Ultimate Date Night E-Book

Jay Laffoon

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 96

Beschreibung

Date night just got a whole lot better! Ultimate Date Night is a romantic keepsake devotional offering fifty-two fun and memorable date ideas to draw you closer to each other and God. Features include: • unique date experiences varying in cost, romance, and effort • hilarious stories • creative conversation starters • space to capture highlights and memories • playful dares, games, and challenges • heartfelt prayers • inspiring Scriptures Spark new energy and deepen your relationship as you laugh, connect, and honor Christ as a couple.

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

Ultimate Date Night: 52 AMAZING DATES FOR BUSY COUPLES

Copyright © 2020 by Jay Laffoon and Laura Laffoon

978-1-4245-6074-5 (faux leather)

978-1-4245-6075-2 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 20015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188, USA. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

Emphasis added in Scripture quotations are from the authors.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

Literary representation: Jeff Roberts and Kenny Roberts of the Jeff Roberts Agency.

Cover and interior by Garborg Design at GarborgDesign.com

Printed in China

20 21 22 23 24 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Getting Started

1Picnic under the Stars

2It’s Game Night

3Let’s Go on a Treasure Hunt

4Driveway Date

5Farm Fresh

6More Than Dinner Out

7Biking with a Purpose

9Keep the Fire Burning

10Getting Away

11Go Fly a Kite

12The Spring-Clean Date

13Garage Sale

14Take a Break

15Footloose

16A Day at the Beach

17Snuggle Up

18Doing Something Different

19Sharing Is Caring

20Are You Ready for Some Football?

21Home Is Where the Heart Is

22Care about What He Cares About

23Fall Decorations

24All about Fun

25Vroom!

26Fore!

27Seinfeld?

28The Beauty of Art

29Time to Escape

30On a Budget

31Ahoy, Matey!

32Bon Appétit

33Just Drive

34Afternoon on the River

35Pamper Her

36Short and Sweet

37Pamper Him

38Ice Cream Parlor

39Giving Back

40Fancy Date

41The Real Estate Date

42Take a Hike

43The Double Date

44Belay On!

45Pickleball

46Home Improvement

47Helping Others

48The Stay-at-Home Date

49Christmas Traditions

50A Family-Focused Date

51The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

52Getting the Year Started Right

About the Authors

Getting Started

Greetings and welcome to fifty-two memorable and relationship changing dates! The conversations that will come out of these dates will strengthen and grow your relationship. Some of the conversations will be fun, and others will require some deep thinking and reflection. All the conversations will draw you and your significant other closer together.

While some of the dates are seasonal, others can be done anytime of the year, so don’t feel you have to walk linearly through the book. Feel free to bounce around.

Once a week, we will give you a detailed description of what kind of date you should go on. Then we will give you a discussion idea to start your conversation in the right direction.

We’ll also provide a Scripture verse, journal notes for reflection, a place where you can record each date’s highlights, and a prayer to close your time together. We also share some stories of our dating adventures and lessons learned along the way. The KEY at the end of this introduction will give you insight into time, money, and romance levels of each date.

We pray as you use this book it will become a valuable tool to grow and deepen your relationship.

Blessings,

Jay and Laura

— Little to no cost

— Under $10

— Under $50

— Over $50

— Little to no effort

— Some effort

— Much effort

— Heavy lifting

— Little romance factor

— Some romance factor

— Great romance factor

— Pure romance

1

Picnic under the Stars

It’s a picnic in the park at night! Grab a blanket; pack some veggies, fruit, cheese, crackers, and your favorite beverage; and find a secluded place in a local park. If you both like music, pack Bluetooth speakers and play your favorite romantic tunes. After enjoying your snacks, lie on your backs and see if you can name the constellations in the night sky. If you are not lie-on-your-backs kind of people, pack lawn chairs instead.

As you breathe in the beauty of the heavens, share with each other what you would think about as a child staring at the night sky.

CLOSER TOGETHER

Record each of your childhood memories and thoughts you had tonight staring at the stars. Also write down which constellations you identified.

CLOSER TO GOD

God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

GENESIS 1:16

Lord, we acknowledge that you are the Creator of the heavens and the earth. May we always be mindful of that as we walk this earth and be good stewards of your creation.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DATE

Date Tip

Make sure there are stars first! Or you might get lost.

We were renting a cabin on a lake in northern Michigan with our friends, Gene and Wendy. Gene brought his boat, and we traveled to the middle of the lake to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from a nearby town. The fireworks lit up the sky in spectacular fashion. However, when the show was over, the night became as black as ink. We couldn’t see a thing, and we couldn’t remember the location of our cabin. We puttered around the lake for over an hour trying to find our cabin.

So when you’re planning this date, make sure the stars are out. Share with each other what you see in the stars. Pull up an app on your phone that shows constellations and see if together you can find them.

2

It’s Game Night

Locate your favorite board games or card games. If you do not already own what you want to play, go to your local store and purchase it. Prepare your favorite snacks and beverages. Clear off a table and prepare the game for play. Make a night of it even if it means that you play the same game more than once or many different games.

You will most likely have a lot of conversation going on as you compete with one another. Talk about what drives you to win the game and what drives you toward success in life. What does success look like for you?

CLOSER TOGETHER

First and most important, record who won which game! Next, write down what success looks like for you both so that you can come back and remember when you are not feeling so strong and courageous.

CLOSER TO GOD

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.”

JOSHUA 1:7 NLT

Lord God, help us to always be strong and courageous in your strength and power. May we always measure our success by your standards.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DATE

Play Time

I (Laura) grew up playing games with my family. My favorite was a game called Aggravation! Jay will tell you it is because I love causing aggravation in others, and he wouldn’t be wrong. Our son Torrey and daughter-in-law Shana love to play games. When Shana came into our family, she taught us a card game called Hand and Foot. It causes much aggravation, so I love it.

It is easy to play games when you have a crowd, but when it is just the two of you, it may seem awkward unless you are both die-hard game players. But give it a try! This will go a long way if one of your love languages is quality time. Quality time doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, just your time and energy.

Ludus is the Greek word for playful love. Enjoy playing out your love while loving your play.

3

Let’s Go on a Treasure Hun

“Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.” You will most likely want to plan to geocache on a day with good weather. In preparation, download the official Geocaching® app on your smartphone. It is available for all devices. Make yourself an account and geocache away. Happy hunting!

If you really enjoy yourselves, a whole world of geocaching fun exists. If you decide to make it a hobby, you may want to learn the terms for those who love to geocache. You can also upgrade your free account to premium, find more treasures, and log your hunting in the app.

If you were to find buried treasure, what would you do with it?

CLOSER TOGETHER

Write down what you enjoyed about your adventure geocaching. Record how many treasures you located. You also may want to record what you would do with found buried treasure.

CLOSER TO GOD

“The house of my God means much to me. I have much gold and silver and I give it to the house of my God, together with all I have already given for the holy house.”

1 CHRONICLES 29:3 NLV

Lord, may we always find our treasure in you!

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DATE

Adventures R Us

Mackinac Island, Michigan, is located in the Straits of Mackinac in Lake Huron. It is a beautiful island that takes you back in time to a bygone era. To get to the island, you must take a ferry boat across Lake Huron from Mackinaw City or St. Ignace. You can explore the island on foot, bike, or horse. No cars are allowed.

Mackinac Island is the first place we geocached. We thought we knew the island very well as we visit it at least three times a year and spend a lot of time walking it. Geocaching allowed us to explore different parts of the island we had never seen. It also caused us to see and observe places and scenery that many people easily overlook.

We found one geocache that is a birdfeeder by a house that we had walked by a thousand times and never noticed. We located another under a boardwalk that we had walked over on every visit to the island. We located a third one next to a cemetery on the island, which was actually a historical site for a feud that took place during the War of 1812. We learned a little bit of history as we searched for that cache, making it even more fun.

Jay and I love doing different activities together. It makes us feel like we are boyfriend and girlfriend again. Dating is more than just spending time together. It is an opportunity to grow as you learn and explore together.

Never stop being your husband’s girlfriend.

—Dr. Laura