{"id":126,"date":"2016-06-20T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=126"},"modified":"2016-06-17T10:47:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T18:47:37","slug":"dating-spouse-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2016\/06\/dating-spouse-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Neglect Dating Your Spouse and Investing in Your Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-127\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2016\/06\/couple-hands-large.jpg\" alt=\"couple-hands-large\" width=\"569\" height=\"238\"><\/p>\n<p>Marriage is the heart of the home. A good marriage precedes good parenting, and no amount of good parenting compensates for a poor marriage. And one of the best ways to have a good, strong marriage is by spending quality time together.<\/p>\n<p>I get that life is busy and money can be tight. But make it a priority to date your spouse. Put it in your schedule and your budget!<\/p>\n<p>Even when our girls were small, Nanci and I would have a date night and go out together. The two of us would sometimes go on vacations alone. We called on a lot of babysitters who were people from the church, or our kids would stay at our friends\u2019 homes, or with grandparents. We really believed that the best thing we could do for our children was to have a strong marriage and to enjoy our time together.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago Nanci and I did a question and answer time with the young mom\u2019s group at our church. In <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/136555568\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">this video<\/a>, she and I answer the questions \u201cWhat are some fun things you do as a couple, on a budget?\u201d and \u201cWhat advice do you have for keeping marriage fun after the 10-year mark?\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Are Some Fun Things You Do as a Couple on a Budget?\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/136555568?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media\"><\/iframe>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo via <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Unsplash<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marriage is the heart of the home. A good marriage precedes good parenting, and no amount of good parenting compensates for a poor marriage. And one of the best ways to have a good, strong marriage is by spending quality time together. I get that life is busy and money can be tight. But make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[51,24],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marriage-and-family","tag-marriage","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t Neglect Dating Your Spouse and Investing in Your Marriage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marriage is the heart of the home. A good marriage precedes good parenting, and no amount of good parenting compensates for a poor marriage. And one of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2016\/06\/dating-spouse-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Neglect Dating Your Spouse and Investing in Your Marriage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Marriage is the heart of the home. A good marriage precedes good parenting, and no amount of good parenting compensates for a poor marriage. And one of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2016\/06\/dating-spouse-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-20T16:30:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-17T18:47:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2016\/06\/couple-hands-large.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"569\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"238\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2016\/06\/dating-spouse-marriage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2016\/06\/dating-spouse-marriage\/\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Neglect Dating Your Spouse and Investing in Your Marriage\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-20T16:30:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-17T18:47:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035\"},\"description\":\"Marriage is the heart of the home. 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