Team Us. Team Us. Today I challenge you to begin the process of team building with your loved one.  Yesterday you were challenged to recommit and/or to remain faithful to your role in your relationship with your loved one.  The next step is to focus on building. When you are in a relationship with your loved one you are a team.  In order to be an effective team you must see you and your loved one as US and not as me, I, mine, yours.  When you are a team you play for the same side, you have common goals, you remain faithful to your position, and you operate as a cohesive unit.  When you are on a team you share expectations for accomplishing the same task.  An effective team trusts one another, supports one another, and at the same time respects one another's individual differences.

A few key factors to building a team with your loved one are commitment, communication, and collaboration. Commitment ensures that you both want the same thing, even if that same thing is simply wanting each other.  Ask each other, Do you want to build together? Communication is important in every relationship, friendship, etc. Are you willing to communicate clearly and honestly with your loved one.  Please remember our Day 2 Love Challenge was to Speak Words of Love into your relationship, so be mindful of speaking in love as you communicate with your loved one.  Collaborate with your loved one.  Work together to problem solve and remain faithful in your role and responsibilities of your relationship with your loved one.  Cooperate to establish and meet your relationship goals effectively. Yes, you and your loved one have specific roles within  your relationship and yes, you are to be faithful to those roles.  However, as a team member on a team you also step in when and where needed.  Step in is not the same as overstep and/or takeover something that your loved one is handling. Stepping in does mean that when your loved one needs help you are there to lend a hand as needed.  Just like you would lend a hand and/or modify your position for a teammate on a sports team.

Your loved one and you are your team.  You want to win.  Work together and go for the win!  Just as a relay race passes the baton from one teammate to the next, do your part on your team. Begin today's challenge of Team Us by replacing I with Us, mine with Ours, and me with We. Once you've established US move forward with team building.   One of my favorite series from my Pastor, Donald Bell, Sr. on partnering with my husband was called Spiritual Partnership. He describes Spiritual Partnership as common goals for the common good commonly defined commonly executed consistently over time through change and circumstance. What are you building with your loved one?