{"id":1393,"date":"2015-10-16T12:47:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T17:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2016-06-09T13:33:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T18:33:26","slug":"marriage-shouldnt-end-your-dating-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/2015\/10\/16\/marriage-shouldnt-end-your-dating-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Marriage Shouldn’t End Your Dating Life: An Article for RELEVANT Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dating<\/a><\/p>\n

This is my newest article for RELEVANT<\/a>. Read the entirety of the article here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Dating\u2014in person, online or blind\u2014is prized in our culture, and most of us think of dating to be an important part of any meaningful, romantic relationship. Whether casual or glamorous, expensive or on a budget, we intuitively know that dating is a central way to get to know someone, win his or her heart and build a romance.<\/p>\n

So why wouldn\u2019t dating continue to be important after marriage?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marriage is meant to be an earthly picture of Christ and the Church, a relationship that points to the love and affection between Jesus and His people. But if a husband and wife hardly spend time together, it\u2019s difficult for that love and affection to grow.<\/p>\n

Dating your spouse doesn\u2019t have to be expensive or difficult, but to maintain\u2014and grow\u2014a healthy marriage, consistently dating your partner is important to do.<\/p>\nDating your spouse doesn\u2019t have to be expensive, but to grow a healthy marriage, dating your partner is important. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Here are some of the reasons we all need to continue to date our spouses after we say our vows at the altar:<\/p>\n

Time Is a Valuable Gift<\/h3>\n

Making time to date one another in a season of life that is very busy (and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon) is a powerful gift you can offer your spouse. Time is a precious commodity to any of us, and when we willingly spend that time with one another, we are saying\u00a0\u201cYou are worth my time.\u201d<\/strong> And because our lives are made up of just that\u2014time\u2014we are saying, in essence,\u00a0\u201cYou are worth my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

We Invest in What We Value<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re like me and you\u2019re not rolling in money, the components of getting a date with your spouse can seem too costly sometimes\u2014paying for a date\u00a0(and\u00a0a sitter, if you have kids) can start to add up.<\/p>\n

Yet, we invest in what we value: we do this all of the time with our food choices, our clothing purchases, our donations. It doesn\u2019t mean we have to spend loads of money to date, but we do have to invest in growing our marriages as a couple<\/strong>\u2014and it will cost us money, as many things of value often do.<\/p>\n

When We Short-Change Our Spouses, We Short-Change the Family<\/h3>\n

Even if the family is just the two of you right now, if you ignore the need that your spouse has for intentional, invested time together, you\u2019re hurting the family dynamics. The cracks may not start to show for a while, but the foundation of intimacy and friendship will weaken if you\u2019re not building in to your relationship as husband and wife.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we have kids, I think it\u2019s just as important\u2014if not more so<\/a>\u2014to keep dating one another. As a mom, I want my daughter to have everything she needs (and more).\u00a0But more than many other things, children want to know that their parents are in love and that they enjoy one another. this brings peace and stability to a home.<\/p>\nChildren want to know that their parents are in love and that they enjoy one another. #marriage <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Having a consistent date night won\u2019t guarantee a healthy marriage, but it provides intentional space to grow together as a couple.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the rest of the article here, at RELEVANT Magazine<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

Related: Dating Your Husband: The Hows and Whys<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my newest article for RELEVANT. Read the entirety of the article here! Dating\u2014in person, online or blind\u2014is prized in our culture, and most of us think of dating to be an important part of any meaningful, romantic relationship. Whether casual or glamorous, expensive or on a budget, we intuitively know that dating is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[433,5,6,133],"tags":[658,49,434,657,662,659,257,436,660,661,663],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dating-your-spouse-2","category-life","category-marriage","category-parenting","tag-christian-dates","tag-christian-marriage","tag-date-night-ideas","tag-date-your-spouse","tag-dating-after-having-kids","tag-dating-in-marriage","tag-dating-your-spouse","tag-healthy-marriage","tag-how-to-have-a-healthy-marriage","tag-marriage-and-parenting","tag-parents-dating","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Dating-for-a-Healthy-Marriage-How-Why.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annswindell.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}