REMEMBER Date Night

Wow! This week has been pretty busy!! Which is good! I like to stay busy!! But I am late on this post...we have ANOTHER date night tonight so I thought I better hurry and blog about Monday's date night!

Monday's date night was one of the date cards we got from church. It was the Remember date night. I'll just go through the steps of what we did in case you want to do it too! :)

Step 1: Pick a date. We chose our date then decided that we wanted steaks on the grill & baked potatoes. YUM!

Step 2: We each wrote (in our journal) what we think the purpose of our marriage is. I won't share what we each wrote, but it was nice to read what each other wrote. :)

Step 3: Listen to the pod cast provided by our church. At the beginning of the pod cast was a powerful testimony from a couple who "fell off the tracks" a little in their marriage, but also how wonderful it was that they began living a God honoring marriage. One of the pastors from our church also spoke. He gave biblical references on how to live a God honoring marriage.

Step 4: As we sat down for dinner we prayed together. We do this before every meal. We started out praying silently (holding hands) then squeezing each other's hand when we were finishing praying. I've started praying out loud for the both of us since I'll want us to set that example for our children (one day!).

Step 5: We read what each other wrote in the journal about the purpose of our marriage. We then talked about how that relates to what we listened to on the pod cast. The same verse stood out to both of us: Ephesians 5:21-33. I encourage you to look it up. :) Interpret it as you may, but here's how we view it...wives are to respect their husbands (even if they don't deserve it!) as they are the head of the household...as Christ is the head of the church. At the same time husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church (big responsibility!) and again...even if they don't deserve it!
--I know this can be tough (especially if you're stubborn like us!) but you'll see that the more you remember this the easier it is to get through those times when you want to stay strong and fight!

Step 6: We then discussed which parts of our marriage are easier and which are harder...here are the examples from the date night card that we discussed:
--A Covenant Marriage: A lifelong, unbreakable commitment
--A Passionate Marriage: Fully giving myself physically AND emotionally
--A Fighting Marriage: Forgiving quickly and fighting FOR the relationship
--A One-Sided Marriage: Placing your needs above my own
--A Heroic Marriage: Humbling myself and serving you

Step 7: What one thing will I try to do that could help move our marriage closer to the masterpiece it should be?
--Ryan said me putting my dishes from the sink into the dishwasher! If that's all I need to do then I'm doing pretty good! ;)

Step 8: We then made a plan of 5 places we'd like to go (money, time, etc. are no object!) and what we'd like to do (an adventure we've never tried). We will keep this list and hopefully get to check some off throughout our "Masterpiece Marriage" ;)

I'm sorry this one is so long. If you are looking for date night ideas I hope you'll find this helpful. We have another date night tonight that Ryan has planned...we shall see where the night will take us! I'll blog about that one later. :)

CHEERS!