Dare Eight: His Biggest Fan

The dare that I had for Valentine's Day was about jealousy.  The dare was to "determine to become your spouse's biggest fan and to reject any thoughts of jealousy.  To help you set your heart on your spouse and focus on their achievements, take yesterday's list of negative attributes and discreetly burn it.  Then share with your spouse how glad you are about a success he or she recently enjoyed."  Besides getting a headache from burning the list, this dare went fine.  I do rejoice in James's success.

In fact, the idea of being jealous about his success had not crossed my mind until the dare proposed it.  I could see where I could be sad that I did not get to move to Nashville to follow my career dreams, but I made the choice to marry James and I knew that he was planning to be a career Navy man.  No surprises there.

James is wonderful at his job.  I really respect his success, and I respect how he handles situations in his job.  While I know this does not make this dare seem like a challenge, I do not think every dare will be a challenge.  Hopefully in some ways, I do love my husband well.

Still, I am sure I could think of more ways to be his biggest fan.  Instead of wincing when he begins a new project, I could tell him how much I believe in him.  Instead of cringing when he starts pulling out bowls and pans in the kitchen, I could tell him how much I appreciate that he cooks. 

Think about the fans of rock bands or of some of those teen boy bands, shouldn't I be as big of a fan of my husband as some of these fans are about their stars?  I'm not saying I'm going to be taking my bra off and flinging it at him while he is at work . . . like some of the crazy fans . . . but I need to be excited about having him as a part of my life.  The opposite of jealousy is appreciation, and I need to be appreciating each moment that I get to be a part of James's life.