You’ve got to accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
But don’t mess with mister inbetween

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
have faith, a pandemonium
Libel to walk up on the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the Whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
just when everything looked so dark

They said we better
accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
latch on to the affirmative
But don’t mess with mister inbetween

[One more Time]

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
just when everything looked so dark
don’t mess, don’t mess, don’t mess
with mister inbetween

The Kendricks brothers from the Love Dare:

“In the deep private corridors of your heart, there is a room. It’s called the Appreciation Room. It’s where your thoughts go when you encounter positive encouraging things about your spouse. Down another dark corridor of your heart lies the Depreciation Room, and sadly you visit there as well. Emotional injuries fester here, adding more scathing remarks to the walls. People fall out of love here. Divorces are plotted and caused in this room. We have all sinned. Love knows about the Depreciation room but chooses not to live there. Your spouses true faults may be there. You may place negative comments about them there that are not true at all. Love chooses to believe the best about people. It gives them the benefit of the doubt. Only glance in the door of the Depreciation room to pray for your spouse. The only reason you should go in this room is to write COVERED IN LOVE in huge letters across the walls. Your spouse is a living, breathing, endless book to be read. Dreams and hopes have yet to be realized.”

Telling your spouse negative things will cause them to think you don’t really love them. We all want to believe our spouse (more than anyone else) thinks we hung the moon.

Go to your loved one and say, I realize I __________, and I am sorry. I want to do better. You can know I will _______________. Talk about giving someone hope. Knowing you are thinking about them, wanting to grow, and voicing the acknowledgment of what you’ve done and what you are going to do – wow – they will love it.

Here’s a great tip:

If you’re angry at a loved one, hug that person. And mean it. You may not want to hug — which is all the more reason to do so. It’s hard to stay angry when someone shows they love you, and that’s precisely what happens when we hug each other. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997Challenge: