Day 18 :: Making Time

Recently, my husband and I were able to sit down with a man who knows his stuff. Especially when talking about marriage and family.

After raising 5 kids through 40 years of marriage, he and his wife have had quite a few experiences in navigating through different seasons of life.

I asked him what the greatest helps were for building his marriage. He had 2 thoughts:

1. Praying together

He and his wife made it a habit from their first day of marriage to pray together every night. There are a couple benefits to this. First, you get to know the burdens of your spouse’s heart as they pour them out to the Lord. Second, it’s pretty difficult to pray with someone when you’re angry with them. 🙂 “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Ephesians 4:26)

2. Taking trips together

Alright, this is when I knew he really knew his stuff. 😉

This couple makes it a habit to take regular trips together…just the 2 of them. They didn’t have to be long or expensive, they just had to involve
the husband
+ wife
– children.

He mentioned that this was especially important for his wife when they had 5 small children running around the house. (Can I hear an “amen” from all you Moms with small children???) 😛

~ Matt, married 40 years

So that’s it, folks. That’s all it took for me to know he knew what he was talking about. 😉 By the way, he co-authored this book. It’s not about marriage, but it’s a great read anyway. Highly recommend.

Until tomorrow…go date your spouse!

(Don’t forget about our list of dating ideas on Saturday!! I would love for you to add some of your faves in the comments!)

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Comments

5 responses to “Day 18 :: Making Time”

  1. We have a date every Monday night! Most of the time we just put the kids in bed early and have our date at home, and on a rare occasion we get to actually “go out” somewhere. It doesn’t really matter though, it’s just fun to lay aside the distractions and be together! So important!

  2. I am really enjoying these. I haven’t been keeping up as well with posting comments since lil Jeremy has joined the family … I’ve just been reading these posts en masse afterwards. But I am really enjoying them. Thanks for all your work. These are great, and I’m especially glad to concentrate on developing our relationship while also working with our baby.

  3. so true!! laying aside the distractions is the hardest – and most important part!

  4. So glad!! they’ve been helpful to me too.

  5. […] Be Friends Day 15: Compromise Schompromise Day 16: What Really Matters Day 17: Got 30 Minutes? Day 18: Making Time Day 19: Day In – Day Out Day 20: Auto-Pilot Day 21: Priorities Day 22: Dating Party! Day […]