We lived in a two bedroom duplex. It was red brick with white shutters and sat in the back yard of a little Baptist church where I got most acquainted with Jesus.
Brent and I were newbies on staff with Campus Crusade and pretty newbie to marriage, as well. While raising financial support, our little family of three lived in this missionary house. Brent worked construction on the side and I was a mommy to one, cooking lots of pasta on an avocado stove. With one working burner, dinners were simple.
And inexpensive.
We made the most of our red, brick duplex. Our heat didn’t work well and space was tight which meant extra snuggling and more blankets.
(And eventually Ethan)
We were proud of our BigLots curtains and pasta cuisine. We made it a home. Our home for a season.
A sweet season.
I bat my eyes at that time in our lives not only because of the meekness of our circumstances, but because simplicity was plentiful.
And simplicity lends extra room for God.
In the busyness of my life, marriage is the first to “go”… meaning the first to be placed on the one working back burner of our avocado stoves. I know that Brent can feed himself, work his own math problems, pick out his clothes, make his own doctor appointments, and drive himself to work. Marriage goes on “auto pilot” far too often around here. We still love each other, talk on the phone, end quick phone talks with “I love you” and give short pecks on morning cheeks, but sometimes marriage needs extra attention. Little love notes. Words of encouragement. Special dinners. Longer kisses.
Sometimes marriage calls for extra blankets, you know?
Sometimes marriage is deserving of a stroll down memory lane. A time to pause and reflect on the goodness of God in a sweet season. Sometimes we just need to brag on our spouse and our GREAT BIG GOD in order to win a Gary Chapman book on some girl’s blog.
Just sometimes.
So how about today!? Here’s how you enter….
Post a comment below sharing a snippet of a sweet season of your marriage. Brag like crazy on your spouse. Give glory to God. Remember and rejoice.
Your comment will count as ONE ENTRY. Then, SHARE this contest on your Facebook or Twitter (THAT’S ANOTHER ENTRY) then – if you really want- go to your spouse’s Facebook page and post a link there, too. Say something sweet like, “Strolling down memory lane today! Love you!” {wink, wink} (THAT’S ANOTHER ENTRY!)
If you did more than just the one comment, make sure you let me know so I can count it!
The Giveaway ends WEDNESDAY NIGHT at 9pm! I am excited to read all about your SWEET SEASON!
Oh, and here’s a little blurb about Dr. Gary Chapman’s book, “The Four Seasons of Marriage” per GoodReads!
Gary Chapman, author of the perennial best seller “The Five Love Languages, ” provides an easy-to-grasp framework to help couples understand their marriage and seven practical strategies for strengthening or improving their marriage relationship. A valuable resource for couples regardless of how long they’ve been married, this biblically based book is a reference tool to help couples through every season of marriage. Summary of features: Valuable insight for every couple, regardless of how long they have been married. Provides seven practical strategies to help couples understand and strengthen their marriage relationship. Includes a Marital Seasons Profile to help couples determine the season of their marriage.
Have fun!
Becky Crenshaw 
A sweet season for us was about 5 years into our marriage. We had a one year old, and I had just gone from teaching full-time to part-time. For the first time ever, I had a few extra minutes on my hands, and I was able to slow down and just enjoy being with my husband. It felt like such a luxury to have that time with him, because all we had know was busyness.
LOVE IT, MINDY!
We have had our ups and downs, living for a year in Memphis on little to no money, moving home, living in an apartment under his parents garage, buying our first home, having our babies, but right now we are in one of the sweetest, yet most stressful seasons of our marriage, right now we are about to put our marriage vows to the ultimate test. On New Years Day of this year I was diagnose with a neurological disorder and will be have brain surgery in a week, we will put the vows of in sickness and health to the test. While we have both have had different reactions to this situation, and even had our moments of frustration with each other I know we will get through this and be stronger on the other side.
This isn’t necessarily a sweet ‘season’, but something I love about my husband. He knows that I freak out in the final hour before entertaining guests at our house. It’s the countdown, and I always stress. He says I get ‘the look’. So now he’ll come up to me before guests arrive and ask how I’m doing. Sometimes he’ll say “you’ve got the look” and ask what I need. Other times he can see that I’m ok. It’s just nice to know that he ‘knows’ me.
Becky, I love this! What a great idea to look back over our marriages. As I look back over the past almost 15 years of marriage and think about the different seasons of our marriage, I would have to say now is such a sweet season. I loved being newlyweds in our 1 bedroom apartment. The birth of our 1st child was amazing. I had 1 year when I had 3 surgeries and that was a hard time. God was faithful and Andy took care of me, stood by my side, and loved me through it. I think I realized then how much and how deep he loved me. I am so thankful for that. Another season when Andy started his own business, he traveled every week. It was so hard and I remember crying and begging him not to go out of town some weeks. It is true absence makes the heart grow fonder. These days life is happy and we are at a good place. I love this season because I feel secure in Andy’s love, we enjoy (lots of) family time at the baseball field, and try to have regular date nights. I am so thankful to God for my amazing husband and family! To God be the glory!
Hey Becky, I think the sweetest season of our marriage is right now! We are leading the Love and Respect class at our church and it has been life-changing in our relationship. We both now realize we are good-willed people that don’t intend to hurt the other, although we sometimes mess up and say or do something without thinking. We are aware of that and are quick to ask if we were unloving or disrespectful in what we said or did and forgive each other. Making time for each other and focusing on the marriage is so important. I love this and will share! Love you!
Hmmm…I like this. And, I think I need this. My sweet season is also a very difficult season. It is NOW. My husband has been showing me the love of Jesus and serving me in my time of need. In this season when my mother is very ill with cancer, Andy has taken up the slack (of which there is a lot). He already did a lot (read: most to all) of the cleaning and organizing in our house. In these past months, he has done more. He has repeatedly helped me when he comes home to find me completely washed out on the couch or standing crying in the bed. He has ordered and picked up take-out more times than I can count (or even want to admit). He has hugged me. He has been understanding of my weakness, my short-temper, my everything. I would love to get this book and read about some ways to serve him better, focus on him more in this season and in the seasons to come.
slight amendment…I have not been standing crying in the bed 🙂 That was a mix of standing crying in the kitchen and laying crying in the bed. Ha, ha!
One of my most treasured memories is of my husband and my 3rd wedding anniversay. We had an 18 month old daughter, I was working full time and Aaron was in school full time. I told him the only thing I wanted for our anniversary was to not have to plan anything. Aaron arranged for my parents to keep the baby and set up my surprises. When I arrived home after dropping off our daughter, I couldn’t believe all that he had in store! To start the night off, Aaron had bought a 3 course meal and had it waiting on the table with 3 roses. After dinner there was a bath drawn upstairs with rose petals floating in it. And my 3rd surprise (sensing a number theme?) was waiting for me in our room. As I turned on the light, the fan began to spin and released tons of rose petals and tiny hearts all over the room! On each heart Aaron had written something that he loved about me. The night was so special because Aaron had really taken the time to make it that way. Even though we didnt have the money for a “fancy” evening, it was a perfect evening anyway.
I’ll preface my comment by saying that I feel a little out of place by posting . . . because I’m the husband and just saw a link to this in our shared email. However, I didn’t want to pass up the wonderful opportunity to share what a blessing my wife has been, is, and continues to be. I’m also excited to praise the Lord that He allowed her to be MY wife, and share about his recent blessing upon our family.
One of the sweetest seasons in our relationship began on May 19, 2012. It was my birthday, and Emily woke me up asking if I wanted her to go ahead and give me my present. Now, you need to know that surprising me with gifts during our 14 years of marriage has rarely been successful for her because she gets so excited about them that she gives away too many clues. Knowing this I was ready to “act” excited over what I knew was coming. However, she had a different plan as she pulled from behind her back a POSITIVE pregnancy test that she had taken just a few minutes earlier. “Are you serious”, “is this for real”, “praise the Lord”, “let me see that again”, “holy mother of pearl” were some of my responses as Emily tried to hush me so as not to wake our sleeping children (9yrs, 8yrs, and 5yrs). Wow, a fourth, we praised the Lord and laughed, and laughed, and laughed – because we weren’t trying. We had discussed having a fourth, but our “practical” (and worldly) thoughts were winning that logical discussion. Was this our plan, no, and thankfully the Lord does not follow worldly logic nor ask for my input into His plans for our family. If He did we wouldn’t be able to celebrate our youngest son turning six weeks old this week. Pregnancy and delivery were trying as we have aged a few years since the birth of our first. But all the while Emily continued to be an excellent wife, to minister to our kids through homeschooling, to serve others at church and to manage our home down to the last detail. Our life is far from perfect, but as crazy as it sound adding a fourth child has slowed us down a bit, given us time together to snuggle our new addition, and allowed the Lord to renew our joy. This is because we’ve been forced to accept the reality that we can’t do everything, and therefore we are far more satisfied with what God allows us to accomplish each day. When I left for work this morning my beautiful wife smiled sleepily at me from the couch where she was feeding our son. I walked out the door thanking God for not only did He give me the greatest eternal gift in His Son, but He has blessed me beyond measure in my earthly life.
I don’t really have season to share, but a time that I will hold in my heart forever. I was in the hospital, having been run over by a horse and having had surgery the previous night. The following night, Jess came back to the hospital at about 6:00 and laid in the hospital bed with me, and we laid together, my head on his shoulder. There was something so relaxed, so close, so intimate having my husband lay in that bed with me, and not wanting to leave me. There were no worries in our lives at the moment. We were simply in the moment of being together. I will cherish that memory forever.
We have definitely had our share of ups and downs. Okay, a lot of downs at times. That is what I remember to be one of the sweetest, most cherished season of our marriage. Our marriage started off different than most. I was three months pregnant when we got married. So from the start is was tough. Being newly married, having our first baby, not knowing each other, but living such a simple life. I definitely miss those times. Even moving back to my parents to save up money to buy our first home. But the most challenging time, which was followed by the most cherished and amazing time of our marriage came in 2008. I found out that my husband was cheating on me. You may wonder why I would say this is our sweetest time in marriage. Well, it was awful, for almost a year, and then PRAISE JESUS! The Lord drew my husband to himself. Because ultimately, that was all that was going to save him. I remember there were nights before he was saved that we would sit and talk. He would say things like, what if the Lord doesn’t change me? I want The Lord to save me. It was then that the Lord started to work in his heart. I remember the first time that my husband was fully convicted of his sin and he came to me, completely broken, sobbing and on his knees. It is a moment that I will remember and cherish forever. We both like to look back and think about how little we actually knew about each other that first year of marriage. I am so grateful that The Lord changed my husbands heart!
So many sweet seasons and sweet moments to consider, but I have to say that in his everyday commitment to working to provide for our family, heading out as early as 5:00 am (like today) and returning home to be the best Daddy ever – it is sweet and so unbelievably reassuring. There is a great deal of security and stability that comes from being able to set up our family this way and knowing that my husband serves us every day – even when he may not feel like it. I love the everyday moments of marriage.
So…I’m looking through WordPress, trying to find out how to use that random number generator thingy for giveaways (I want to do some on my blogs), and decided to just search Giveaways as a category. I find yours! This is so special. I’ve been twice blessed with wonderful, godly husbands. My late husband was mine for almost 25 years, with a lot of sweet AND sour seasons, but all worth the effort! My husband now is a wonderful man, very different from my Dave, but still well worth the effort of making new sweet seasons together. Often I’ll think something and he’ll say it out loud, and vice versa. It always makes us both laugh, and gives those around us a good chuckle too, when we explain what just happened – again. 🙂
Our sweetest season was one of our hardest. My husband was in Virginia at Fort Lee, and we couldn’t talk, text, or any of that modern stuff:). The only communication we could do was through old fashioned letters. Snail mail letters. Not only was it a huge thrill to get one in the mail, It gave us a chance to hear what was really on our hearts and even resolve a couple of things that I think we wouldn’t have otherwise. I still have all of those letters and cherish them. We thought this was going to be an impossible time but it really helped us learn that God has a plan 🙂
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