Love Dare - Day 28 - Know When to Advance and Retreat

Dear friends, we must use our intelligence for and in everything - our marriage is not an exception.

Did you know that the devil isn’t dumb? On the contrary, he is quite astute (oh, how angry that makes me!)

He uses all sorts of tactics to try to weaken and destroy us, which is why we must make use of the marvelous gift (intelligence) that God gave us!

You can never forget that you’re in a war! It’s not against your husband but against the devil himself.

There are situations in which you need to decide whether to advance or retreat.

War tactics indeed!

I’ll give you an example:

One day you are all pretty and perfumed waiting for your husband to arrive, exactly like we discussed in one of the previous tasks.

He arrives. You run to greet him with hugs and kisses when suddenly you feel a bucket of cold water splashing over you!

He totally ignores you and heads straight for the room! You feel mortified! Devastated!

You think to yourself… “I can’t be the problem! I didn’t do anything to deserve this! He’d better give me an explanation.”

Ok, we’ll pause the film right here.

Let’s go back to our intelligent war tactics!

When we women have a problem we like to talk about it, unburden ourselves… That’s why our friends generally know everything that happens to us. After unburdening ourselves we feel better and alleviated, capable of going on.

Our mistake is to think that men are the same. They generally aren’t. Talking about the problem directly affects the male ego. It’s as though they are admitting that they’re weak or not capable, you see?

This is why it’s important to know how to gracefully back off in moments like these.

No sad faces, frowns or tears!

If you don’t change your tactics, my friend, you’ll only make the situation worst.

If you cry he will surely lose his patience and blatantly ignore you or say something hurtful out of anger... you know how it goes right?

If you try: “Darling, are you upset? What happened? Come on, open up to me. Talk to me, spill it! You need to communicate!

My friend this approach won’t work, it’s too much pressure! He’ll explode…

The best tactic is to retreat. Give him some space and try to understand, without taking offense of course!

This is intelligent… you will give him the space he needs without being clingy.

Afterwards, check out the terrain- if it’s clear then feel free to advance, if not then maintain yourself in your post.

All of this must be applied to the spiritual battle, visualizing the devil’s steps and anticipating his next move.

Please note that this is only one example, clearly it can vary.

Verify what tactics you’ve been using and if they haven’t worked, change them. Do things differently.

Dare- Task 28

“You will analyze your tactics, if they’ve been working: advance! If not, retreat and do things differently. Always make use of your spiritual eyes to visualize the tramps and escape them.”