Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? (Proverbs 5:15-16)
It’s Marriage Monday and our lovely hostess, e-Mom has given us the freedom to write about any aspect of marriage. Since JT and I will celebrate our seven year wedding anniversary later this month, I’ve been thinking about the term Seven Year Itch and pondering the meaning of this term.
The term Seven Year Itch is used to describe a person’s lack of interest or fidelity after seven years of marriage. Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell brought the term to life in the classic 1955 film bearing the same name. In the film, Richard Sherman ponders the state of his seven year marriage and seeks bachelor-like freedom while his wife and son are away on a summer long vacation. While his family is vacationing, Richard meets the attractive, single, young woman living above him and his active imagination shifts into overdrive!
Though the high of the newlywed years has subsided, neither JT nor I is itching to move on! As we approach another year of marriage, we continue to build up rather than bail out. This building up approach allows us to reflect upon our initial commitment to one another and affords us opportunities to strengthen our marriage.
How can couples go about building up their marriage? In their article Easy and Practical Ways to Help Your Marriage Last, Sheri and Bob Striof offer some wonderful tips couples can use daily, weekly, monthly, annually, and generally. Here are a few of the ones I plan to work on this year.
Daily: Affirm something your spouse said or did and say something nice.
Weekly: Do a few things together, like working in the yard, taking a walk, watching a favorite movie, or planning and cooking dinner.
Monthly: Plan and have a date night with one another.
Annually: Celebrate your anniversary by writing a letter to each other recommitting yourselves to your marriage.
Generally: Don’t expect your spouse to be a mind reader and don’t try to be a mind reader.
When we make our marriage a priority, itching is much less likely to occur. However, if you find yourself with an itch for conversation, affection, spontaneity, or anything else, talk to your spouse about it immediately. Work together to find the source of that itch and let your spouse be the one to scratch it!
© 2009, Andrea Thorpe. All rights reserved.
This was awesome post!!! We try to do date nights once a month. I love the annversary one. Going to try more of these. we have a great relationship but Love anything that can draw me and hubby closer and closer.
Happy Anniversary! Congratulations on seven years.
The Seven Year Itch… I remember that movie. I’m so glad we don’t need to look to Hollywood for instruction about how to “do” marriage correctly!
You offer some excelent tips. And I like this phrase: “We continue to build up rather than bail out.”
Thanks for joining us for Marriage Monday today, Andrea. (Happy to have you back!)
Hugs,
e-Mom :~D
http://chrysaliscom.blogspot.com
http://susannahsaprons.blogspot.com
Hey Andrea,
So nice to meet you! Glad you joined us today. Congrats on 7 years. God number of perfection!
I loved your ideas, I’ll save them.
Happy Anniversary?
Michele, thanks for stopping by. We need to do a better job of date nights and I agree that the anniversary letter idea is awesome. Won’t it be nice to look back at those letters in later years?
So true e-Mom! We most definitely should NOT use Hollywood standards to guide our lives! Thanks for hosting and it feels good to be back!
Susan, thanks for visiting! I’m glad you found something interesting here!
Congrats on 7 years already !!! I will save the tips. Thanks!
Great tips! That one about not expecting your spouse to be a mind reader … yeah, I had to learn that one. 🙂 Going to check out that article you linked, too.
I came here via Marriage Monday at Chrysalis.
Amen,sister, to the mind reading part. I am guilty! Thanks for the reminder.
Time flies by when you’re having fun! Thanks for visiting! Love ya!
Melanie, we’re not alone…lots of ladies I know are trying to learn this as well! I hope the article blesses you as much as it blessed me.
Thanks for visiting!
Tami, I needed to be reminded of that myself! Thank you for stopping by. I enjoyed your tips as well!
Wonderful, practical, common sense reminders!!!! Love it!!
Connie
Connie, I completely agree…those reminders are excellent! Thank you for visiting.