"The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself."" Galatians 5:14 (NIV)
Having spent the last year and a half reading the Bible every morning (sometimes just one verse), I truly believe that loving other people is truly the most important lesson (taught over and over) in the Bible. Knowing that, and applying it, are really two different things. Changing your habits, and the way you've done things over the the last 30+ years (or more or less) is a really difficult, but not impossible, thing to do.
Before you can truly love someone else, you need to love yourself AND you need to have peace. If you don't have internal peace, it is almost impossible to love anyone properly. Accepting the fact that everyone is different helps you to achieve internal peace.
"Everyone being different is what makes life interesting so why do we fight it so furiously?" ~Joyce Meyer
"We have no ability to change other people. Only God can work within the heart of an individual and make changes that are true and lasting." ~Joyce Meyer
"It is easy for us to see what is wrong with other people, but quite difficult to squarely face our own faults."~Joyce Meyer
"...we cannot change other people so why waste our time trying? It only frustrates us, steals our peace, and makes the one we are trying to change feel unloved and rejected." ~Joyce Meyer
I know all these things, and I am trying to change them within myself, but it is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. Giving my opinion (whether is was asked for or not) is something I have always done. Learning to sit back and truly listen to others, and to allow them to have their own opinions, is a learning process for me. Learning to love a husband that is so different than I am (I mean God does in on purpose, we all seem to marry our opposites...there are lessons in that), is something I will have to work towards for the rest of our life together. But bombarding him with my opinions of his every move, opinions, and desires really don't do anything other than make him want to keep to himself. What if I had too live with someone like me?
Truly thinking before you speak is a great way to show love. It is a great way to do as the Bible/God/Jesus asks of all of us. To truly love your neighbour (husband/wife/child/parent/friend/stranger) as yourself!
