Considering Boastfulness and Weigh Ins

Consider this question with me this week - Am I encouraging (not boastful) to my spouse? Put a different way by Lysa, Do I brag about my accomplishments while downplaying theirs?

Again, more thoughts on this tomorrow.

Now that we are 4 weeks in to this challenge, I wanted to do some weigh ins.

I remember being in high school and watching the wrestlers practically kill themselves a few days before a match - either struggling to lose weight by running through the hallways and every where else dressed in everything in their closets or stuffing themselves with anything even resembling food - just to get to the perfect weight. After watching some of them I'm surprised they were able to wrestle at all and I wonder how many of them, after losing, wondered if it was all worth it at all.

Wrestling was a match by match sport, but the results accumulated into how they were placed when it came to wrestling in sections, districts, regionals and for the really good ones, states. After that it was solely a match status. If you won at that point, you kept going. If you lost, you were out until next season.

Through the last 4 weeks, I have had many opportunities to prepare for the "weigh in" process, but in all honesty, so many - more than not - I have opted out. The first week seemed promising when I didn't tell off the woman at the Wal-Mart check out counter for being rude to my kids and when I took deep breaths to keep from saying something I didn't want to and even when I apologized for losing my patience. The kindness week started the downhill trend. I started focusing on me and what I felt like I was losing out on or giving up more or whatever. Kindness was exemplified by shutting my mouth on occasion and that was about it. I wasn't mean all week long - it's just that when that kindness factor was tested I almost always caved to it. The envy week was not much better. There was one specific day after being incredibly frustrated that I simply HAD to rattle off to my husband how much I had done to serve HIM while simultaneously pointing out how he had not served ME enough. Nice. Sometimes I don't know how my husband does it.

I think this is a worthwhile endeavor - challenging these areas in my marriage and I'm thankful, hopefully, for a week that may not be as challenging for me. I hope to take this week and reflect and focus more on the areas that were hard for me and attempt to do better. Hopefully that will pan out!

If you're participating in the marriage challenge, how is it going for you? A particular week easy or hard for you? Let me know! I'd love to hear what you have to say.