Marriage

Relationships : Marriage

The Investment

Marriage is an investment. It doesn't come easily. It's about loving the other person more than yourself - rooting yourself in God first and then using your faith to pour into our spouse selflessly. My husband of 13 years is far better at this than I. I tend to be the more selfish, demanding one in the relationship, but as a peacemaker he almost always goes along with it. It is a struggle for me to be selfless, attentive and provide the quality time that he requires. I don't enjoy sitting around; I have too much to do; too much to learn; too much I want to accomplish so sitting around seems pretty much like torture to me. Yet, I must invest in our relationship.

Early on in our marriage we read The Five Love Languages. It was very apparent that my husband preferred Physical Touch and Quality Time - two languages that I could care less about. And my language leaned more towards Acts of Service - but even more importantly helping the way that I would do it - you must read my mind and know exactly what I want and then just automatically do it. I would say I have the easier job. I don't need a crystal ball to please him.

As 2022 approached, I decided as part of my 2022 goals I need to invest more fully in him and his primary love languages. Rekindle our marriage, our relationship and my commitment to him. I have committed to 52 Dates in 52 Weeks - a date per week for the next 52 weeks. I know, probably a steep goal, but anyone who knows me knows I go in big, I don't mess around and I am ready for the challenge. Follow our journey for the next 52 weeks!

Preparation

My husband is definitely a physical touch and quality time guy. He loves that more than anything else. With the craziness of running a business, growing a family and all of the life things that happen, we really had gotten away from dating. I decided 2022 was the year to start dating again.

So I created his 52 dates in 52 weeks jar. A different date every week for 52 weeks. You can create the jar with a budget in mind or you don't have to. If you do a little research you can find plenty of things to do on a tight budget. Making the items generic enough is helpful to give flexibility for planning each week. Due to our business schedule, time is the most difficult for us to juggle ,but I am committed to making it happen.

What you need:

Glass Jar (wide mouth)
Tag
Wide Ribbon
52 jumbo popcycle sticks
Permanent marker
Lots of ideas

Directions:

Decorate the jar with the ribbon and tag that says "52 Dates in 52 Weeks"
Label each pocycle stick with ideas (view my blog for ideas I came up with thru our journey). You can look on Groupon to find deals, look for free or discount things to do in your town, think of other things you can do like going for a long drive, visiting a neighboring town you have never been, having a picnic in the park, driving out of town to look at the stars, or other things like taking a home depot class, going to an art in a night place, paint wit wine, taking a cooking class. Really the ideas are endless!