Love at Home

In Sacrament Meeting at church today we sang "Love at Home."

The words are: "There is beauty all around when there's love at home! There is joy in every sound when there's love at home! Sweeter sings the brooklet by, brighter beams the azure sky! Oh, there's One who smiles on high when there's love at home!"

I have been thinking a lot lately about love at home, because there is even more love than ever in ours! Jed and I are having an ongoing "contest" -- the goal is for each person to not let too much time pass where the other person was the last one to do something nice for them! We're not actually keeping track, and we're not even telling each other the nice things we're doing--and it's been awesome for me in so many ways! The obvious benefit is that Jed has been doing lots of nice things for me! :) The internal benefits have been fabulous as well: I am on the lookout for things that would make Jed smile, and because we're not telling each other, I don't expect to be acknowledged for it (which is a nice change :) -- in fact, I don't even have time to spend thinking about how grateful he should be or how I hope he'll word his thank you (not that I used to do that stuff... ;) because I'm too busy thinking of the next nice thing to do! And not only am I on the lookout for nice things to do for him, I am on the lookout for the nice things he's doing for me! I don't even know if he's doing more nice things for me or if I'm just finally noticing all the little things he's always done but I've previously been way to self-absorbed to notice! Either way, it rocks! I have felt extremely connected to Jed since we've started doing this, and it's really made him my active priority! It has sweetened every moment we spend together and made me notice again the ridiculous amount of things there are to adore about my hubby! (It has also increased my level of sappiness, which I must admit I am sincerely enjoying! Ha! :) And I am amazed at how little things that would normally lead to disagreements have just dissolved as quickly as they were brought up... it seems like there just isn't room for anything negative because there's so much good!

So, back to Love at Home... I have tried to create more love in my home since the get-go, but I've been going about it all wrong until now. I have been trying to get rid of the bad when what I needed to do was to get really intense about embracing the good!

This quote by Ezra Taft Benson, a former president of the Church, has long been my favorite, but it now has new meaning and application for me:

"When we put the Lord first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims on our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue and the order of our priorities."

The Lord said that the second great commandment is to "love thy neighbor as thyself." I believe Jed and I are following Jesus Christ by loving each other in such an active way! I have personally experienced the negative things dropping out of my life and my priorities naturally lining up because of my focus on embracing the goodness in loving my husband!

Focusing on getting rid of the bad is sometimes necessary, but in general, focusing on grabbing hold of every single good thing out there, especially the ones pertaining to loving people, is the best way to crowd out the bad. There's just no room for it anymore!