Date Night - Serving Others

Sean and I are trying to establish a more regular date night, yes we do have date nights but they are a bit scattered sometimes, or sometimes we forget to plan them.
So Mondays are our established date night, it can be whatever we want them to be. But we know that it is a time where it is just us two, to enjoy each other's company and to continue dating each other in marriage. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, our church is doing a real marriage series and Sunday's sermon was being friends in you marriage. Sean is designed to be my best friend throughout life. There is a great acronym using the word friends, and what each of those roles are in your marriage, which I will mention later.

For our date night last night, our church was having a backpack drive to help out children in our local school district so for our date night, we wanted to serve others.
After a dinner at home of slow cooker pot roast(recipe coming), we headed out out to Target oh and Lowes to buy some soil topper, all 10 bags of it. So if I smell a bit of manure the next few days that is because we drove in my car and the stench might linger.
Just a few snapshots of our date :-)





It was very enjoyable serving others together with my husband, it helps to re-establish that this life isn't about us, it is about God, His love for us and how He wants us to spread that love to others.
Ok now back to FRIENDS and what it spells out in a marriage according to the Bible.
F - fruitful
     R - reciprocal
 I - intimate
    E - enjoyable
N - needed
 D - devoted
     S - sanctifying
If you are married, how are you making sure your spouse is your best friend and if not what areas do you need to work on? And if you are not married yet, what are you doing today to prepare to be that best friend to your spouse?

42 comments:

Simply LKJ said...

What a fun way to spend time together while serving others as well. Mark and I were just talking last night about looking into starting a mentoring program for parents at our high school with some other couples we know. We are always being asked, "how we did it" (raised our girls), now's the time to share and give back. Thanks for sharing the acronym!

Katie {Miss Dixie} said...

what a great reminder! Stephen is def my best friend and seeing the meaning behind friends is something I should look at every single day. thanks meg!

Ruthie Hart said...

i love that you guys used your date night to benefit others! and what study are yall doing? We are about to start the Mars Hill Real Marriage study!

Lacy in the Sky with Diapers said...

So sweet! And such a great idea, nothing makes you feel better then serving others! Perfect date night!

RadiantKristen said...

What a sweet way to spend your date night! I love buying school supplies for those in need, I remember being a kid, and the best part of school really is all of the new stuff.

Alicia Marie said...

I think dates are still real important during marriage too, keeps it fun and fresh. :)

Carly said...

Love this! We are having a backpack drive at our church too! Now that school is starting up, we need to pick our regular date night for the school year!

Carly
www.lipglossandcrayons.com

Darby Hawley said...

What a great way to spend a date night and I love that acronym. I'm definitely going to share that with my hubby :-)

Kira said...

We rarely do date nights anymore, like maybe once every six weeks or so. We definitely need to improve that!
Also, just curious...why did you need soil topper for a backpack drive? Or was that just a separate thing for your yard?

Unknown said...

That is such a great datenight and I love the acronym. I can't wait until I have someone special in my life to start my own datenights like this. My church is doing a date night series this summer too, where kids can be dropped off at the church for free babysitting while the couples are out.

XO
Amanda

Jamie LaFuze said...

I think this was such a perfect date night! The acronym for Friends is so important to remember, that I just wrote it down. It's so funny because Daniel and I have been really focusing on being each other's friends, soaking up each other's company instead of taking it for granted, and being more intentional in one another when we are with one another. We just went on a little date night last night and it was perfect!

Unknown said...

This is such an awesome date night idea! I love that you used your time together to serve others. It's so sweet and definitely encouraging :)

Unknown said...

Awe what a wonderful date night! Jeremy and I's date nights usually consist of popcorn and Dexter! haha!
xx

xoxo Bree
The Urban Umbrella

http://www.theurbanumbrella.com/

Karen said...

I love this Meg. Love that you served others and had a date night at the same time! That is a great acronym!

Amy G said...

Love this post and that acronym! It's so true! Glad that you had a wonderful date night that was different from the "typical" dinner and movie type ordeal!

Sarah said...

Aw what a great way to spend a date night. Such a great cause. I remember trips to targets being cute fun date nights =)

- Sarah
agirlintransit.blogspot.com

Jane {In The Pink & Green} said...

Great post, and thanks for sharing that acronym! So perfect for what marriage should be...hope you're having a great week girl! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow Meg, this is a pretty inspiring post. Love the first photo looks like you guys had fun! I try to make sure my husband feels needed and appreciated. We have each others back which is important.

Thx for sharing this.

xx
Quiet Luxury


Leeann @ Join the Gossip said...

Lol why is Spam in the dollar bin?!

That's really cool of you guys to do. So nice of you to think of others and I bet you had a blast...except for the manure part ;)

Lauren said...

love this post. even with Elyse we are trying so very hard to continue "dating" each other...even if it's just a few times a month!

I've actually started doing a quick study in the mornings that's a 30-Day Husband Encouragement challenge...it is really helping me to focus on being his teammate and building each other up at all times!

Kathrin@shopschoolsleep said...

What a great post!! I try to do Date nights, especially during the school year, but it gets really hard to coordinate our schedules sometimes. This summer was nice because we spent a lot of time together and taking vacations and talking.

Faith said...

i loved reading this. i love when our church has sermons on marriage. they always get me excited.

we do date nights weekly too. they range from anything we decide to do. i love them because we get to really reflect on one another. it really is such a blessing that i get to live everyday with my best friends. the one whom my heart loves most.

great post :)

The Preppy Student said...

what a great date night! you guys are so cute!

Always Maylee said...

Aw I love this! You guys are so sweet. My husband and I do date nights almost weekly. The most important thing is that we always make each other laugh. I can only laugh like that when I'm with my best friend. :)

xo, Yi-chia
Always Maylee

Carol {Everyday Delights} said...

You guys seriously are awesome! I love that you do stuff like this and that friend acronym is great! Nick and I don't really have an established date night, but we always try to make sure at least one night a week we don't have anything else going on. Life can get so busy with after work commitments I think it's important to carve time out for each other.

The Good Wife said...

I love that you guys are implementing a weekly date night! It is so important for your relationship. I also love that you used it to help others. Doing activities like this can really bond a couple and bring them closer together. Just make sure you also have date nights where you can get all dressed up and go a to fancy restaurant every once in a while! ;)

Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam & Dylan Too said...

That's great that you're having weekly date night. Now that we have kids, we're down to monthly date nights. And often, that involves dinner and shopping!

Regina of Live Delightfully said...

I love this! Joey and I definitely don't go on dates as much as we did without kids. But we're planning a date for this Saturday and I'm hoping we can start making it a habit to do at least once a month.

Brittany LeSueur said...

That is so great you guys have a date night!!! having two kids we are trying not to fail at that one! The white mountains are east Az. They are home to greenspeak and Sunrise ski resort...I need to not be so pathetic on my Az geography!

Kate @ Daffodils said...

This is a wonderful post, Meg! It is always good to be reminded to work on our marriages. Kev and I have a date-in night on night per weekend. No tv, computers or phones, just us, a little music and a glass on wine. With our two crazies running around all day, we sometimes forget to communicate with eachother once they go to bed. This works out well!

chantal marie said...

I love this idea! What a great date!

I am not married, but I definitely think that people tend to skip out on the work part of the relationship during and even before marriage. Russ and I read relationship books, discuss and work on our relationship regularly. We also schedule one-on-one time and value our separate time too. It is a hard balance. I admire your hard work.

Lindsay @ Delighted Momma said...

You guys are wonderful!! What a cool date :) I think date nights are soo important! Soak up as many as you can before little munchkins enter the picture

REBrown said...

What a fun way to spend time with each other!

Megan G. said...

That is so cool that y'all have regular date nights, and even more awesome that you two decided to spending it helping others! What a great reminder of how we can be charitable and turn it into something fun with the person we love. :)

Stephanie said...

How fun is that?!?! I love it!

trishie said...

I think it's a great idea to regularly schedule date nights even when you're married. Keeps the romance alive

Joanna said...

Great date night idea! Double feel good points for that one.
Hubby and I are really trying to do our devotionals together and being more open about our relationship with Christ. This is the best thing for us and has brought us so much closer. We love The Love Dare!

Bev said...

I can't believe he willingly went to Target with you!! Honestly, it's become more of like pulling teeth to try and get my husband to join me there!!

I love your idea of date nights.. keepin' it alive and fresh and serving others TOGETHER! You rock!

Kasey Lynne said...

That's so awesome that you and Sean have a designated date night. It's SO important...no matter what you end up doing. I'm gonna talk to Sam about that.

And that friends acronym? It's going on our bathroom mirror. Great reminder.

Courtney said...

I love this idea! We do datenights too, we try to go on one every week, super important once you have kids to have that time together:)

Elizabeth @ Love Is the Adventure said...

Oh, I love this so much. I feel so much closer to Kyle when we are serving together. He and I worked in the children's ministry at our church last fall and it was such a great time we spent together and a wonderful reminder that the possibilities for serving God are ENDLESS!

Kyle and I try to plan dates that force us to experience something new so we make an effort to pick places we haven't visited or parts of town we haven't explored, even if it's just taking a walk somewhere new or making a new recipe together.

Kristin said...

love this post. good to know for my future marriage