Photo Credit: Creative Commons – Angelo Gonzales
This is a guest post by Joseph Lalonde. He is a youth leader at Oak Crest Church of God and leadership blogger at JMLalonde.com.
Joseph shares leadership tools and encourages you to become a better leader. Connect with him on Twitter or at his blog.
If you’d like to submit a guest post for The Daily Retort check out the submission guidelines HERE.
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One of the best choices I made in my life was to marry my wife, Pam. She’s been by my side ever since we said “I do.”
The marriage ride has had its ups and downs, twists and turns – but that doesn’t mean marriage has been bad. In fact, it’s been wonderful.
There are so many benefits to married life including: sharing life’s dreams with each other; having someone next to you when you’re having a rough day; coming home at night to a loving spouse.
But like I said, our relationship has had some twists and turns. One of those being an extended period where my wife worked insane hours and we rarely saw each other. Her work schedule was from sun up to sun down.
It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t good for our marriage. There are still some struggles that endure from those long days relating to her crazy work schedule.
And yet it taught us something valuable. It taught us that we must be grateful for each other and to enjoy the time we get to spend together.
Now we’re able to enjoy the little things. Like dinner together most nights. Evening walks through the downtown area or to the lake. Or sitting on the couch together.
You’d be surprised how much this can mean when you don’t have this experience in your life.
I’d like to share three ways you can enjoy each other’s company in the hopes these tips will bring you and your spouse closer together.
- Find an activity you enjoy to do together: For my wife and I, we made it evening walks. After dinner, we lace up the shoes and head out the door. We’ll wander our city for hours each night. Looking at houses, walking the bike trail, or enjoying our shoreline. For you, it might be something different. Go attend a concert with your wife. Hike out into the great wild and pitch a tent. Do something that you and your spouse can enjoy together.
- Share your dreams: Begin telling each other your dreams for the future. How many kids do you want to have together? Is there a dream house you’d like to live in one day? (For my wife, it’s a house close enough to the beach that we could open the windows and hear the waves crash against the shore.) Describe your ideal vacation. When you begin to share your dreams, you begin sharing a piece of you few others get to see. You’re opening up and letting the other person into your life. This creates a powerful bond.
- Practice quietness together: So often we want to be busy and going places that we fail to realize the power of quiet within our lives and relationships. It’s powerful to sit next to your loved ones and just soak in their presence.
This is one thing I love about our relationship. We’re able to share time on the couch together and get meaning out of it, even if no words are spoken. Give quietness together a shot and see how it affects your relationship.
One thing I want to encourage you with today, don’t stop appreciating the wonders of your relationship. There’s so many facets to explore and enjoy. But most of all, enjoy the time you have to spend with your spouse. You never know when that time could be stripped away.
Question: How do you enjoy the presence of your spouse? Please share your story in the comment section below.
