Changing My Character

So, remember when I told you that God had called me to do this?

Well - he hasn't let me off the hook. And he faithfully provided not one but THREE friends to be my accountability partners.....So, I have a lot of people making sure I make it through this challenge.

Now let me go ahead and just confess. I should be on about day 11.....well, I'm not. I'm on day 2.
I did days 1 and 2 with out TOO awful much trouble and then fell right off the wagon for the rest of the week. I am doing my best to blame it on the business of my life-- and that is true -- I am busy -VERY busy. But, God doesn't want my excuses - he wants my obedience so I'm at it again.

What I am finding though in just days 1 and 2 is that I have big character flaws.
I don't really claim to be an optimist.....but I didn't realize how negative I am a lot of the time. Day One's challenge is to be patient and not say anything negative to my husband and if I can't say something positive then DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL -- as Mama always said.

Well - I'm here to tell ya'll that I'm (apparently) pretty negative and I'm also not very good at keeping my mouth shut. And I KNOW that this is God working on my character. I believe that one way God shows us what he wants us to work on is through the themes in our lives. And can I tell ya'll that not only am I working on keeping my mouth shut in my marriage with this Love Dare but also last week in my bible study -- the WHOLE CHAPTER was on Taming My Tongue!

To say that God is trying to teach me to be quiet is an understatement. This is very difficult for a girl who is known for her ability to talk......I don't mean I'm famous, just that in my family -- I'm known as the one who never stops talking. So much so that when I was younger, my dad would come downstairs to the kitchen where I would (of course) be talking to my Mom, and say "Mindy, can you just be quiet for a while? You've not taken a breath all morning."......

So, I'm getting the drift that God is working on my character in more than a few ways......I've also realized that I cannot do it without him. AND that it is a minute by minute (second by second?!) reliance on HIM. Just this morning I was nursing B at about 5 AM and I was praying and asking God to help me be patient and do "acts of kindness" for my hubs today....that is today's challenge....and then not two hours later, I was complaining at him....and can I tell you that I was complaining about something that was totally inconsequential?!?!

All this changing is hard.....I'm not complaining and being negative of course.....

I'm just saying.