Well, it's been weeks since I have been able to post here and I feel pretty bad about it. Life can run you over if you're not careful. If you have children, you know that they can make life really, really busy. We love our children so much and we love to have them around, but the fact is that children can get in the way of romance in a big way. Although you can have a romantic marriage and have children, there are times when you get overwhelmed.
Being married with a child can be challenging. Have two, and it gets 4 times as challenging. Can it ever! And romance suffers. It's wonderful to be a parent, but being the center of two little people's world and being pulled in too many directions can really stress and wear you out; especially when one gets sick and shares his illness with everyone in the house. We have just gotten over 5 weeks of illness in our house (yes: again). At least one person has been ill at any given time. I am just getting over Bronchitis – I was the last to succumb. Talk about a damper in your romantic life! (It also puts a damper in posting to your blog.)
So what can you do about it? Well, sadly, sometimes not much. When I find myself in these situations I just realize that you cannot enjoy the sun fully unless it rains from time to time. I trust that God will use the time apart to make me fully appreciate when times are good. After I am well, when I kiss my wife, it will be much sweeter than before. So in the past five weeks, I have not put any pressure on her.
Guess what happened? Although I assumed we would go without sex, we didn't go without. We took some brief moments to have that connection even though we were tired and stressed. And I thank my wife for that because she could have understandably shut down. I believe that my always loving, serving, helping and supporting her has opened the doorway in her heart to want to connect with me – even though the romance was not there for lack of energy.
Again – do not expect sex. Be ready to go without – and be ok with that. Understand, love and serve your wife. You will find that she will go out of her way to meet your needs because you are meeting her needs. It is a wonderful circle.