MARRIAGE & ROMANCE

If you were to ask men and women what it means to be romantic you would get a number of different answers. I am sure that you would get more blank looks from the men than the women.
If you asked the married couples here what the most romantic thing that they have ever done (honeymoon doesn’t count), the wife can tell you, the husband will think about the monster truck rally, or the tool exhibit, or whatever.
So often marriage partners start out sizzling with passion and then dissipate into mere roommates. A loss of romance doesn’t need to occur, yet in so many marriages, it does. The heat of passion and all displays of tender giving seem to vanish, and we accept it as normal, saying, “That’s just the way it is.”
Does marriage have to degenerate into such a sad state of affairs? No! God has a much different desire for marriage. In His plan, the romance continues throughout marriage. In fact, it builds and grows into a loving and passionate marriage that is even more wonderful in its latter stages than in its beginning.


You know there are several things that can kill romance in a marriage.
Sin
Romance dies when one or both persons become so wounded and disillusioned with a spouse that they become calloused. Sin and harsh actions are unrepented of until the wounds of sin have removed all feeling.
Proverbs 18:19
“It's harder to make amends with an offended friend than to capture a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with iron bars.” (NLT)

Age
Romance dies when a person focuses on the outer beauty rather than on the inner beauty of his or her spouse. Outer beauty degenerates over time; age takes its toll on every person. It doesn’t matter how many face or body lifts a person has, or how much a person attempts to keep in shape through proper exercise and diet, age causes fading of physical beauty. Unless you continue to see past the wrinkles around your beloved’s eyes and gaze into the full depths of your mate’s soul, you will feel less attracted to your spouse, and with a lessening of attraction, you are likely to express less romance.

Forgetfulness
Romance dies when couples forget the preciousness of their mates. Spouses all too often come to take each other for granted, and they lose sight of just how special they are to each other. Romance requires intention, care and focus. It requires that each person remembers why you feel in love in the first place.

Laziness
Many people recite vows to “love, honor and cherish” a spouse, and then they proceed with their marriage without a good knowledge of how to keep them. Love must be shown. Honor must be expressed. Cherish is an attitude that must be displayed. Passionate marriages are so by design and intent. Romance is a discipline.

So how do we keep the romance alive in our marriage?
Song of Solomon 7:11-12
“Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. 12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom-- there I will give you my love.” (NIV)

1. Men are expected to be Romantic.

2. Men are capable of Romance.

3. God desires for men to be Romantic.

Remember guys, be Spontaneous and do the Unexpected