One of the best, yet often overlooked ways to having a healthy marriage is spending time together. A strong marriage occurs when you maintain a consistent connection, by investing your time in strengthening the relationship. It’s about building intimacy. It’s about being one, while still maintaining our individuality.
You might think that after the wedding, your dating days are over. That especially once the kids come, you can kiss those days goodbye forever. Yet, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Dating and building spiritual intimacy are key factors in why a marriage remains vibrant and strong.
Keep Dating
Many couples simply stop dating when the knot is tied. It’s not deliberate, just more consequential. As life often gets in the way, and its busyness more than provides enough reason for an excuse not to date. Within the security of marriage, it’s also easy to believe that not dating won’t have any negative repercussions. After all, your spouse won’t leave you just because you won’t go out on a date this week, next, or the week after that.
Being proactive and maintaining dating as a priority in your marriage you avoid the eventual trouble that comes with abandoning the practice. When you stop dating, romance can fade from a flame to a flicker, and sometimes it is even extinguished. Don’t let this happen to you. Make the effort to continually fan the flames of your relationship. Don’t stop dating. Dates don’t have to be elaborate or expensive. But they need to be a priority.
Setting times aside when you and your partner have the opportunity to connect, play, laugh and love without other agendas must be made a priority. Make dating your new habit and you’ll be much more likely to experience high levels of satisfaction.
Mark 10:9 (ESV) What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Spiritual Intimacy
It’s a sad reality that most couples not only do not have a plan to grow together spiritually; they don’t even talk about spiritual issues together. Too often in marriage, spiritual intimacy is a back-burner topic at best. So we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that for many couples, spiritual intimacy with one another is the area where they find the least amount of fulfillment.
Spiritual intimacy develops over time. We don’t feel automatically comfortable praying and reading together. It is very rare for a relationship to move from lacking spiritual connection to deep spiritual intimacy overnight. It takes persistent nurturing, small steps that lead to giant leaps. Small victories that make way for permanent breakthroughs.
You can start now for deeper spiritual intimacy in your marriage by starting to pray daily for your partner and your relationship. Attend worship services together, develop a regular time to practice spiritual disciplines together such as having a devotional time, bible study, prayer, and engaging in regular faith conversations.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (ESV) Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.