Re-inventing the date night...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

So last Sunday afternoon we made dinner together for Mum and Dad. I know, who has rhubarb flan for dinner right? But anyway, I was surprised at how well it turned out! Not because we can't cook or anything, just because it was a new recipe and the rhubarb wasn't quite up to its usual standard.

Most studies of love & marriage show that the decline of romantic love over time is inevitable. The butterflies of early romance quickly flutter away and are replaced by familiar, predictable feelings of long-term attachment. But several experiments show that regular injections of novelty and excitement - simply doing new things together as a couple - may help bring the butterflies back, recreating the chemical surges of early courtship (which, by the way, are also the brain chemicals involved in drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder). So on that riveting note, I thought about re-inventing the date night to come up with some different ideas. Here are some of our ideas so far...

Eeling, floundering, goat shooting, fishing, golf, random road trip, attending a rugby or soccer match, picnic dinner at the beach, progressive dinner with other couples, reading a landscaping book together (have actually done this one surprise, surprise haha), a trip to the observatory, games of tennis & badminton and my personal favourite (I found this one online) - find it & fix it. Buying a cheap piece of used furniture from a garage sale and fixing it up together: painting/sanding/decorating/etc.

All this got me thinking about God and our first love. When we first 'met' God, all the crazy emotions we felt and things we did for Him simply because we were 'in love' with Him. And maybe now, the feelings have worn off somewhat and we don't spend as much time with Him as we should. Or maybe the relationship has become stale and familiar. (Just cracked myself up when the line 'and may you' came into my head. I think I've seen too many Rob Bell dvds haha)

So what things can we do to inject some novelty back into our romance to make it come alive again? And how do we press in even when the feelings aren't there anymore?

Because that's what God longs for. To romance us and for us to do things for Him & spend time with Him simply because we love Him - no other reason.

Speak God, you're servant is listening

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Jessie Garrick and I went for a swim at Whale Bay yesterday. Yup that's right, in the rain. Was beautiful. No people, no noise, just us and the rain and a couple of brave seagulls. It was so peaceful. And on Sunday afternoon I finally got to spend some quality time with Jase. It hadn't happened in about 3 weeks due to a number of things and seeing one of my love languages is time, I tend to get a bit tetchy and disillusioned if I don't spend proper time with people close to me on a regular basis.

So then it got me thinking, when was the last time I took some time out to be with God... With no people around, no noise, no 'to do' list to think about, no problems to talk about; just being with my best friend. One on one with no distractions.

Even though I'm super busy at the moment, I took time out of my day to be with Jess because I wanted to. Not because I felt obligated to or thought that I should, but because I knew how much we'd both enjoy it.

And that's how it should be with us and God. Not a 'quiet time' because we should, because we think our 'church rep' will suffer if don't or maybe our pastors might ask us how we're doing. No, quality time spent with our Lord because we want to. I challenge you (just like I'm challenging me right about now) to go somewhere just you and Jesus and see what He has to say to you. You just might be pleasantly surprised!