New Years means starting fresh. Daydreaming about new accomplishments and challenging ourselves to try new things is invigorating. Don’t you just love the sense of accomplishment that comes from reaching your goals? One year I vowed to run 12 miles straight and finished in four months. Another time I made a $5 weekly grocery budget work.
This year, my top priority is being an intentional wife and mother.
It is a real challenge to purposefully set apart family time between dozens of cloth diaper laundry loads and piles of dishes. Many days I look back and wish I’d taken Summer to the park, read a book with my son, or sought my husband’s heart. The 2014 Family First Challenge is a checklist of concrete ways to serve and bless my family daily.
Whether wives and moms work outside the house or not, our primary ministry is with our family. God certainly uses women in career fields and in all areas of ministry, but he has a special place in his heart for family and calls us to care for our own.
This week I’m sharing one chunk of my own Family-First Challenge.
Family-First Challenge #1: Shower my husband in love.
The marriage relationship is the core of a family. It’s super important to relish that bond, to strengthen our ties as man and wife, and to learn to communicate and show one another love in the way each person best receives it. I’ve set two main tasks.
Respect.
All men need respect. It’s a Biblical truth that I’m better at saying than doing.
One way to grasp the concept of verbal respect is to speak to your a husband like he was a boss at work. This doesn’t mean that a wife bow to his every request, but rather that we treat our husbands with the kind of respect that we give in the workplace. I would never consider nagging or shouting at my supervisor or expecting him to sit through a whinefest about a haircut gone awry. Speak respect to your man and speak love to his heart. [Tweet this!] Here’s a great book that digs deeper into the topic.
Relation.
Married men need sex. I know that sometimes it’s the last thing we wives want to think about at the end of a crazy hectic day, but it’s vital.
This year I’m diving deep and jumping into the 72 hour challenge. If you’re new to this concept, it means that you hook up with your guy at least every 72 hours. We started this challenge a few months ago, and though we only made it a couple of weeks, my husband and I can both attest to the improvement in our relationship from having only changed this one area.
Hope this inspires you to come up with new ways to give 100% in your role as a wife and mama this year. What are your New Year’s goals? Please share below and let us know what’s on your list!
I couldn’t agree more…and this too is at the top of my new year’s resolutions! The 72hr challenge is new to me but why not give it a try ♥
Beautiful pic of you and the hubs!
Thanks so much, Lauren. This photo is actually and oldie from before we were married. The 72 hour challenge was new to me until recently too. I read about it from another blogger and chose to give it a try. I’ll tell you, there’s not many men who wouldn’t be ambassadors for the idea 😉
I loved it! Thanks for sharing and keep writting! 🙂 Blessings!
I’m so happy you stopped by today, Yojana. Glad to recommend a good read WITH benefits 🙂 Have a great week and hope to see you all around again soon!
I agree 100% about how to talk to your husband with respect–comparing that to how you speak to your boss is awesome. That will speak volumes to your husband for sure. I’ve never heard of the 72 hr. challenge, but it makes perfect sense. Last year, both my husband and I started making sex a priority in our marriage & we’ve seen so much improvement in our relationship as a whole. I think it’s easy for us women to roll our eyes at it because it seems so superficial, but sex communicates different things for our husbands on a deeper level. Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
You’re absolutely spot-on, Caroline. Isn’t it impressive how much of a difference sex makes in all the facets of marriage? I always knew it was important, but never realized how it connected my husband and I on many more levels than just the physical. Thank you for visiting!
Great post Jelli! You are so right about respect and the Love and Respect book you linked to is AWESOME! The way it talks about the crazy cycle is brilliant. It talks about the sex part as well. Good stuff!
There’s a reason that book’s been a top seller, right?! So glad to hear that you give it such a high rating too. Thank you, Lindsay, for taking time out of your busy day to stop by. Have a super week.
Will look for the book 🙂
it really is crazy how much difference sex makes, lol. it’s too easy for too much time to pass and it doesn’t always seem like a big deal, but it does start to affect things without us realizing it. and I need a LOT of work in the respect department… my tone of voice is something I’ve had to deal with all my life, not realizing how I was coming across sometimes, and doing daily videos definitely helps one realize it even more!
I loved this!! Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself in this post. I had never heard of the 72 hour challenge, but it would definitely be a wonderful challenge for us to try. Thank you for inspiring me to work on being better for my husband. I’m glad to have found you at the #making2014count link-up. Excited to have more of a look around. //Jenna
I’m so happy to meet you this week, Jenna! Your husband is lucky to have you. Thank you for taking the time to say hello. Have a wonderful weekend and come by again soon.
This was a great post! So glad to see another blogger not afraid to talk about sex in marriage. And what a great challenge and goal for the new year! Blessings to you!
xoxo, autumn
p.s. I found you on the #making2014count link up…so glad I did!
Great post! I just recently heard of the 72 hr idea from a friend at our small group Christmas party. Ya know how God seems to keep dropping things in your lap when he is trying to get you to do something… bahahah Loved the respect analogy too – my brain seems to work well w/ pictures like the boss at work analogy. Glad to have found your writing!
I kept reading to figure out what in the world you meant by “saucy marriage post” and THEN I found it. 🙂 I’ve never heard of the 72 hour challenge either, but that’s a great idea. It’s so important to prioritize intimacy with our husbands!
Haha. Yep, it doesn’t seem too unusual until you get to the bottom of the post. Thanks for visiting, Gabby!
nodding my head in agreement, and yes, I’m sure many husband would love this challenge! 😉
Jelli, let me just start off by saying thank you SO much for stopping by my blog and leaving me a comment as it led me to you! I’m enjoying reading all the posts I’ve been missing out on. I love your writing style as your compassionate, fun-loving, and oh so adorable personality just shines through.
My husband and I are reading a book together called “Men are Like Waffles and Women are Like Spaghetti,” (I know how awesome is that title?) and it’s helping us communicate better with each other.
I’m really trying to respect my husband as well and let him lead the family as our Father instructs. Being the control freak that I am, I struggle with this. But this year, I’m really going to work on lifting up my husband.
I have to be honest with you. I’ve never really enjoyed sex, but we have sort of been doing the 72 hour challenge (I had no idea there was a name for it haha) because we’ve been longing to become parents for quite some time now..3 years to be exact. It was more like a duty at first, but I can sense that we are a lot more connected now than ever..and our love for each other continues to grow. I just continue to pray that I won’t get so discouraged, impatient, defeated, and angry every time I don’t see a smiley face on that darn stick but that I will wait and trust in God’s perfect timing.
OK..whew..sorry it got so long….but thank you for allowing me to share 😉
Min, that is a fantastic book title. Would you recommend it? Will email you soon.
We were just strolling around Family Christian bookstore when we stumbled upon the book. After reading the first page, we were both sold! We haven’t gotten to the meaty part yet as we are just starting chapter 3, but so far we love it! It’s funny and totally relatable but there’s applicable wisdom in each chapter. You should def check it out ;).
Thanks, Min! Will do.