Dare Nine: Greetings Hubby!

Howdy partner!  I am experimenting with my greetings today.  Since yesterday's dare, I have been thinking about how I greet my husband, but also how I greet everyone in my life.  Specifically, the dare challenged me to "think of a specific way you'd like to greet your spouse today.  Do it with a smile and with enthusiasm.  Then determine to change your greeting to reflect your love for them."  What this has all brought to light for me is that I am a terrible greeter!

All throughout the New Testament, there are references about Jesus and the disciples greeting those who they encountered.  If I were writing about James's and my life together, I would never make any big reference to greetings.  My greetings are standard and I generally put no extra effort into them.  If greetings are mentioned as such a frequent and loving activity in the Bible, maybe I need to rethink my attention to greeting my husband.

Matthew 5:46-48 says:

"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

What do I see in this verse?  First, I see a reference to loving others and how I am called to love more than just the people who love me.  Then immediately following, the verse talks about how easy it is to greet those who I already know, but that I should greet people that I do not know as well.  Basically, in following Christ, I need to love even the people who do not love me, and greet people that I don't even know.  If that is the case, how much more then should I be greeting my own husband?  This greeting thing is going to be a bit of work!

When I talk to James on the phone, I need to greet him and not just act like we are picking up where we left off on the last call.  When he comes home, I need to greet him and not just assimilate him into my day.  I should greet him because he is a person, I should greet him because it is respectful, and I should greet him because it is one more way that I can show him how much that I love him.  While I normally do not put much thought into greetings, I think that I have been mistaken.  Greetings matter.

Yesterday while attempting to do this dare, I found that it was not anywhere close to second nature for me.  Giving a greeting takes a certain amount of time, it takes a bit of thought, and I have to work at it since I am not used to being intentional about greetings.  I see that "hi" doesn't always cut it.  While hello is a formality, a greeting is a pouring out of well intentioned love.  Here are a few specific Biblical ideas about greetings:

• Greet by using their name: 
• 3 John 1:14 - "Greet the friends there by name."
• Greet with a kiss:
• 1 Peter 5:14 - "Greet one another with a kiss of love."
• Greet with a note:
• II Thessalonians 3:17 -"write this greeting in my own hand"
• Greet warmly:
• I Corinthians 16:19 - "greet you warmly in the Lord"

Due to this dare, I am going to be more intentional about my greetings.  Instead of issuing words without meaning, I will greet out of love.  The more I think about the words that come out of my mouth, the more I realize that each one matters and needs to be overcome by the love of Christ.