Captivate Your Husband

Proverbs 5:18b&19 tells husbands "May you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer - may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love."

The Webster definition of captivate is: to capture the attention or affection of, as by beauty and excellence; fascinate; charm


Do you remember when your husband was first captivated by you? He saw you as beautiful and excellent. You fascinated him. Your eyes twinkled, you smiled with each thought of him, you bonded over long conversations of who you both were and dreamed to be.


Do you remember the butterflies when he was around, how it felt for his hand to hold yours, how your mind soared when you dreamed of taking his name as your last name. And then when the diamond wrapped around your finger you sat and stared at the reality that indeed you were about to become the wife of the man you were head over heels in love with!


Remembering does wonders for our soul to remind us of how fabulous our men truly are! We are the wife of our husband's youth and God tells our husband - be satisfied and captivated by her love!


But I wonder, are you still captivating or has pleasing, pursuing, touching, loving, listening and feeding you relationship been lost somewhere in the busy shuffle of life?


It's Week #1 of the Completing Him Challenge. If you are a blogger - share your dating pictures and story (save the wedding ones for next week!).


Consider: How much time do you spend on a daily/weekly basis cultivating your marriage now? In what ways can you regain some of what has been lost in the daily shuffle of life?

Purpose this week to do something that reminds your husband of the youthful wife you once were - maybe it's wearing something you know he loves on you (remember we dressed to please back in those dating days!), go somewhere you both used to enjoy going together - alone!, look at photos together of the "good ol'days", watch a favorite movie, or just simply sit together talking, listening, dreaming, holding hands, rubbing his back, and simply paying attention to the amazing husband of your youth! Treasure him this week!


Here's our dating story!

Keith and I met at church when I was 17. He went to a Christian school but came from a family who did not attend church regularly. I went to a public school but came from a family who never missed a Sunday at church. And our two worlds collided! It was not fireworks immediately as I had very high standards and knew exactly what I was looking for in my future husband. He made a fatal error on our first date - he took me to Aladdin (yep, remember I was only allowed to see G movies but that was not the error).


The error: HE HELD MY HAND! That crossed the line with me and I came home and told my mom - "nope that is not the man for me! He's too fast!" But alas, we went on a second date and at the end of the evening, as he was about to walk me to the door I said "I am not interested in a physical relationship, so if you are looking for that you won't find it here." I jumped out of the car - and ran into the house. lol! This memory cracks me up! Luckily, my husband is a man who embraces a challenge and that day I became one. He pursued me while respecting my wishes and so began the uniting of two souls as we fell in love and became best friends.
We attended prom together - had a dreamy summer and then off to college we went. I went to Chicago to attend the Moody Bible Institute and he went to Columbus to attend Ohio State University. And so began the beginning of a 4 year long distance relationship of letter writing (this was before cell phones and email - boy I sound old lol!). Remember how I mentioned my husband loves a challenge - well, dating long distance is indeed a challenge. He wrote me a letter EVERY SINGLE DAY for FOUR years of college! And every evening I wrote him a letter and on the way to classes in the morning, I dropped it in the mail box. I now have boxes and boxes and boxes of letters - I'm guessing there's at least 1,000 letters between the two of us I have saved! (Yes, he saved his too!)


Our summer's were filled with dreamy dates and our winters were filled with deep longings for one another. During quick weekend visits we would reconnect and then it would end with me in tears having to leave the man I loved so deeply. It was hard and long but we grew up together through this and finally college graduation came (graduation day below - woohoo! - finally no more goodbyes!). Our years of long distance dating taught us about the importance of communication, trust, loyalty, patience, praying for one another and leaning on Christ first to meet our needs above all.


Keith and I's ability to communicate (that includes listen) has been our greatest strength. But as I look back over our years of dating, I would say that the one lost art that we had mastered is the art of communicating through written words - letters. So this summer, I am going to work on writing letters once again to my husband expressing my appreciation, gratitude, admiration and love for him. And I'm gonna hide them beneath pillows, in the car, his laptop bag, etc.


It's your turn! If you have a blog - link up below and please link back in your blog post to this post. Tell me about those dating days and tell me what one thing you plan to work on regaining this summer to captivate your husband! A good relationship takes work, growth, unconditional love and 2 good forgivers.

One last thing, if you are singled or widowed, Jess over at The Space Between has begun a challenge just for singles mirroring Women Living Well's Marriage Challenge. Check it out!

Walk with the King!