The Importance of Date Night

When Jerry and I got married it seemed like everyone's first line of advice was to make Date night a priority. It's not a new idea and in my own life, I have been fortunate enough to have parents who have been faithful to each other in marriage for almost 43 years. And I can not think of a season in their marriage when dates were cut out. Like many families, we had seasons of more wealth than others. But even in those lean times, they would find a way to have a date. I remember a season when my folks were both working and very busy. They were just meeting their goals and really didn't have a lot of resources to go around gallivanting. But they made it work. Every Sunday morning, they would get up early, go through the drive through and get 2 breakfast sandwiches for $2 and drive to the dock with their lawn chairs. They would set up camp and eat their breakfast, talk and connect before another busy week. It was small, but intentional. Time and money can be hard to come by, but don't let excuses keep you from this very important factor in marriage! Whenever I hear my parents refer to dating, even all these years later, they most often refer to those humble dates at the dock.

This weekend, Jerry and I had planned a fancy date. We made reservations downtown to get sushi, planned on going to the newly released movie, Valentine's Day, and we were really looking forward to it. But as Saturday loomed closer and closer, with car trouble (the key broke off in the ignition of our older station wagon) and other various expenses, we feared that if we wanted to stay true to our budget, we might have to cancel. This was especially hard for me to consider because I was really eager to go out. But as we sat down together and ran some numbers, we realized we could still make a more modest date happen. We opted for our favorite pizza place and a movie we hadn't yet seen at the $1.50 theater. I still dressed up and did my hair, and we still had a great time! In fact, I think we might have had a better time!

 As we were standing in the lobby of the $1.50 theater we had some time to kill so we played an arcade game and I joked about Jerry getting me a stuffed animal in the "claw" game. Well he tried twice and I ended up with the ugliest stuffed dog you have ever seen. And I love it! We laughed and talked and carried on. It was really refreshing. And even though we really didn't talk about it, I think we were both proud of ourselves for sticking to our larger goal of not overspending. We saw the movie Couples Retreat which was both hilarious and heartwarming. Oscar was hanging out with his Aunt Amy and cousins Canyon and Aly and they also had a great time.

It was just what we needed.