March Date Night Challenge!

The best way to support happy and holy families is to support happy and holy marriages!

All last month, Jump In! Catholic Family Ministry focused a bunch on supporting marriages and created resources to do just that including How to Pray for Your Marriage using the Luminous Mysteries download, a monthly date night challenge, a date night in, using Catholic Family Movie Night discussion prompts and lastly a workbook called How to Create a Prayer Routine as Husband and Wife.

Research shows, married couples who regularly date, are less likely to consider divorce, more likely to have more romance and report better sex lives, communicate better, and enjoy marriage more! So we have decided to challenge you to AT LEAST one date a month!

For March, we challenge you to start your date night with an hour of adoration together. Check your local parish and see when they host adoration. You may even go to a different area of your city or a whole different city to find adoration.

Talk to Jesus about your spouse

When you get to adoration, sit next to your spouse. Consider just holding hands in your pew, adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Talk to Jesus about your spouse:

• Thank God for him/her.

• Tell Jesus all the things you love about him/her.

• Tell Jesus your hopes for him/her.

• Ask Jesus to help him/her through whatever they have been struggling with.

Consider using this free resource to help you pray for your marriage, or this downloadable workbook to help you set up a prayer routine with your spouse.

Talk to your spouse about Jesus

After your Holy Hour together in adoration, go out to eat! While you are waiting for your food, feel free to ask the following questions to one another:

• How is your lent going?

• What has God been trying to teach you this lent?

• Have you felt loved over this last month? Why or why not?

• What can I do to love you better? (See last month's challenge about Love Languages!)

• Do you have any prayer intentions I could pray for over the next month?

• What has been your favorite memory or thing that happened over the last month?

• What was the worst thing?

• What is one thing you are looking forward to in the coming month?

Before the date ends, be sure to schedule your next date night together!

We pray you fall deeper in love with your spouse this month and enjoy this intentional time together!