Marriage Challenge Week 3

This week's challenge, to pray for our husbands daily, is outlined here on the Women Living Well blog. I don't have much to add to this list. She covers a lot about praying for one's husband, including 30 things to pray about in case you can't figure out where to start!

I would add that if you decide to fast for your husband this week, that there are alternatives besides fasting food. I am pregnant and unable to fast since I'm feeding a little one, but some might be diabetic or unable to fast for different reasons. In that situation, you could choose something else to fast--like media (ouch!) or novel reading or something else that you enjoy doing. Possibly you could fast a type of food rather than food in general (why does chocolate come to my mind?).

I don't think Courtney means this as a kind of bondage or guilt trip. Most of us (I hope!) pray for our husbands anyway. These are just some additional ideas to help us be more diligent about it.

For my not-yet-married readers, go ahead and pray for your husband anyway even if he seems to be nowhere in sight! My parents prayed for my husband from the time I was born. I try to do the same for my children's mates, whoever they may be. Spend your time waiting for a husband in earnestly praying for him and for yourself that God will prepare you both for a Godly marriage.

Enjoy your marriage this week!

Remembering Our Wedding Day

This part of Courtney's challenge came at a good time as my husband and I just celebrated 11 years of marriage this past Friday. It's hard to believe it's been so long! Marriage is one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to me next to my relationship with Jesus Christ. It has been a beautiful 11 years! However, I'm supposed to talk about our wedding day as part of the challenge (click the button above for details):

We chose to be married on a Friday evening instead of the usual Saturday afternoon wedding. We didn't see each other at all on our wedding day until I walked down the aisle. We had a traditional church wedding. The wedding went as planned except for two small things. The evening before the wedding, one of our singers lost her voice totally. Thankfully, they were able to find a substitute who had sung with them before. Also, because of my veil (when I say traditional, I mean traditional!), I couldn't get my candle to blow out in the unity candle ceremony. My husband had to blow it out for me! Despite how it looked, I was perfectly willing to extinguish my individual flame to enter the one-flesh relationship designed by God. However, I did want to avoid catching my clothes on fire before repeating my vows!

 We had a lovely reception provided by some family members as their wedding gift to us. We spent the weekend at a nearby cabin (a wedding gift from my parents--as if they hadn't done enough--remember we were traditional, meaning my sweet daddy footed the bill for the wedding), then my new husband took me to a chalet in the mountains of Tennessee to spend the next week.

I know this isn't always the case, but our wedding and honeymoon were only a lovely foretaste of the blessed marriage we have had. Sure, we've had adjustments as neither of us are perfect (though he comes close!), but trusting God to build our marriage has paid off in big dividends.

Completing Him Challenge: Dating Days!

This week's challenge is going way back to dating days! Our dating period was different than most people's. We met at a youth evangelistic weekend when I was 16 and we lived almost 3 hours away from each other. However, since we were both from the same state, we often had to ride together to future weekends. We got to know each other better while driving and talking for hours. Five months after we met, we began dating. We often double dated with Jeff's sister and her boyfriend (who is now her husband).

We could only see each other on weekends and because of distance, not every weekend, so our relationship depended a lot on letters, then e-mail and phone calls. In those days, we could only get dial-up which Jeff had to pay for by the minute and we had no cell phones--only calling cards, so just talking to each other cost Jeff a lot of money! We cherished the time together on weekends and got to know one another's families that way since we would either visit at his house or mine.

Exactly, one year after we met, we got engaged. We married soon after I graduated from high school, but you'll hear about that in next week's challenge!

Now for this week's challenge from Courtney:

Consider: How much time do you spend on a daily/weekly basis cultivating your marriage now? In what ways can you regain some of what has been lost in the daily shuffle of life?


Purpose this week to do something that reminds your husband of the youthful wife you once were - maybe it's wearing something you know he loves on you (remember we dressed to please back in those dating days!), go somewhere you both used to enjoy going together - alone!, look at photos together of the "good ol'days", watch a favorite movie, or just simply sit together talking, listening, dreaming, holding hands, rubbing his back, and simply paying attention to the amazing husband of your youth! Treasure him this week!

 
My husband and I talk together a lot, but sometimes, we get a little wrapped up in technology (amazing how we dated virtually without it but find it so necessary now!). We can spend an evening sitting across the room from one another with our laptops instead of sitting together on the couch, talking, like we did when we were dating. Maybe we can find some time this week to just talk--the old-fashioned way! 


I'd love to hear what all of you, my readers, decide to do. Feel free to share in the comments. May your marriage be blessed this week!

Easing Back in with a New Challenge!

Dear Readers,
How I've missed you! :-) We are busy around our house with summer plans and to be honest; some carefree, lazy days here and there. I'm not going to let blogging take over a ton of my time this summer because I still am finding focus like I wrote about here.

However, marriage has been a lot on my heart and mind lately. I've been reading and re-reading some classic, Bible-based books on the subject. I've grieved over hearing of a few more marital breakups in recent months.

If you've read my blog very long at all, you know that I take marriage very seriously. It is such a beautiful picture of Christ and the Church, His Bride; that to have a marriage other than the Biblical model is blasphemous to Him! Besides this is the fact that so many women and men go through the motions every day without the joy and love they could experience.

I realize that I am just a newlywed in a lot of your minds. If you are rolling your eyes and saying, "Just wait 'til you've been married 20 years! You'll see it's not possible to have a long, happy, loving marriage." First of all, please allow me to be disillusioned if this is the case, because the past 11 years have been the happiest of my life (and I had a very happy childhood with Godly parents), and I don't want to think it will end. Secondly, if that is the case, I see it nowhere in the Scripture. I see passages that describe exactly the opposite when a couple is sold out for God and committed deeply to each other.

For this reason, I will be posting on Mondays as part of the Completing Him Challenge on the Women Living Well blog. I think that no matter how good a marriage is, it can always be improved upon. This is part of what makes being married so exciting!

So, I'm accepting Courtney's challenge and I hope you will, too, whether you are a blogger or not. Today, I'm just announcing that I will be participating. If you want to see the whole schedule for the summer, you can go to the link above or click the button below.

As for me, I might add another day here or there as I feel I can and should. For now, I will try this challenge on Mondays and see where it leads.

With Much Joy,
Jennifer