Dating: A Marriage Thing-1 - Thursday March 22, 2012
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me. Song of Songs 2:13 NIV
My husband Dave and I were recently asked what things have contributed to making our marriage a success. One simple practice that has made a huge difference in our marriage is dating. When people think of dating, they usually envision singles getting together to scope each other out, have fun, and get to know each other better. Dating for marrieds? What's the need? They've "scoped," had fun, know each other now, and are committed.
Dave and I realized early on in our marriage that we needed to be intentional in our relationship, or it could easily fizzle and fade. Once we had kids, we saw that we needed "alone time" more than ever to simply carry on conversation without constant interruptions.
And thus our habit of regular dates began. Finding babysitters, carving out time to go out, budgeting resources, and assessing our "needs" have all been involved in the process. In all our busy years of parenting and beyond, dates have been the one time I can count on to have Dave's undivided attention for discussing deeper matters. Though we do have fun going out, we don't have dates to simply entertain ourselves. Our focus is finding out how each other is doing...what's going on in Dave's and Dawn's hearts?
Though life's demands have changed, we still work hard to protect our weekly date time. Even if it is just a simple sandwich at a park, or sipping hot chocolate at a cafŽ, we get out of the house and do what we've tried to do for years: look each other in the eyes and share our hearts.
Submitted by:
Dawn Bovenmyer
Stonebrook Community Church
Ames, Iowa
One-Year Reading Plan:
Numbers 33:40-35:34
Luke 5:12-28
Psalms 65:1-13
Proverbs 11:23
[Read
Online]
© 2013 Great Commission Association of Churches, Inc All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Online Bible Services provided by
The Bible Gateway (TM) a service of
Gospel
Communications Network.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.