Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precious life. 

Each day is God’s gift.  It’s all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. 

Make the most of each one! 

Ecclesiastes 9:9 MSG

So many times couples wait to do things that they enjoy.  They say that they will take the vacation of their dreams when the kids grow up … the house and cars are paid for … or when they retire.   People every where are saving these things (whether it’s that dream vacation or something else) for “one day” not even considering that we are not promised the gift of another day.  With that being said, why not take that time today?!  Why not set your mind intentionally to making a memory with your spouse and your family members?

Is there a hobby that you both could enjoy together?

One of my friends used to be on a bowling league as she and her husband enjoyed bowling together.  For my husband and I, we enjoy classic cars and horseback riding.   We are members of a classic car club in town, and we attend the monthly meetings together.  We attend the car shows together as well, sporting our club shirts complete with our names and logo.   We are actually off to our club’s annual car show today.  Although club members cannot enter their own cars in the competition, we all still bring our classic cars to have them on display.

My dad has a very sweet candy apple red 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air, two door hard top, that is his pride and joy so he polishes that baby up and makes sure it is shining the night before.  Well, for the past two years, my husband and I have gone with my parents to the car shows to encourage them and support them when they have entered “Big Red.”  Although we have a classic car as well, we have not focused our attention on fixing the 1969 Camaro up until just recently.  The paint job was still in good shape, but it needed some work on the engine and the interior of the car.  Although this may sound odd, I have been the one pushing to get this car in shape because I want to drive it to the show!

Why the push for this particular car?  I’m so glad you asked!  🙂

This car holds special memories for us because this is the car that my husband had when he first started coming to see me at age 16.  We were young and very shy at that point, so we didn’t “date” very long at all as neither of us could think of anything really to say to carry a conversation.  We ended up parting ways and then finding each other many, many years later!  As it turned out, he still had that car, although he had gotten it painted a different color.  He loves to tell the story about how he got his first ticket in that car when he was speeding because he was in a hurry to come see me at my friend’s house that night.  I asked him to come over, but I did not ask him to speed!

I am happy to report that he has devoted time and money into this car, and it will be at the car show today!  AND … I will be driving it!  69 Camaro + Speed = One Happy Little Lady!  (Although, I will NOT be getting a ticket, thank you very much!)

My point in sharing the above with you is so that you can see that this hobby of ours is something that we have made memories with together.  Not only has it provided new memories, but it has also brought up the old memories we shared as teenagers, too.

Our other hobby of horseback riding has enabled us to make memories together as well.  There is just something so moving and exhilarating about being on the back of your horse.  You can feel their every movement, and they can sense how you are feeling.  You two operate as one when you’re riding on a trail.  This is something that my husband and I enjoy tremendously as it allows us to spend time together while we are also enjoying not only God’s beautiful land but the beautiful creatures He has created as well.  We share this common interest in the horses (we currently have five horses, by the way), and this allows us to do something we enjoy while de-stressing together at the end of the day.  We just groom the horses and feel the stress melting away.  We hop on them and go for a ride around our yard, but our most favorite memory making moments is when we take these beautiful animals on trail rides at different plantations in our state.  We have only just started doing this with horseback riding somewhere else besides around our six acres, and yet, this has been the most fun we have had in a very long time!  The best part is that we are doing this together!

While the annual car show is today, you will find us on the trails tomorrow horseback riding!  We are intentional about making memories together, and we encourage you to do the same with your spouse!

Not a single one of us is promised the gift of another day.  Get out there and make those memories while you still can.  If, God forbid, anything ever happened to you or your spouse, those precious memories would be there to help as you can relive those memories and play them over and over in your mind to bring a smile even if one’s time on earth is through.  We don’t like to ever think about that or talk about it, but now, more than ever, we need to be intentional about how we spend our time, who we spend our time with, and focusing our attention on making those precious memories!

Join us tomorrow for … Sharing Your Heart.

For all posts in this series thus far, click here.

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