This one hurt...

I hopped in my car to head to the gym this morning and noticed that my gas gauge said I was nearing empty. I was immediately frustrated. You see my husband drove that car home last night and now here I was at 4:30 in the morning trying to figure out how I was going to have time to stop for gas. Grumble, grumble, maybe class will get out a few minutes early today...

But today was one of those classes that not only didn't get out early but ran a few minutes late. I jump in my car hoping that my low gas burning Prius will get me home and send a quick text to Erik, I'm trying to practice love so it reads some thing like: "So if I can make if home without running out of gas can you plan to leave early enough so you can fill up the tank on your way to work? In the future when you are driving home late at night and the gas level is low please fill it up, I don't have time in the mornings!" Five seconds go by and my empty light starts flashing. I'm furious. Like want to scream all kinds of make you blush kind of names mad as I get off the freeway to get gas.

As I'm fuming away in my car I think, "Love is slow to anger." I could tell you all the thoughts I was having in that moment, all the reasons my anger was justified, all the excuses I wanted to use to not be honest. In that moment I didn't want to practice love I wanted to be mad. I wanted to be mad because this wasn't the first time we had had this conversation. "Love keeps no record of wrongs." Ouch, that one hurt. I wasn't mad because my husband didn't notice the gas was getting low, I was mad because I already had a list of past transgressions and this was just more fuel for the fire.

I got real with myself in that gas station parking lot, if this was the first time this happened would I be this angry? Absolutely not, it's easy to forgive things the first time. "Love keeps no record of wrongs." You guys, if I'm not keeping a list of every mistake then shouldn't this feel like the first time? Conviction, I felt it and I chose to do some practicing. 

Grace. Forgiveness. Love.

These thoughts keep rolling around in my head today. If I had a list of mistakes for my husband in the storage of my heart who else's list am I hiding there? Do you have some lists hiding away too? I can tell you that trying to wipe the slate clean today wasn't easy but when I made the choice to practice loving the way I've been called to I felt lighter. To be clear I am positive that my practicing in this area is far from over. Fortunately (maybe unfortunately) I've found that when we have something we need to learn we are given lots of opportunities to practice. The weeks ahead may be filled with challenges but I am determined to keep practicing. 

Practice

Something happened today that has never happened before, I was dying at the end of my 6am crossfit class when someone came up to me and said all the other ladies were jealous of how I killed that workout.

What?!? Are you talking to me?

I'm not sharing this to toot my own horn, I have so much work still to do, but it did make me stop and think. You see just the other day I was thinking about how many years I've been doing crossfit and feeling just a bit pathetic that I'm still often at the bottom of the leader board. Today as I was letting the feeling of accomplishment soak in a bit it hit me that the reason I'm finally seeing significant gains is because I've been practicing more regularly. The past few months I have been the most consistent in making it into the box than I have ever been and this is paying off.

It may seem obvious, but today I had a light bulb moment about practicing: When we practice regularly we get better. We talk about this a lot when it come to sports or playing an instrument but what about other things that are harder to measure? 

The happenings in the world around me have had me pretty down lately. I've been feeling overwhelmed with a desire to avoid conflict but speak truth, to hide from the political drama but still be light in a dark time. I keep asking, "How can we love best right now?" and coming up short. This morning driving home from my workout it hit me: We practice.

You guys we weren't born knowing how to show love to others, it is something we have had to learn. When we were young maybe our parents helped us practice showing love before we even knew what the word meant and then as we grew different influences around us helped shape our view of what it means to love. We probably tried throughout the course of our lives many different ways to show love with varying degrees of success. Each success or failure helping us learn what love looks like. The question is do you still practice? Its easy to become complacent in our abilities when we stop exerting the effort to improve.

Today as I thought about my own half-assed effort to practice love regularly I decided to do something different. As we enter the month that we remember to celebrate love tomorrow I propose we start practicing what we preach.

Practice Love.

In this time of turmoil in our world, when we don't know how to respond, let's practice love. The challenge I'm putting out to you is that for every day this month you choose to practice loving someone. This could be a family member, a stranger at the grocery store, the homeless man on the corner, the Facebook friend who keeps attacking you on Facebook, the disadvantaged around the world... the possibilities are endless. The goal is to be able to reset our way of thinking about those around us, instead of thinking about how they are impacting us we will begin to think in terms of how we can show them they are valuable and loved. 

Will you join me in this challenge? Will you spend some conscious time each day practicing pouring out love on the world around us? I was reminded a few days ago that a few people can alter the course of history. Can we be the people to start a movement of love? I think we can.

If you are joining my in this practice I'd love to know about it! Comment below or tag me @ineveryinch in your instagram/ facebook posts showing how you are practicing each day with #practicelove

Together we can pour love into the world around us.