It’s incredibly important to continue to date your spouse as you continue in a marriage, but it’s even more vital in those first couples years of a marriage. In this video, Dr. Josh Straub gives an example of a magical date that he and his wife had early in that marriage that fuels their relationship even still years later.
Check out TwentyTwoSix Parenting, a practical discipleship plan for families hosted by Josh and Christi Straub. TwentyTwoSix is a shame-free community of parents who walk together to create the environment necessary to “Start a youth out on his way…” (Proverbs 22:6).
The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.
What is the best date I’ve ever had with my wife?
I think she would agree that there was a night that we spent in Florence, Italy a year after we were married. We went to Italy with another couple, some very close friends of ours, for our one-year anniversary realizing that once we started having children trips to Europe would probably be on the decline. We really wanted to take advantage while we didn’t have children yet to really be together.
And there was one particular night that we decided with the other couple that we were gonna split ways so that we could have our own date nights individually. It all started for us as we checked into the hotel that we had booked in Florence. Christi and I were given this room unexpectedly. I don’t know if it was a mistake. I don’t if it just got mixed up or what. But it was the most glorious, grand room that you could imagine in the hotel with these incredibly high ceilings. You felt like you were in a Hallmark Christmas movie. It was just amazing. It started there.
But then as we toured and walked the streets of Florence, we were just taken aback by the buildings and having dinner right next to the Duomo and the massive buildings and architecture. It just really made it a magical night for us as a couple. And it’s one of those dates that we look back on and we just say, “That was magical.” You couldn’t create it again if you tried.
So as a young couple one of the things that I tell other couples as well is take that first year of your marriage and really press in to creating memories together. Find ways to go on adventures and do things in that first year because those patterns that you set in that first year of marriage will be carried on into the rest of your marriage and even when you have kids.
Lay that foundation early because marital satisfaction tends to decline once you have children. But if you have that foundation set and you have those memories and those exciting moments that you can go back and you can relive and you can talk about, those are the things that can connect us emotionally especially when our marriages do get difficult over time.
Find those dates that you can discover and become magical.
