Federer and Nadal: Fit of Laughter During Shooting

If you're a Federer or Nadal fan (tennis), you may enjoy this short attempt at a commercial.

Inner Programming

Donovan and I have been on a short journey of recognizing our ego and how it affects our relationship. Generally, it is most noticeable when one of us has a word of correction or advice for the other (anybody else out there hear me?!). Defensiveness seems to be the clearest sign to me that my ego is taking over.

I just discovered another layer of this defensiveness within myself when having a heated discussion with my lover. One wall is called:

I don’t like your tone, it isn’t very loving.

The other is called:

I don’t like your choice of words, it isn’t very loving.

In other words, if you don’t have a kind tone & loving words, I’m not going to listen to you!

Don’t get me wrong, a loving tone matched with timely words is worth growing into; however, we must ask ourselves if it has become a “legitimate reason” for why we won’t listen to what a person is trying to tell us. This is a huge blockage for me – especially in my marriage.

See, Donovan was trying to alert me to a pattern he sees me repeating over and over…however, I usually don’t want to hear about it, because I don’t want to take action on it, it feels safe being stuck in what I know!

The ego wants to prove itself & protect itself. When we are able to put it aside (for a bit), we realize we have nothing to prove because we have already been approved by our Creator, need we more approval than that?! Well, often we think we do because we do not know in our depths that we are approved and protected by our Heavenly Papa.

Word.