My husband and I got married the summer before I started my second year of graduate school. We spent the last month of summer moving from Virginia and settling into our new townhouse about 15 minutes from campus. We started our life together BUSY.

When school started, I was taking a full load of graduate school classes and teaching classes on campus as part of my paid assistantship. My husband was taking pre-med classes as he prepared to start medical school (He never ended up going to medical school…but that is another testimony). We were…you guessed it…BUSY!

So, as we started our married life...BUSY, we decided to make a commitment to set aside time for each other EVERY week. This special time together was in addition to eating dinner together every night and keeping the Sabbath day (yup, no studying on the Sabbath!). We picked Thursday nights for our special night and named it FUNNITE.

We have been celebrating FUNNITE for over 15 years and we have NEVER missed our FUNNITE. Even with six children, the newborn stages, toddlers, sickness, travel, visitors, commitments, church…you name it…we have kept our commitment to our FUNNITE.

Our Funnite Rules

No excuses. Thursday night is our night. So, regardless of whether I had a test or a paper due, I had to get it done before Thursday because Thursday was OUR night. Now, even with practice and commitments, it is still OUR night.

No phone calls. No matter who calls, unless it is a dire emergency we are not picking up the phone.

No money. On a college budget we didn’t have much spending money. We wanted to spend within our means and that meant necessities only. Going out for dinner and/or a movie weekly could be spendy, so we got creative and had FUNNITE at home.

No double dates. It may sound selfish but we really needed to focus on us and our marriage. So we saved double dates for other days. If we have visiting guests staying with us, we use our FUNNITE as an opportunity to share the importance of making time for each other in marriage.

No skipping. If something important is happening on Thursday (rarely) and we could not have FUNNITE, we had to make it up on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

No email. No sneaking around to check personal or work email after hours.

No text. We had to add this one to keep up with technology. There was no texting back then (am I that old???). So basically no form of communication with the outside world!!

What Do We Do For Funnite?

Back in our college days when money was tight (who am I kidding, money is always tight…ha ha), we would cook up a yummy meal together in the kitchen and hang out and watch some of our favorite shows. Now that we have finished our school years and have lots of children, we still do the same thing. The only difference is we try to make meals that the kids won’t eat so we can enjoy something different together as a couple. We also engage in more conversation since we are running around more these days. We watch food shows on Netflix, play board games, or plan our yearly anniversary getaway. As long as we are together, we are having a “FUN-NITE.”

It is so easy to let life get in the way of spending time together as a couple, so we have to be intentional about it (e.g., Thursdays during wrestling season, we don’t start date night until almost 10 p.m. but we still do it). I always look forward to Thursdays because I know no matter how busy the week may be, I have Thursday nights with the love of my life.

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Do you have a date night every week with your spouse? If you don’t have a weekly date night, are you willing to be intentional and commit to setting aside a day just for the two of you regardless of how busy life gets?