AFTER 40 YEARS â—½ MARRIAGE
Nightly Reads
by Marcy Lytle
I didn’t grow up knowing anything about advent, except as a young adult when my sister started sending my kids chocolate advent calendars for December fun. I love advent calendars. But this past Christmas season, my husband and I read two advent books – one from our church – and one I ordered on line. We purposed to sit each night in one of our guest rooms in two of our “reading chairs” and tried our best to stay on track with the nightly readings.
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This past December, those nightly reads with him, changed us for the better. Not only individually in our walk with Him, but together in our walk with each other. We took turns reading aloud, we discussed what we read, and we prayed together. The Advent books needed to be read daily, to be able to finish by Christmas, so being diligent to do this was necessary.
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I watched him read and listened to his voice and observed his hands as he turned the pages, and I felt thankful for this time and for the Word, in a fresh way. The Christmas story, told through the pages of Advent, came alive for me as I’d never experienced before. I began to hunger more for the Word, and I found that I had been thirsty for this connection with my husband forever. Sure, we read little spot devotions from time to time, we pray often before we fall asleep, but…
This intentional time to turn off the TV, put away our phones, and actually sit in a specific spot to read and to connect and to pray, was a change. And a good one.
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After Christmas was over, I found myself sad that the advent books were read and done. He felt the same. We had enjoyed these nightly reads so much, the intentional discipline it required, that we both agreed we were going to continue this into the new year.
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Last night we began Be the Gift by Ann Voskamp. It’s full of 1-2 page encouragements on how to give of yourself to others, and in turn to be healed yourself. It’s a fascinating concept, to give and then be given to. Isn’t it? We’ve been told this over and over in the Word, but it’s so fun now to read practical ways to do this.
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I want to be the gift to my husband this year. I want to be the gift to others. And I want to be the gift to Him, by continuing this intimate time away from the busyness of home and life.
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We have struggled our entire married life with bible reading and prayer and often found it laborious, we tried to do it when we were tired, and we never could find what we wanted to read, and so on and so on…
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But here we are, after experiencing a season of advent together, finding ourselves in this rhythm of nightly reads together where we feel close to Him and to each other. I’m so grateful, and I’m looking forward to all the pages we turn this year, together.