Love Lesson #1: Love is Patient

(Remember, I picked LOVE to be my 2011 word) I've had a hard time with this lesson lately. I'm not a patient person, but lately I've been unfairly unpatient with Mike. He's had a lot of health problems and trips to the emergency room over the past month. Wanting him to be better quickly, I would jump on the bandwagon with any pills or treatment that any of the myriad of doctors he's seen suggested. Even when he told me he truly felt like a certain set of pills would do him more harm than help. I pushed him to at least purchase the pills, in case he would change his mind. I was tired of the countless visits to the ER and postponed plans. I just wanted my husband back, and I wanted him back now.
After much prayer, on both of our parts, and more ER visits, Mike and I have come to the conclusion that the prescribed medication was not what he needed and that there was a deeper cause to his symptoms.

Slowly, I've been learning to be more patient, with God and with my husband. Somedays it takes a lot not to snap at him or get moody over something that he can't control. But I think it is no coincidence that my Bible study planned lined up to have me reading about Job's wife around the time this started. I've constantly had a reminder in my head that comes out everytime I get the urge to be mean or snotty to my husband when I'm stressed or even sometimes inconvenienced by his health issues. It whispers to me that I don't want to be negative like Job's wife.

It reminds me that I want to be supportive, helpful, loving and patient. That the things going on are not my husbands fault and that his suffering is even greater than mine.

As for a health update, he has an appointment with the GI to check out some things. Other than that I can't say much because he has expressed a wish that I not blog in detail about his health.

2011 Word

Leanne at From Chaos Comes Happiness has challenged her readers to select a word to focus on during 2011. Being the word lover I am I decided to give this challenge a go.

2011 is a new year full of new opportunites, possiblities, and challenges. What word should I pick to help me embrace the new year? I started by making a list of words that I thought I might like to focus on. At the top of the list were:

Create

Love

Appreciate

Learn

Simplify

All of the words I think would benefit me this year but I  think that since 2011 brings with it the first year of marriage, I choose Love.

I want to focus on loving my husband and on nurturing our relationship. I want to remember to  love even when times are busy, finances are tight and we are frustrated.

I want to focus on  loving myself. This means exercising, eating healthy,  learning to do my makeup and making time for my friends and hobbies.

I want to focus on my  love of learning and creating. I want to love learning to cook, love taking the 365 photo challenge, love decorating our new home and making our wedding scrapbook