Consistent Date Nights can be a challenge when you are married with kids.  The time commitments to your kids and their activities, to the work that provides for your kids, to ministry and other activities can make it very hard to go on regular dates with your spouse.

Where there is a will, you will find a way

Our Date Nights have fallen victim to all of the various commitments we have.  Our goal is to have weekly Date Nights, but recently we have barely had monthly Date Nights!  I’ve mentioned in previous posts on marriage how important spending time and dating is to a marriage.

So I was really excited when I recently discovered the “12 Great Dates Challenge” on Aja Dorsey Jackson’s site, Making Love in the Microwave (she got the idea from Life in General by Shannon Brown). Here is how it works:

“This basket holds 12 envelopes.  Each labeled with a month of the year.  And each envelope contains a pre-planned, (mostly) pre-paid date just for us.  Some of the dates will take place at home, some are planned for the local area, and some will take us into town.  All 12 dates are different.  Several, actually nearly all of the dates are things we have never done before.“

We are in!

I think that is a GREAT idea to help busy couples date consistently, and plan on doing this in our marriage.  I will add a couple twist for our “12 Great Dates“.  Here are the twists:

• Between now and Christmas we’ll plan dates and save money to cover the complete cost.
• On Christmas we’ll exchange gift baskets with 12 planned and pre-paid dates (including childcare costs). So we will actually have “24 Great Dates!” 🙂
• Each date will be limited to $25 per date plus childcare fees (or average out to $25 per date).  This helps us to budget and control spending.
• Beginning January, the 1st day of each month we’ll schedule the dates in our calendar for that month.
• Most dates will be a surprise for the person who receives the gift, so until we get there they won’t know (my wife loves surprises).

Are you in? The more the merrier!

You and your spouse can do the same thing.  We would love you to join us!  Plan 12 (or 24) great dates and share some of your best, and most creative date ideas in the comment section below.  The date ideas we use will be mentioned in a future blog post, giving credit to you as the idea originator, as well as links to your blog or site (if you have one).

Question:  What is the most fun, creative, $25 or less date you and your spouse have had?  🙂 Please share in the comment section below.

SPACE

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