shortcomings, when in truth that room does nothing but tear down and destroy.
The more time I spend going over my husband's shortcomings, the more time I am not spending thinking about why I married him. I married my husband because he is my best friend with whom I enjoy spending time. He shares my belief in a God who reached down and sent the greatest Valentines Day gift of all, his son, who died to bring the world life. James is amazing with children and is the best Daddy I have ever known.
When I completed this dare, I wrote out my lists, and I had plenty to praise James about for the day. James is a wonderful person, regardless of his bad points. I didn't marry him because of what he isn’t; I married him because of who he is. In the future, I think I'll be spending more time in the "Good Room", and a lot less time dwelling in the "Bad Room".
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