Husbands Love Your Wives - Does that include Creative and Playful?

As christian men we have all heard those these words from Ephesians 5:25-26:

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Work,.." Ephesians 5:25-26 (Amplified version)

We are to love our wives sacrificially just as Christ loved the church - a calling that I myself often find intimidating to aspire to.  We should each learn the love language of our spouse, whether it be quality time, acts of service, gifts, affirmation, or physical touch.   Dr.  Gary Chapman has written an entire book (The Five Love Languages) on the five love languages that is worth checking out if you haven't already.

So you may be asking what is this blog about.  Well, I only claim to be a fellow christian brother trying to learn to love my wife the way God desires.   I hope to share my own experiences and ideas on how to pursue the woman in your life.  I often have found myself caught up in the busy freeway of life trying to earn a living, keep the cars running, and keeping the house in repair that pursuing God and my wife slips from the forefront.

I believe first and foremost we must pursue Jesus if we are to truly pursue our wives.  I have recently picked up John Elderidge's new book Beautiful Outlaw.   If you have a view that Jesus is an ethereal, angelic, and austere fellow this book is a must read.   As I have read this book, it has given me a new perspective on Jesus personality and how wonderful His love is for us.   In this book, Elderidge ponders the playful side of Jesus - the loving and fun personality that came to win us back to the Father.

Thinking back to the verse "Husbands, love your wives..."  in light of this playful side of Jesus got me started thinking on how I can exhibit the playful and loving nature of Jesus to my wife.  My wife and I for a few years now have blocked off one night every week to have a date night.   This has been a huge blessing in our marriage, but I've often found too often I default to dinner and a movie and let these times become more routine than imaginative and playful.

As part of this blog my hope is to offer up some creative dating ideas for christian couples, hoping that I try to keep fun and creativity alive in my own relationship with my wife that maybe other men will find the ideas helpful or even inspire their own.