Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines vacation as “a period of time that a person spends away from home, school, or business usually in order to relax or travel.” Well, that’s exactly what my wife and I have done for the past nine days. We got away! Wow! What an awesome time we had, just the two of us, away. Seriously, there is no one I would rather be away with than my wife!
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that to everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven. A vacation as defined as a time “to get away” is necessary for a good healthy marriage. Life, ministry, jobs, parenting, housework, infants, homework, toddlers, questions, ballgames, finances, disappointments, good things, etc., can fill up your world so quickly that as a couple, you live on two different tracks trying to achieve goals and/or “put out fires.” In the meantime, your marriage suffers. There is no communication, intimacy, fun, recreation, prayer, Bible study, or quiet time to just be together.
Couples, do you plan each year at least one weekend or a week-long get away? If you don’t, please do so! You need time to get away so you can drink from your own cistern and rejoice with the wife of your youth (Proverbs 5:15, 18). You need to get away so you can have time to be enraptured in each other’s embrace (5:20) without a cell phone notification or a child calling your name! You need to get away so you can play and sing the Song of Solomon! You need to take a cue from Shulamite as she says to her beloved, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away (2:10).
When our girls were growing up, my wife and I regularly dated, went away for overnighters and even took week-long trips without them. When they were young, we would remind them that we were getting away to build a stronger home for them. A healthy home begins with a heathy marriage.
What have you planned for your get away as a couple this year?
Why do we get away? Because our marriage is worth it. We need it.
From A Pastor's Heart 