According to an Ad Week/Harris poll, 73% of all men and 55% of all women in America watch football. Overall, 2 out of every 3 adults are watching football for 5 months of the year – that’s over 200 million viewers!
Clearly, many couples gather around the TV for 3-4 hours each week to watch their favorite team. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could use that time to multi-task? For example, watch football and, let’s say, work on our marriage.
With that in mind, and with tongue in cheek, here is the Football Fan Guide to a Better Marriage:
Every Play Needs a Quarterback
99% of all plays start with the ball in the hands of the quarterback. Needless to say, the quarterback is a very important position. You want the best person handling the ball for that particular play. Sometimes that means switching who plays quarterback for a particular play – like running the Wildcat.
Similarly, we need to have the best quarterback running the plays in our marriage. For example, if one spouse is better than the other at finances, that person quarterbacks the finances. If one spouse is better at planning vacations, that person is responsible for family vacations. The key here is playing to each other’s strengths. Which leads to the next point…
Before You Begin, Huddle Up
The huddle is important because it’s where the team gets on the same page. Sure, you can bark your signals from afar, but you risk the message getting lost in the crowd noise.
As a team – and marriage is a team sport (especially when you begin introducing kids in the mix) – you and your spouse are running multiple plays daily. Most arguments in a marriage can be traced back to poor communication. The more disciplined you can be to take time to huddle up on a daily or weekly basis, the more likely you will be on the same page. If you want to avoid marriage counseling, don’t avoid the huddle!
Have a Game Plan To Reach The Goal Line
Most football teams script their first 10 or 15 plays. Before they ever step on the field of play, the entire team knows the game plan. After those first 10 – 15 plays, the team may make adjustments, but their intent is the same – to cross the goal line.
As a couple, do you have a game plan? Do you know what your goals are and do you know how you are going to achieve them? In our marriage, we have a game plan for giving, a game plan for spending (a budget), a game plan for schooling our children, and a game plan for retirement (we do not plan to ever fully “retire”). Right now we are putting together a super-top-secret game plan for the next phase of our life that not even Bill Belichick can infiltrate. Whether it’s actually written down or discussed thoroughly and often, there’s wisdom in developing game plans with your spouse in the key areas of your life.
Tebowing Is Critical To Success
Simply put, Tebowing is bending to one knee and praying when everyone else around you is doing something completely different.
There is no better imagery I can think of for a strong, healthy marriage than the definition of Tebowing. Strong marriages take everything to God while weak marriages try to do it themselves. Successful marriages recognize God as the source of their success while broken marriages blame each other. Powerful marriages impact the world by impacting the Kingdom while ineffective marriages cause damage to themselves and others.
So those are just a few ways to take your 3-4 hours of game watching and turn it into marriage building during the commercials. Or better yet, skip the game and go on a date to discuss your dreams and develop a plan on how you are going to achieve them. Just don’t forget to begin and end the date with a little Tebowing.
While you’re doing that, pass the bean dip. The game is about to start.
Peace,
Mitchell
