Date your mate!

If you want to add life to your marriage, perhaps even save its life, you’d better do whatever it takes to bring romance and dating back into the picture. There’s no quick fix. But if you’re willing to make the proper investments, you’ll find great rewards. So – in the face of all the excuses, let’s take a look at some important ways you will benefit from dating your spouse.

Dating Strengthens Your Relationship: Relationships are strengthened through time spent together, honest communication, and positive memories. Dating provides all of these. Dating builds up marriages and helps solidify their foundations. Enduring relationships aren’t constructed out of fleeting emotions and occasional passion. They’re solidly built on quality time spent together, each partner investing in the other.

Dating Enriches Life: Life was given to us by our Creator to be lived to its fullest. He gave us a great playground we affectionately call “Earth” to use and enjoy while we have the opportunity. Setting time aside to enjoy one another is not only pleasing to God but enriches the quality of our lives. You are bound to be a much better husband or wife when you invest time in your marriage, giving it higher priority than such things as the television set or the office or different activities.

Dating Creates Positive Memories: Memories recall significant expressions of the past. Quality relationships are rich in positive memories. Since our world does a good job of dispensing negative experiences, it’s up to us to do an even better job of providing positive recollections. I love to hear older couples share stories of their early dating events. While such rememberings are fun to hear, imagine how much more enjoyable they were to experience. My wife and I are sure to have disappointing episodes and some regretful moments. But one of our goals is to make sure that our positive memories outweigh our heartaches.

Dating Models Marriage for Your Children: A long-term benefit of dating your spouse is the model you set in place for your children. One of the best ways we can demonstrate love to our children is by expressing affection to our mates. When children see their parents placing priority on dating and romance, they’ll carry that expectation into their own relationships. Children need to see quality, loving relationships in a world where those aren’t the norm. Your dating can relieve a tremendous amount of pressure from your children and set an example they’ll never forget.

Seeing the Big Picture: Two construction workers were busy working on a huge brick- laying project. A passerby was curious about the future of the building. She stopped the workers and asked, “Just what is it you’re building?” The first worker told her he was simply laying bricks trying to finish a construction project. When she asked the second worker the same question he stood and proudly explained to her he was helping to build a great cathedral. He was able to see the big picture, and was
excited about the outcome. He viewed his job as a worthy task.

As you think about your own marriage situation you might want to answer that same question, “What are you building? I hope you’ll be proud and say, “I’m building a great marriage, day by day, year by year, brick by brick!”