{"id":8323,"date":"2012-09-12T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T21:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=8323"},"modified":"2012-09-12T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T21:08:00","slug":"are-you-helping-your-husband-follow-his-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/marriage\/staying-married\/wives\/are-you-helping-your-husband-follow-his-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Helping Your Husband Follow His Dreams?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I came upon a realization yesterday as I hugged my husband. I\u2019m a bit rounder than I was when we got married. So is he. We both have more wrinkles. His hair is speckled with gray. (My hair would have more speckles, too, if it weren\u2019t for Clairol.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019re both still pretty young, yet our bodies are softening in all the wrong places, and my realization was that it\u2019s just going to continue. We will<\/em> be those gray-haired, wobbly elderly people holding hands as they cross the street. Yes, it may be in 2031, but it\u2019s coming!<\/p>\n

Of course, I also realized something else. I think my husband is sexier than ever. No, I\u2019m not going to be talking about sex. Instead I will focus on passion, and passion isn\u2019t designed for just the bedroom.<\/p>\n

On our very first date the first thing that impressed me about John was his passion for life. He had traveled the world in the Marine Corps. He had plans for college \u2026 and dreamed of a bright future. He had passion for God.<\/p>\n

Looking back on our 21 years together, I realized that our toughest times in marriage were those when we both became stuck in the busy ruts of life. We didn\u2019t share our dreams; we didn\u2019t make plans for what we could do. Instead we filled our days with busyness and both felt overwhelmed and unfilled.<\/p>\n

Recently our family moved 1,950 miles from Montana to Arkansas and many people asked why. \u201cWhy would you leave a good job, a nice home, and the prettiest place on earth to move to Little Rock?\u201d (No, offense Arkansas. You\u2019re pretty too, but \u2026) The truth is, I saw a spark of passion in my husband\u2019s gaze that hadn\u2019t been there for a while. He knew his skills could be used at the amazing ministry of FamilyLife. He wanted his work to matter for eternity, and I jumped on board with that.<\/p>\n

Passion in life isn\u2019t just something that happens. Rather it must be sought. And as wives we can help our husbands do just that.<\/p>\n

1. Pay attention.<\/strong> When we first moved to Little Rock my husband talked (and talked and talked) about all the cool bike trails. I realized he wanted to explore them but needed a better bike to do it. We tightened our belt in other areas and got him a good bike \u2026 and soon our teen son got one, too, so Dad could have a biking partner. Wouldn\u2019t you know \u2026 just a few months ago I got one, too, and we\u2019re exploring those trails together. My husband loves biking, and he\u2019s energized for the rest of the day after a ride. Because I was paying attention I knew it was something he\u2019d enjoy. Turns out I also found something I enjoy!<\/p>\n

2. Sacrifice.<\/strong> When we bought a nice bicycle for John it was a sacrifice to our checkbooks. When we moved 1,950 miles the sacrifice was much greater. Sure, we left a lot\u2014our church, our home, our friends and family\u2014but we\u2019ve gotten many of those things in new ways. More than that, I have a husband who\u2019s excited about his job and is a joy to be around. His passion for life is evident, and it\u2019s worth the sacrifice.<\/p>\n

3. Pray.<\/strong> We\u2019ve made these sacrifices with a lot of prayer. We\u2019ve followed the passions of our hearts while also keeping in step with God. There are other things we\u2019d both love to do, but we take all things before God and seek His timing. We also understand that maybe the passion He\u2019s placed in our hearts may not play out like we imagine. I\u2019ll give you some examples.<\/p>\n

First, I love<\/em> the Czech Republic. I\u2019ve been there four times and if you gave me an all-expense-paid trip today, I\u2019d go there again. My dream is to live there for an extended period with my family as short-term missionaries. I dream of meeting people as I walk along the cobblestone streets. I dream of opening our home for English lessons and Bible studies. We have no plans for that in the future, but we\u2019ve gone on two mission trips to the Czech Republic and we\u2019ve helped dozens of others go there, too.<\/p>\n

Second, John\u2019s big dream is to open an orphanage in a South American country. We have no immediate plans to do that, but we\u2019ve adopted one beautiful child and have the paperwork processing for another.<\/p>\n

4. Dream together often.<\/strong> Today, ask your husband, \u201cIf you could do anything and know it would succeed, what would it be?\u201d John and I talk about\u2014and dream about\u2014many things that would take a miracle to happen, yet we still keep sharing them.<\/p>\n

Passion about life, we\u2019ve discovered, isn\u2019t just about making things happen. It\u2019s also about dreaming and planning together about \u201cwhat could some day be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 2011 by Tricia Goyer.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passion in life isn\u2019t just something that happens; it must be sought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66132,"featured_media":101107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Passion in life isn\u2019t just something that happens; it must be sought.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2831],"tags":[],"equip-category":[],"cwp_profile":[3034],"class_list":["post-8323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wives","cwp_profile-tricia-goyer"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/02\/11-Ways-To-Show-Respect-To-Your-Husband_1040x326.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2018\/02\/11-Ways-To-Show-Respect-To-Your-Husband_1040x326.jpg",1024,321,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Christian Longe","author_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/author\/christian-longecru-org\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Passion in life isn\u2019t just something that happens; it must be sought.","meta_box":{"_cloudsearch_visibility":"","profile_obj_manual_select":false,"profile_obj":false,"separator":false,"enable_link":false,"login_restricted":"","content_type":"","disclaimer_banner":"","currency":false,"pricing_subtext":false,"element_type":false,"date_field":false,"date_format":false,"theme_header_position":"","post_header_is_sticky":"","is_header_overlay":"","series":false,"ignore_sticky":false,"conditional_blocks_category":false,"cta_selection":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8323"},{"taxonomy":"equip-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/equip-category?post=8323"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=8323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}