Great stuff! We've been going on nightly walks just around the block, and that's been a game-changer! Longterm, we've also been learning to paint together, which can be conversational when we're both not frustrated at our lack of skill.
Interestingly I don't think that most marriages, in the Scriptures and in history, would fit this. It seems to me that what they tended to do together (outside of sex, and I wonder how much sex these modern couples are having anyway) was work related. The husband would bring home the deer, the wife would preserve the meat. Or all the boys would be out harvesting, and the girls would bring a meal out to them.
I wonder how much of the 'doing together' that we should be doing is work. Advancing the goals of the household. As for me and my house... we will serve the LORD.
Well, yes. But I am suggesting that one class of 'together thing' that a couple/family should be doing is 'advancing the goals of the household' through work. Remodeling the garage so you have room for the next few kids, or to put in a schoolroom, for example. Take the wife and kids when you man a witness booth at the local fair or something.
IE not just leisure activities, but work activities. Together.
“One of the best ways to future-proof your marriage is to develop habits of shared work and shared play. Fix something around the house. Raise backyard chickens. Serve in a church ministry together. Learn a new skill. Take a dance class. Do a project. Work side-by-side.”
My wife and I take walks, several times a week, and often go out to eat. You mentioned puzzles, as an unusual example. I can still remember evenings on the patio, when I was little, with my parents reading a book out loud together. As a kid, I thought that was a bit odd, but have since read of numerous couples who really enjoyed that.
After a few years, my parents got too busy and stopped that practice, and didn't really replace it with anything else. We never really had that kind of peaceful family life again.
Great stuff! We've been going on nightly walks just around the block, and that's been a game-changer! Longterm, we've also been learning to paint together, which can be conversational when we're both not frustrated at our lack of skill.
My wife has this habit of when I show up she leaves. It's not deliberate. But then that's usually the problem.
Why not ask where she’s going, and follow after her?
Interestingly I don't think that most marriages, in the Scriptures and in history, would fit this. It seems to me that what they tended to do together (outside of sex, and I wonder how much sex these modern couples are having anyway) was work related. The husband would bring home the deer, the wife would preserve the meat. Or all the boys would be out harvesting, and the girls would bring a meal out to them.
I wonder how much of the 'doing together' that we should be doing is work. Advancing the goals of the household. As for me and my house... we will serve the LORD.
Of course they wouldn't. The examples were just examples, not prescriptions.
Well, yes. But I am suggesting that one class of 'together thing' that a couple/family should be doing is 'advancing the goals of the household' through work. Remodeling the garage so you have room for the next few kids, or to put in a schoolroom, for example. Take the wife and kids when you man a witness booth at the local fair or something.
IE not just leisure activities, but work activities. Together.
Agreed, that’s why I wrote this:
“One of the best ways to future-proof your marriage is to develop habits of shared work and shared play. Fix something around the house. Raise backyard chickens. Serve in a church ministry together. Learn a new skill. Take a dance class. Do a project. Work side-by-side.”
My wife and I take walks, several times a week, and often go out to eat. You mentioned puzzles, as an unusual example. I can still remember evenings on the patio, when I was little, with my parents reading a book out loud together. As a kid, I thought that was a bit odd, but have since read of numerous couples who really enjoyed that.
After a few years, my parents got too busy and stopped that practice, and didn't really replace it with anything else. We never really had that kind of peaceful family life again.
Good word brother!