For the next month, my husband will be working. In fact, although last week was our last chance to snatch some family time, he was called in on his days off. He's not on the road, but he does work at a major industrial site which is undergoing a month of scheduled maintenance.

At times like this, it's easy to drift into separate lives. Nobody stops loving, but the little things become strangely irritating. Toilet seat up or down. Toothpaste, squeezed versus rolled. The person who caused the irritation isn't even giving the benefit of their presence to balance the inconveniences. There is very little chance to practice the “regarding” that I talked about last time.

So we started making strategies for how to handle this. Dave wants to do some dating. I'm highly agreeable to arranging babysitting and making the hour's drive from our country home to the city to meet him after work. If I can get away with it, I'll do it once a week.

Dave booked a family suite at a hotel five minutes from his workplace. Towards the end of his month-long stint, we'll be close by for a couple of nights. He won't have to commute. We'll be able to do some daytime activities that we don't normally.

There is prayer, there is patience, but there's also practicality in hedging against slow drifting in a marriage. We are determined not to let the pace of life push us into a long goodbye.

What are your ideas for marriage maintenance during “long goodbye” times? Are there verses that speak to you about this? What inspires you to do the work of keeping close?

Copyright © by Cathi-Lyn Dyck Share