Passion Plan

With Valentine’s Day just behind us, I received a great email from Jim Burns, president of HomeWord and student ministry/family guru. Jim speaks of a "Passion Plan" from his book Creating an Intimate Marriage. I love the ideas to help a marriage grow in intimacy…emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

For FBCSmyrna’ers, this is a great way to apply the message from this week’s PureSex series, "Great Sexpectations". Happy reading and igniting the passion:

1.  Kiss passionately for at least 15 seconds every day. This
releases feelings about each other that say, “I love you; I want to be with you;
you are special to me.” This is not about sex, it’s about romance. Also,
there is no rule that you have to keep it to fifteen seconds – go ahead and
splurge!

     2.  Take 15 minutes a day for at least 5 days a week
to connect and talk. Frankly, if there is not emotional intimacy or
connection there will be little interest in healthy romance. The kids can take a
15-minute break, your church doesn’t need you for those 15 minutes and this
investment speaks volumes to your spouse.

     3.  Date and court your spouse for at least 1.5 hours
a week. This is not a time to talk about insurance, the bills or your
work problems, but rather to focus on each other. The question I have to ask
myself as I prepare to go out with Cathy is, “Am I only giving Cathy my
emotional scraps?”

     4.  Schedule into your life 1.5 hours a week for
sexual intimacy. I know the word schedule probably caused you
to stumble, but marriage authorities do agree that a scheduled regular time for
sexual intimacy can bring a spark back to the relationship quite quickly.
Believe me, if you do this you will suddenly get past the word
schedule!