Investing in Relationships

Amy and I were at our church's "Marriage Getaway" this past weekend down in Irvine. We had a really good time hanging out and meeting new people, but beyond that the things that were talked about by our pastor throughout the weekend were really valuable so I'd like to pass some of it along.

Matt (our pastor) was talking about how we need to basically be more involved with our spouse and by doing so we can increase our intimacy and inloveness. He talked about how common it is for a husband and wife to have interests and hobbies that are their own and they really don't share with their spouse usually because the spouse isn't interested. He urged us to think differently about the things our spouse likes. We should acknowledge that there is obviously something about those things that makes our spouse enjoy them, which means there is something worth liking about it. Our love for our spouse should motivate us to give more consideration to those things and by doing so it is likely that we too will find something we like about it. All this is to say that the more we write off our spouses hobbies or interests as only for them, the more we are creating distance in the marriage.

I feel like even if I am pretty certain that I won't really like something Amy likes, I should still be open to trying it simply because she likes it. This can be anything... Food, activities, people, movies or shows, music. The more we can share the closer we will be.

To a little bit lesser degree I think this lesson can be applied to friendships, for those that are looking to build stronger, closer friendships, this might be a good approach.

Just something to think about if you haven't before.