Welcome to
our Marriage Moments community! Marriage life is a journey. It’s a journey that
is not meant to be taken alone but shared.
We strongly
believe that as we share our hearts with one another, we will discover and
experience with our spouse, a richness of life that we have never ever
encountered before.
Time is a
very precious and rare thing to married persons like us. It is a vital building
block to marital relationship. We need time to build this relationship.
The myriad of life demands all want a piece of
this item called time. There’s never enough of it to go round. We have to make
choices what we use the time for.
We all seek
great marriage. But great marriage is never an accident. It takes constant
nurturing to keep it healthy.
So many
things in life keep us away from this needed attention to our marriage. Work
and parenting are often the major ‘distractions’ that drain the physical and
emotional capacities of married couples.
One key to
staying healthy in our marriage in the midst of so many things that could
weaken it is intentionality. We have to be intentional or deliberate in establishing
a way of life for our marriage that has specific goals we aim for and the
resources to reach them.
Time is a vital
resource that every couple must organize well to build strong relationship over
the life time together.
Responses to Week 1‘s Moment
Additional Thoughts – What To Do
Applications
of 24-5 Principle.
1.
Keep your promise to "become one." Yes, one practical thing that you and your
spouse could commit to experience being one in purpose at present is to follow
the Marriage Moments programme for 52 weeks. You can both agree to commit to
the following.
¶ Share your thoughts with one another from reading
the weekly write-ups (Week 1 is ‘Making Time To Talk’). You can do this during
the moments of the week that both of you have the energy and focus for it. To
get the maximum out of this, we suggest that you read the week’s resource on
the Sunday before you start the week and plan for time slots to talk about the
matters covered and what you glean from the reading.
¶ When you discover something that you both
feel other couples would benefit from knowing it, share with us about it on
this blog.
2.
Be intentional and selective. Yes, try this out for the first week. You
may not get this right for the first time round. Keep on experimenting with what is best in
your weekly schedule to share your hearts on the week’s Marriage Moment matter.
You will eventually get there.
It is not
easy to start with. Changing your way of life to accommodate this new thing called
Marriage Moment takes energy and focus.
3.
Be creative and persevere. No habit (especially good but difficult
ones) can be established within a day or two. As a common saying goes, it takes
21 days of repeated actions to establish a simple habit. It may take many weeks
for you two to make weekly Marriage Moments time together a habit.
How do you
know that it has become a habit? You will feel something missing for that week
or uncomfortable when you miss the weekly time together on the Marriage
Moments.
4.
Enjoy and encourage uniqueness. The main aim of the Marriage Moments time
together is not to pinpoint issues to be resolved. It is for each couple to
take time to think through matters raised through weekly reading and share with
each other your thoughts, know what other couples are thinking about these, and
study further the issues that you both feel important enough to attend to them.
It’s about
sharing things heart-to-heart which you may not normally do so in the midst of the
great rush of life. One outcome of this, if a culture of coming together can be
established, is for you to begin to know the world that each other lives in and
know and appreciate each other better.
5.
Respect God's gift. We are people who tend to take many things
for granted. Pause and think of one good thing of our spouse…just for a moment.
Yes, it is such moments that build our marriage.
Worth Thinking About
Song of
Solomon 8:13-14. Let‘s hear what the Wycliffe Bible Commentary is saying on
this passage.
‘The
bridegroom utters his final longing words to his spouse. To him she is now like
one dwelling in the garden (cf. Song 2:1). The companions, that is, those who
are in her immediate presence, like to listen to her sweet voice. He likewise
desires to hear it. 14. She responds to him in words similar to those she spoke
before (cf. 2:17). With these words the Song ends.
Perhaps we
might think that a more appropriate conclusion would have been to bring the two
lovers together in joyful union. But it must be remembered that the Song is not
a modern novel or poem of love; it is the Word of God teaching us the beauty
and purity of genuine human love, one of the gifts of the Creator to his
creatures. This love the Holy Spirit saw fit to picture in terms of mutual desire
for fellowship on the part of those devoted to one another.’
Worth Praying About
A prayer
that you might want to use.
Lord, help my husband/wife and me to
prioritize you and to make each other our priority under You. Enable us to love
each other and establish the right priorities in our marriage and in our
family.
May we esteem and find time to help, support,
encourage, uplift, love and share good things with each other. Enable us to
bear each other’s burdens. Help us to choose each other over other things and
people. Teach us to find time to be together alone and to reaffirm each other.
In the midst of our busyness, help us to understand and agree with each other.
Thank you for choosing us to be Your people and help us to treasure You above
everything else. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
Worth Doing
Two things
you can do this week or the next are…
1.
Take
a long drive as a couple. Leave your children with someone else.
2.
Go
for a movie together.
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