love is not jealous

..."love your neighbor as yourself". If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:14b-15

Because love is not selfish and puts others first, it refuses to let jealousy in. Let love, humility, and gratefulness destroy any jealousy that springs up in your heart.

Determine to be your spouse's biggest fan. Set your heart on your spouse and focus on his/her achievements.

The Love Dare, p38

About 13 years ago my husband, Brad, was working a lot of late nights. I eventually convinced myself he was having an affair. It took me awhile but I worked up the courage one night to ask him if he was having an affair. He looked at me with a bewildered look on his face and said, "yes". I almost died. Then he said, "why would you ask me if I have enough air?"

My friends, to this day, love to tease me about this. As I write this now I am laughing and crying. Back then, though, I was so jealous of the time my husband was spending away from me I allowed the enemy in and whisper lies to me. To my husband's credit this little story proves how faithful he is - an affair was the farthest thing from his mind -- so far that when I spoke the words "an affair" he heard "enough air".

Faithfulness is a wonderful but rare quality today. We can encourage faithfulness by rooting out all negative speaking and planting seeds of encouragement instead.