Share Your Creative Romance Stories!

anytime my husband goes out of his way to surprise me is very romantic. when he has planned an entire evening or day of stuff for us to do, it shows me how much he really loves me.

After a very emotional Christmas dinner prayer in 2005 and almost 11 years of being married, my husband got on one knee and asked me (with a ring!) to be his wife again. It was really romantic, because he did it in front of my family that was at dinner with us that evening. But the next most romantice thing he did was to write his own renewal vows and cried while saying them to me on the beach @ sunrise in front of about 60 of our friends and family! I love this guy!

My wife was out-of-town for the past week. I cleaned up the house and the yard in preparation for her return. I figure my dishes and clothes from 7 days wouldn’t be very romantic!

Many people think “romance” means flowers, jewelry, etc. on special occasions. To me, it is the little things when there is no occasion which affirm my husband’s love for me. One of many examples is when I had gone out of town for a few days to visit my grandchildren. When I returned, waiting for me was, of course, Wallie…but also a giant stuffed Mickey Mouse from my husband who knows how much I love Mickey Mouse! Every time I see Mickey, I am given a smile…and a reminder of someone who loves me very much!

My husband’s constant thoughtfulness equals romance for me. This wonderful man massages my feet every single night.

Our romance began with the manner in which we met – ONLINE – not in a chat room or a match site but while playing a word game on AOL. We congratulated one another on a game well-played and moved on. What are the chances that with thousands of people playing this game all over the world that we would again meet in the same room of 10 to play the game a month later?

His kind manner was a magnet for me and we started e-mailing and eventually calling. This went on for 2 years. We did not set eyes on each other until he flew to Houston to help me pack and move to So. Florida to marry (BTW, I proposed to him!). When I saw him at the airport, my heart knew him immediately. It was more of a feeling that he had been away on a long trip rather than a first meeting.

Our wedding took place on a sailboat at sunset in Key West.

One of the most romantic dates my husband has taken me on was to this restaurant on Fort Lauderdale beach with the swings. I had always wanted to go there, so when he surprised me by taking me there, I was in awe. Then afterwards we went for a romantic walk on the beach (my favorite place) just to talk, and then we went to see a movie (Kate & Leopold). This was one of our first dates when we first started dating. I will never forget it! Another romantic time was on our First Valentines Day. When I got home from work there were rose petals everywhere, a song playing that he had specially picked out, 12 roses on my kitchen table, and chocolates. I will always remember this because we were packing up our house to move to Indy, boxes were everywhere and it was funny to have rose petals everywhere, even on top of boxes. I thought for sure we would not even celebrate Valentines Day since we were moving that week. It was so special!

Valentines Day a couple years ago I came home to rose pedals leading me upstairs to our bedroom. There I found a tray of fresh strawberries that my husband had bought and hand dipped in chocolate himself and arranged on a tray along with sparkling cider. He then prepared a candle lit dinner for us without any help from me. It was unexpected and very much appreciated. Most importantly my husband cooks on the grill most evenings and is always willing to help around the house when I need him. Little things like emptying the dishwasher and running the vacumn go along way with a woman.

One of the most romantic things I remember my husband did goes back to the time when him and I started dating. He used to leave single roses strategically placed by the entry door of my house. I remember vividly, as I smelled and treasured my finding, to come across tiny hidden love messages tucked away in between the petals. Yeah! I remember thinking he is the one…:)
He also gave me my first journal ever on my fifteenth birthday. I started keeping journals that speak volumes of our crazy and purest of loves – our first love. The one that God speaks about before the grown-up worries and the worldly cares makes you focus on me, myself and I and makes life more complicated.
...Something else I thought was incredibly romantic was that as we merged our belongings together after we got married, he had kept, as did I, every single letter I wrote to him over the course of 3 years, out of the six we dated, when we lived in different countries. Yes, I didn’t have a “rock” on my finger as an engagement ring ‘cause we agreed on it long distance and were “engaged” only a month. (And I only cared that we’d get married!). Yes, we did not have a regular honeymoon ‘cause we came here to live the day after we got married with not much money in our pockets (Which has given us an excuse to have “nice” getaways every now and then instead). And yes, we are not the perfect couple. But I love to go back to those treasures: the journals and the letters and the memories that talk about a time when our love was eagerly and easily patient and kind, when we were willing to give more than to receive, a time that captured the essence of ourselves. They are the perfect reminder of the love that are still building upon. And after 18 years of marriage, love has taken us through times of great happiness, times of deep sorrow, times of waiting for the one that needs to do a little more growing-up. We have changed, we have grown-up together.
As time leaves its fingerprints on our faces, I find myself grateful to have found God’s presence in the equation. My hero and knight in shining armor has learned to become more and more like Christ. I am only encouraged to be a better wife and mother of his children. I pray God would grant us the blessing of growing really old together… Yes, I find true love hard work and absolute blessing!

Not long after my grandfather died I was telling my wife that my fondest memory of him was that he and I would sit up late at night when I was little eating ginger snap cookies and milk. A couple of days later I had a cookie gram delivery to my office with a basket full of ginger snaos and two bottles of cold milk. My wife is wonderful at active listening which is very romantic.

On our 11th anniversary my husband secretly bought a CD with the song “I will Always Love You”. He went to my office at work at midnight and put it in my CD player, cued it to the song, and left a post it note that said ‘Push play’. He also put a dozen roses beside it with a beuatiful card. The next morning when I arrived at work I pushed play and the first thing I heard was “I will always love you.” That was 25 years ago. Last month he called me on my cell phone and told me to put my car radio on a certain station. I tuned it in and our song was playing. He has always been a hopeless romantic.

After being married to James (Jim) Brown for almost 30 years… I could list many things that express romance in our marriage, but I have to say the most romantic thing he did for me was when he learned to dance. The movie “Shall We Dance” is almost our story. I grew up here in South Florida and we danced for everything! I love to dance (I can’t do it well) but I dance anyway! Thirty-two years ago when I met my husband, he thought dancing was a “sin”. “God couldn’t be in that!” he explained. It was a real issue at weddings, anniversaries, and any kind of party that had music – I was expected to sit and not dance. We had many discussions about dancing and I mean we had MANY discussions, until he was led by God to do an in-depth study and find out what God’s Word said about dancing. Jim was convicted by God’s Word and after all these years, he realizes that this was one of those “church” issues – not a God issue. He signed himself up for 6 weeks of Fred Astaire dance lessons (and I thought he was working overtime each week). Until one afternoon he took me out to lunch and shared with me that his new found “hobby” was dancing. He explained how he had been taking lessons so he could dance at my office Christmas party. My husband now is the best dancer ever! He has far surpassed me in all his lessons and we now enjoy dancing together! Our latest challenge is taking “Salsa” lessons! God has so blessed our marriage. Romance is a must to keep your marriage alive! Strive everyday to look for something small to surprise your spouse with!!! I love my husband more today than the day we were married!

I was probably 18 or so, Jenn was I guess 17, it was her birthday. I had roses hidden around my house with clues to find them. With the last rose was a bracelet with small diamonds in it. Oh yeah, I had candles all around the house too with the roses. When she found everything, I had dinner ready for us to eat. I’m not really a cook, so I had gone to Boston Market and bought a whole dinner, and then repackaged it at home to look homemade! I almost got away with it, but those darn cornbread muffins gave me away….She still loved it and we had a great evening talking over candlelight.

I want to say right of the bat that I am not the most romantic guy in the world. But, it sure is fun trying to be! When Debby and I were living in St. Charles, MO. I would go by her work and without her knowing it would put a card and candy and or flowers on her desk. Debby loved it. But, what I thought was even neater was all the girls where she worked thought I was the best husband in the world.

Debby, I love you more!

James

Erin is big into musicals. She LOVES them. So for her birthday, i bought her really good tickets to go see Wicked. She has been waiting to see this play forever!

So we went down to Las Olas and caught the play, then went out to eat and walk on the town. It was a great night to walk around, Erin and I have been getting into photography and Las Olas had great spots that we could just walk around and take picture after picture, all together we must have gone through 6 rolls of him for the whole night!

We ate at this really awesome place called “The Las Olas Cafe”. It was beautiful! The decor as perfect for taking pictures and we were able to just relax and not worry about anything. We just talked and enjoyed each other’s company.

It was a great time! And i got the opportunity to fulfill one of Erin’s dreams and take her out to one of her favorite places!

I would have to agree with Jimmy ^ – THAT was an awesome night. I will never forget my 20th birthday because of him.

One of the more meaningful things Jimmy has done for me was encourage me to pursue one of my long forgotten passions – photography. Around Christmastime, we were having a discussion on hobbies and I started reminiscing about doing photography all the time a few years ago. Since then, busy adult life happened and I got too busy and my camera broke. Devastating! That night we were talking, I was very discouraged because I loved taking photos, but gear is a lot of money (especially if you start from scratch). I am in college and I’m broke! That night, he asked me what kind of camera I wanted. I told him the cheaper version of the one I really wanted. We went home to search online. It wasn’t TOO expensive (about $70). At that point, Jimmy turned around and asked me, “Alright. What’s the camera with professional standards that you REALLY want?” I hesitantly told him the Lomo LC-A ($250).

Christmas morning, I opened up my present from him, and there it was!! I don’t think I’ve jumped/screamed so much in my life.

Since then, my camera collection has grown to four, plus film lenses. He not only encourages me in my art, but he took it upon himself to get educated about it and talks with me about it all the time! He also has a fantastic eye and takes pictures, too. We always have our cameras with us wherever we go. I think we have gotten so much closer because of him stepping out and investing the time and effort into this. I could ask for no one better than someone who inspires me and spurs me on in my art. He’s my favorite subject, too :-)

I love you, baby!

(p.s. if you want to see some of our joint photography, visit http://flickr.com/photos/erincourtney )

Hey Jenn
I was looking today for a specific sermon “On the Clock” and noticed it is almost impossible to find old sermon series back from 6months ago. We have some really good ones, that will be helpful to folks, but they would need to find them. I had to really dig, even to find the Lion series. Lets find a way to list our sermon series and have a link for the notes and audio. This is a great way to continue the ministry by sending folks there who might need or want a specific series or sermon. So if you can put that on your list . Give me a date we might shoot for.
Thanks
Go back 2 years. Then we can decide the best of , some might stay for years. I find great sermons on diff. sites that can be years old.
Thanks Guy