The stress of family, work, and other pressures takes a toll on your marriage.
You probably didn’t even notice it at first. The small things started to slip away. The good morning kiss, the good-bye hug, the shared intimate looks, holding hands and spending time connecting fade away as busyness takes over. Your commitment and love are strong, and you are still having sex regularly, so you hardly give a passing thought to what is missing – until your stress levels climb and you are more and more irritated with your spouse. Then, you wonder what happened.
Life will take over your marriage if you let it.
You will change from being glad you get to be together, to resenting your husband and also having to be with him if you are not intentional about investing time in your marriage and relationship. I am talking about time having Fun together. Too often, couples spend their time together doing chores and taking care of responsibilities and as a result push all fun out of the window. It is no wonder the excitement of being together begins to fade as couples find themselves dissatisfied with their relationship. If you are not having fun together, you are missing out on the best part of being married.
I used to think that the most important thing we did together as a couple was acting responsibly.
If there was any time left after all our responsibilities were fulfilled, then we could have some fun. Guess what? There was never any time left! Our days became filled with the work of living. Days turned into weeks, and I missed having fun with Ron. I began to believe that Fun was the least important part of our marriage.
After Ron went to prison, I realized that what I missed most was having fun with him.
I could manage all the seriousness of our lives, but my heart longed for the lightheartedness of having fun with my husband. I missed laughing, playing together – holding hands through life together. The prison visits were painfully severe. Walking through looming metal detectors into a sterile room filled with plastic tables, chairs; occupied by guards just to spend time with Ron threatened to suck every bit of joy out of our relationship.
We decided to make our visits together FUN for our sons
But we soon discovered that our marriage was also reaping huge benefits from enjoying our time together. Wholeheartedly, we laughed together, shared secret looks, and held hands as long we could. We lingered as we kissed hello and held each other tightly as we said good-bye. Moreover, the most significant things about life became crystal clear. It didn’t matter what other people thought, it only mattered that we were enjoying being together. We took advantage of every minute we had together to connect, show love to each other, and laugh together. We were silly, flirty, and intensely aware of the limited time we got to be together.
The truth is, every couple has limited time to be together. Instead of blocking that time to do things you really enjoy doing, you are wasting it on things you think you HAVE to do, or just letting it slip away because you are not being intentional. Make time to have fun together. Set the time apart and consequently block out the rest of the world! You are building your future together one minute at a time. A minute seems so small and insignificant until you realize that you only have a limited number of minutes in your life that you get to spend together.
Enjoy each other—laugh as loud as you want, shamelessly flirt with each other, and do fun things while you can. I promise you, you will not regret it.
I am rooting for you!
Cathy