Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

20 {More} Budget Friendly Date Ideas

I love going on dates with my husband, whether they are little mini-dates we catch here and there or a full day together. I love that feeling of just reconnecting with him and being able to give him my full attention without interruption. I think it’s so important to take time out of our busy lives to solely focus on each other. It keeps our marriage alive.

Romance doesn’t have to be expensive to be great! Here is a list of free or nearly free ideas to make your dating a pure pleasure:

  • Grab your skates and head to the roller-skating rink. What, not everyone has skates like I do? Believe me, my littles remind me every year that my skates are as old as dirt. As long as you don’t mind being the oldest people there who aren’t chaperoning their children, it’s a great way to have fun and let loose with each other.
  • Celebrate the first snow fall with a day of sledding together. At the end of the day, head inside for hot cocoa and a hot shower.
  • Jump in the car and just drive with no destination in mind. Turn the music up, sing together, hold hands and enjoy the ride. Make a love song “mix tape” to enjoy during your drive. This one is one of my favs!
  • Grab your camera and head out. Stop at scenic locations and start taking pictures of each other. Be goofy and creative. Dare each other to put those wacky pictures on Facebook! The loser has to give a massage!
  • Grab a tent, sleeping bag and head into the woods for a night of camping. Leave all the distractions behind. Spend the evening cuddling together under the stars talking for hours. If you don’t have a tent, you can get one for as cheap as $25 at Walmart. Sleeping bags can be as cheap as $10. 
  • Dance lessons are fun and romantic. You’re moving, bodies are touching, and you might be working up a little bit of sultry sweat. 
  • Head to an indoor or outdoor ice-skating rink — it’s the perfect excuse to hold hands!
  • Go shooting together, something we love to do. I mean, hello, seeing your guy handle a gun is pretty hot. Just remember, safety first! 
  • Stay in one night, turn off the TV, shut down your computer, and ignore your phones. Stay in the moment with each other and share your favorite memories from the past.
  • Pray together, taking turns thanking God for each other.
  • Plan your dream vacation with each other — it might be the incentive you need to start putting your loose change in the piggy bank.
  • Have your children play waiter and waitress and serve a romantic dinner, then tell them the story of how you fell in love.
  • Volunteer together. I think watching my husband serve and seeing his heart is pretty amazing and makes me fall in love with him all over again.
  • Spend the day together in the great outdoors. Go for a hike together, enjoying a day of great conversation while getting exercise at the same time.
  • Go bowling and have fun laughing together! If you’re like us, that laughing will come from you accidentally stepping on the slippy lane, falling and splitting your pants. Not my most graceful moment.
  • Make a playlist {aka…mix tape} of your favorite slow songs. Cook your favorite meal together. Light the candles. Have a romantic dinner together! Once dinner is over, leave the dishes until the next day! Spend the rest of the evening slow dancing together!
  • Search out some local music! 
  • Go House Shopping. Even if you aren’t in the market for a new house, just go browse anyway. There is just something fun about the home-browsing process.
  • Go for a moonlight walk. There is something very romantic about walking around at night, especially under the moonlight. Tell your spouse all the things you love about them and walk slowly.
  • Fill the bed of the truck up with pillows + blankets, head out in a field and hop in the back to count your lucky stars. Don’t forget to take some yummy nibbles along. Have you ever saw a shooting star? It’s super romantic and you’ll be entertained for hours trying to recognize the stars and looking for them.

The Day is Finally Here

We are leaving for our vaca!  I cannot wait to spend an entire week with my loves.  I have big plans of laying on the beach daily, shark free please.  I can’t wait to do my morning devotions while sitting by the ocean watching the sun rise.  And walking the boardwalk every evening, while enjoying super yummy food.  I’m not taking my laptop along, so no pics this year until we get back.  I made the executive decision that this is a fam vacation to spend time together, technology free.  Although I’m sure there will be an Instagram pic here or there!

PS…what I won’t be doing this vaca is riding those willy nilly bikes on the boardwalk in the early morning.  They are super sketchy.  And I had a bad experience with those when I was little.  I may or may not have knocked down a little Chinese man.  And peddled away quickly while he yelled at me in a different language.  No desire to go through that again.  Nope. None.

Love, Respect and Godly Submission {Respect}

We’ve all heard the saying “men are from mars, women are from venus”. We all know that’s not true, obviously. But what is true is God created men and women equally but differently, very differently. We have different designs, different roles and different responsibilities.

God created men with a need to have respect from their wife. Women were created with a desire to receive love from their husband. So many times during an argument a wife will react without respect which will make the husband react without love. That creates an ugly, vicious cycle.

Men need to know that they are adequate, that they are enough and that they are worthy of our respect. How often do we truly show our husbands the respect they desire?

So, I know this girl who has a hot, quick temper and a big, fat mouth and she can cut to the bone with words. She grew up speaking her mind, using harsh words to get her point across. It didn’t mean there was a lack of love for that person, it simply meant she had a point to make. Fast-forward to current day. We now live in an age where it’s common and popular to portray men as idiots, fools and overgrown adolescents. Think of how many sitcoms feature an “inadequate husband and wife who knows everything”. And I absolutely admit, I have given in to the “how in the world would men ever survive without us” dynamic. Biblically, I would probably be stoned for my insolence. My husband is a pretty easygoing person, which made it easy for me to step into the role of dictator and look down my nose at him. I tend to micromanage and control and nag and critique. It’s my nature, but it’s not respectful—or loving! And it is something this strong-willed wife is working on, daily.

God’s design for marriage is laid out in Ephesians 5. Remember last week we revealed that our marriage was designed specifically to mirror our relationship between Christ and His church. God intended marriage to mirror His relationship with the church so that we could basically be a testimony to others and SHOW them what God is like. That should change the way we look at our marriage.

Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. 
Ephesians 5:33

I’ve read this verse over and over again. It doesn’t say respect your husband only when you feel he deserves it, it doesn’t say he has to GIVE respect to GET respect and it’s certainly not up to us to deem when he is worthy of it. God was pretty clear with this verse, the wife MUST respect her husband. Period. Unless there is a Biblically moral issue at stake (in which God’s authority will supersede our husband’s).

Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24

So, I am basically a pro at pointing out my husband’s faults and failures. I can pick up on disrespect lickity-split when it’s coming from someone else but can’t see when I’m being totally disrespectful to my husband. If it takes you a while to catch on like me, sometimes it makes it a little easier when you can read a list. So I spoke to various Christian husbands and asked them what they saw as disrespectful. I’ve composed a little list of their answers.

  • nagging
  • speaking badly of him in front of others and belittling him
  • not spending time with him
  • always complaining, no matter what he does
  • yelling at him
  • undermining his authority
  • not giving him the attention he craves
  • withholding sex and using it to manipulate a situation
  • cutting him off mid-sentence
  • shifting blame to him
  • being demanding
  • body language – sighing, frowning while you talk and eye rolling
  • criticizing him
  • putting yourself first rather than him and your family
  • not having confidence in his decision making
  • showing other men attention rather than him

Every man has his own definition of disrespect and what actions show him that. There are some things that basically every man would find disrespectful and some things that are just specific to your husband. What matters the absolute most is what your husband finds disrespectful. Ask your husband what actions these are and make a mental note of them, or write them down in your journal. Ask him what actions really speak respect to him also. You’ll know which actions to phase out and which ones to increase. Pay attention to all his answers.

As wives, we have so much power to destroy our husbands or to build them up. We need to learn to be respectful wives who value our husbands’ leadership. We need to honor Christ with every word and action! I would bet if we showed them more respect they would show us more love. When a wife respects her husband it deepens her love for him. So really, it’s a win win situation for everyone 🙂 Lots of respect and lots of love, sounds pretty amazing to me. Godly submission and respect not only adorns the gospel; it makes us beautiful as well.