Part Two of Dating Your Husband
When I was a young, silly, new mother, my mother did something that blessed my marriage. She saw the overwhelm disguised as ‘sure, I know how to handle all this.’ And she offered my husband and me a weekly date night.
She set the terms. She gently explained that, we, as parents, needed the time away. That our child would enjoy time with her grandmother. Mutual benefits for all!
Fast forward a dozen years. Enter the Married Life ministry of our church. Each quarter the church hosts a date/dessert night in our Christian Life Center. Laughs with other couples and a bit of fun marriage encouragement. Last time, Jeff Foxworthy even appeared on the large screen and poked fun, saying, “…you know you have trouble with your romance if…”
With these quarterly gatherings come yet another benefit. The Big 6 great Date Experiment. A date night in an envelope. Complete with fun questions to ask each other and suggestions for your date. Here’s a description of Married Life ministry from our church website:
- Preparing engaged couples to get off to a great start.
- Empowering married couples and their friends with a fun, compelling quarterly environment.
- Encouraging couples to be a part of a small group to experience friendship and support.
- Helping individuals when they need hope and direction.
- Trust God – I need to let God have control of my life.
- Hurry Home – I will make our time together a priority.
- Cultivate Romance – I should understand before I can expect to be understood.
- Nurture Romance – I need to remember that YOU have certain needs.
- Celebrate Differences – I will love you even if you never change.
- Finish Together – Because I will stay with you, we can work anything out.”
Each of the 6 Great Dates revolves around one of MarriedLife’s Big 6 Essentials. The first Great Date is focusing on the essential of how to Nurture Romance.
“Below you will find 6 steps for your date. Be sure not to look at the next step before completing the one before it. Have a Great Date!”
Here’s a few examples of questions…
- When we were dating I tried to impress you by ________.
- Would you rather take a one-week $5000 vacation or go on five different long weekends that cost $1000 each?
- If I prayed for you for five days in a row, what would you want me to to pray?
Part of extras of Great Date #2 was to start our growth chart of luuuuve on the garage wall. Marking the anniversaries, great date nights and other growth spurts in our marriage.
What a way to bless future generations by taking the time to document our marriage with photos and a growth chart.
If you don’t already have regular date nights with your spouse, I urge you to. There are several suggestions for 
date nights in part one, Dating Your Husband, including at-home date ideas, even sneaking out for a late night walk together after the children are in bed.
- For even more fun, all six Great Date Experiments are available for download at Married Life Online
- Growth Chart of Love – how I put together our growth chart with construction paper and foam core board 🙂
- Sibling Sleepovers – ideas for the children when mom and dad have an at-home date
- But don’t just take it from me on Date Nights, Hodgepodgedad has also posted on this very topic here.
I just want to say to the moms of little ones that don’t always have a sitter, you CAN do this! =) When mine were little, we had a scheduled bedtime routine. All of them were in bed at 7:30, and on “date night,” when we didn’t have anyone to come over and stay with them, we’d go into the kitchen, fix a meal (usually a new recipe and a special dessert), then pop an old movie into the VCR (yes, it was a few years ago!) and eat and watch the movie. We usually did the talking while we cooked. The point was, we made a point of doing something special after the kids were in bed one night a week.
If you have older ones, old enough to babysit, make it a special “sibling night” while you go out. Pizza and a movie; sleeping bags in the family room.
When the kids are grown and gone, you need to know that man sitting across the table from you. Invest the time now! Thanks, Tricia! =)
Thanks for your encouragement and practical suggestions Kim! I just updated the post with a link to sibling sleepovers – more ideas!
Yes, you can do this! We are blessed with grandparents to help both now and when they were all very little. But, as I shared in Part One, there are often times we do date nights at home. Usually on Saturday nights (details in Sibling Sleepovers) after our Friday night out – YES – two date nights in one week. It is possible 🙂
Hi! I love this post and have been trying to find these 6 date printables you reference, any chance those are still available anywhere?
Thanks
Jennifer
I will surely let you know if I do!