What Does It Look Like? - Marriage Partnership (Part Quartre)

What Does It Look Like? - Marriage Partnership (Part Quartre)

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it’s when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. —Amy Bloom

A GENTLEMAN SAT with me in a conference room waiting for his peers and staff to join us for a meeting. As we exchanged pleasantries, he mentioned he was going on vacation the next week. Knowing he had a family, I inquired if he and his wife were going alone or were taking the children. This was a family vacation, he said.

But then something flashed across his face and he added, “Maybe my wife and I should schedule something alone. It’s like we’ve become roommates.”

About five years into a marriage, the perfect storm arises: our schedules get busy, our lives become complicated, and our libidos diminish. Day-to-day survival is all we can manage, and we fall into a rut—two ships passing in the driveway. The romance dissolves.

While the kids were growing up, Steve and I allowed ourselves four days, every other year, to vacation. Alone.

Our time away always included a romantic dinner; an adventure; new discoveries; and a time to talk—uninterrupted. As a result, we fell more deeply in love.

Ava is eight months old as I write this, and her parents are planning their first four-day rekindling vacation. The stresses of caring for a firstborn and managing challenging careers and hectic schedules will be left in Dallas. While on their Portland rendezvous, Shauna and Adam will look at each other with new eyes—and fall in love all over again.

I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. (Galatians 3:5)

Although Ava won’t know what she’s looking at this year, she will in years to come: she’ll witness the miracle of rekindled love.