"The Love Dare," Day 2: "Love is Kind"

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As you know, I’ve taken “The Love Dare,” the challenge to ask God to make my heart one with the capacity to unconditionally love His people and to position myself to be receptive to the changes He is willing to make in my life.  Day #1: “Love is Patient,” went swimmingly.  Day #2: “Love is Kind,” was a disaster, an abject failure, just all sorts of wrong.

The dare was simple: complete an unexpected act of kindness for your spouse (or, in my case, any ole body). I walked past homeless people on the street asking for money, cause I always give them money, and that’s not “unexpected,” — retrospect: I TOTALLY missed the point of the dare, but, what can you do? I was discouraged that I hadn’t yet done my act of kindness, but I was also encouraged that I was still being patient with the tourists on the metro who want to stand on the left side of the escalator and hold up the line, or the happy family walking 6-abreast on the tight sidewalk.  Things were looking up, I thought.

And then I realized why I had gone through the patience challenge so easily — I had avoided my most nerve-racking triggers on Day #1, because my most nerve-racking triggers aren’t strangers.  On Day #2, that was rectified, and handled poorly.  I lost my patience within about 3 minutes, and lashed out at the person for jumping to conclusions about what it was that I was trying to say, and basically said nothing that was kind to the person.

What was great was the fact that because of the Love Dare, I immediately tried to check myself. I apologized for losing my patience and tried to explain myself: “I’m reading this book and the instructions are to give people more patience than they deserve, so — ” I was immediately cut off. “No! No! Don’t give me ANNNNNYTTHING!!! I DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING, ACCORDING TO YOU!”

Sigh. What can you do with that?

So, in any case, I did no act of kindness for anyone, and I lost my patience on Day #2.  So unfortunate! But, there was a bright spot in the day.

I had formerly given up reading gossip blogs because of their incessantly negative tone.  When one is trying to practice patience and kindness, why fix my mind on negative things? But, Necole Bitchie, a gossip blogger I follow on Twitter, tweeted something that just made me want to look at her site, NecoleBitchie.com.  Why not? I’d already failed at patience and kindness for the day…

But I was so pleasantly surprised.  It was literally just a site of news:

So-and-so was here for so-and-so’s birthday, so-and-so wore this outfit, do you like it? So-and-so released this new song and it sounds great!

I was looking at the same exact pictures and heard the same exact song, saw a HOST of things worth commenting on, but Ms. Bitchie refrained from personal comment, for the most part, unless it was truly something positive.  I was intrigued!

And I told her about it:

@necolebitchie i gave up gossip blogs awhile ago so i hadnt read ur site much. read PAGES 2day. ur so positive! thats y ur so blessed! about 15 hours ago via web in reply to necolebitchie

She responded:

necolebitchie @dcdistrictdiva it took me a while to realize it but i have been blessed triple fold by treating people the way i would like to be treated.

So, fine, I hadn’t completed my act of kindness for the day. But, I was truly encouraged try again tomorrow.  I cannot do this without the Holy Spirit changing my heart, and I am so grateful that He’s inspired me to continue to ask Him to do that. So, I’m repeating Day #2.  This Dare will clearly take me more than 40 days.  Here are the scriptures on kindness that I tweeted and will continue to meditate upon as I take Remedial Kindness and Patience:  (read from the bottom up)

  1. Take the Love Dare with me! Day #2: Do something unexpectedly kind for some1. “Love is Kind” http://www.dcdistrictdiva.com 8:21 AM Sep 22nd via web

  2. Col 3:12 Since God chose u 2 b the holy people he loves, u must clothe urselves w tenderhearted mercy kindness humility gentleness&patience. 8:20 AM Sep 22nd via web

  3. This is what the Lord says: Judge fairly&show mercy&kindness 2 one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. Zec 7 8:19 AM Sep 22nd via web

  4. Proverbs 31:26 When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. 8:18 AM Sep 22nd via web

  5. Rom 2:4 Don’t u c how wonderfully kind&patient God is w u? Does this mean nothing 2u? Can’t u c that its intended to turn u 4rm ur sin? 8:17 AM Sep 22nd via web

  6. Psalm 145:17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. 8:15 AM Sep 22nd via web

  7. Gal 5:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this in our lives: love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness&self-control. 8:15 AM Sep 22nd via web

  8. Therefore, as God’s chosen people holy&dearly loved, clothe yourselves w compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness&patience (Col 3:12, 13) 8:13 AM Sep 22nd via web

  9. Here are some scriptures I’m meditating on this morning involving kindness: 8:13 AM Sep 22nd via web

  10. Good Morning, tweeps!! On to Love Dare Day #2! “Love is Kind” 8:12 AM Sep 22nd via web

  11. Follow my “Love Dare” tweets on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/dcdistrictdiva 11:20 PM Sep 21st via Facebook

Day #2, Take 2: “Love is Kind”

Become a fan of “The Dithering of a District Diva” on Facebook and Follow my “Love Dare” tweets on Twitter!

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