Jeff here…one of the staff members at The Marriage Hub. Everyone in our office knows that I love the winter months. The chill in the air, sledding as a family, ice hockey on a frozen pond, hot chocolate and then warming up by the crackling of the fireplace. Unfortunately, finding time to enjoy the winter season gets more and more challenging. My wife Janeen and I have six boys ranging in ages from 19 to 7. As you can imagine, we don’t have much spare time after accounting for homework, school activities, sporting events, chores, and the general craziness of caring for eight people in our house. The unintended side effect of kids and activities is the distance that slowly creeps in between Janeen and me. Too many nights of going our separate ways and too much time focused on kids and not each other. The Apostle Paul states in I Corinthians 7:28, “If you marry, you will have trouble in this life” and later on states, “I want you to be free from anxieties“. The married man is anxious about worldly things and his interests are divided.So how can we keep busy schedules from impacting our marriage?Here are three ideas for you…
#1 – Make sure mealtime is a priority. Even though you may be heading different directions at different times, make sure you plan a time when the whole family can sit together to eat a meal. You may need to get creative, but it will be worth the extra effort.
#2 – Keep dating your mate. It may sound like a contradiction, but the busier your schedule gets, the more you need to place a priority on getting away alone with your spouse. Having that special time planned will give you something to look forward to, even as you’re dealing with the daily grind.
#3 – Unplug. More and more research states being overly connected to social media makes us less social and more depressed. Put your screens down. Stop playing mindless games on your phone and talk with your spouse. You’ll be amazed what a half hour a day will do to bolster your emotional, spiritual and physical connections.
Give these three a try and see if it begins to deepen your relationship even through the busy seasons of life.
