• The Bible speaks of children as a blessing from the Lord. Has that been your experience? Why or why not?
• In what ways do your children enrich and bless your relationship? How do they challenge your marriage and your time and energy?
• What adjustments did you and your spouse have to make when you welcomed your first child into your home? If you have other children, was the adjustment more or less difficult with subsequent children?
• Brainstorm some creative ways you and your spouse might make extra time for each other, in spite of the pressures of parenting.
• Do you look forward to the empty nest or dread it? Have you and your spouse talked about your expectations for the years after your children are grown? Do you see eye to eye on the things you’d like to do and accomplish during this time of extra freedom?
• If you have grandchildren, how has that affected your relationship with your spouse? With your grown children?
Thank God for each season of your life and ask him to help you make the most of the time you have/had with your children, and the extra time you are given once your children are grown.
Crosswalk.com welcomes mother-daughter contributors, Deborah Raney and Tobi Layton.
Deborah Raney has been writing for a dozen years and is at work on her thirteenth novel. Her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title. The book was recently reissued in an updated version for the ten-year anniversary of its first release. Deb and her husband, Ken, have been married for thirty-one years and live in Kansas. They have four children and became first-time grandparents in December. Visit Deborah's website at www.deborahraney.com.
Tobi Layton is a fifth grade teacher and freelance writer in southeast Missouri. Tobi has been married for four years to Ryan Layton, a high school biology teacher. Tobi and Ryan are involved with the youth group at their church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where they also help teach a middle school Christian education class. The Laytons have an infant son, Reed.
Tobi Layton is the daughter of Ken and Deborah Raney. The Raneys and the Laytons share an August 11 wedding anniversary.
Read more articles by Deborah Raney and Tobi Layton:
God's Plan for Romance Looks Different from the Movies
Submitting Your Married Life to the Lord's Timetable
Compromise, Humor are Vital Ingredients for Loving Marriages
Opposites Attract - and Drive Each Other Nuts!
"I Can Do it Better": When Competition Creeps into Marriage
