"You ravish my heart with one glance of your eyes..."

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and it seems that people I know are of two minds about it. On the one hand are those whose general attitude is "A pox on Valentine's Day and all romantics!" while the rest are earnestly searching for a creative way to celebrate love and romance with their beloved. I place myself in the second group. After 14 blessed years of marriage, I am always hoping to find some way to show Karen just how much she means to me.

And it occurs to me that for Christians at least, marital romance is not supposed to be an ideal merely, but is actually depicted as normal, holy, and even commanded. So here's a few pastoral ideas for building up the romance quotient at your long past the newlywed stage house:

1. Study the Song of Solomon together, perhaps along with a good book which clarifies the poetic language, such as Intimacy Ignited.
2. Hold your marriage up to the light of God's Word and make changes as necessary. For help in this regard as a man, read Kevin DeYoung here. For help as woman, see Jean the Australian here and here.
   
3. Pick up a copy of Simply Romantic Nights and make a commitment to actually do the 12 months worth of dates together as a couple.
   
4. Register for a FamilyLife Weekend to Remember and go the whole route-the hotel room, the conference, dinner out, away from the kids. Maybe pick to go to one of their "destination locations" and make the conference part of a longer vacation at the beach or in the mountains.