Powerful Marriage Advice from an Accidental Adventure

by |

Y

ou’ve been up since 5 am, flown clear across the country with a few stops at different airports along the way, landed and grabbed a rental car much smaller than the one you reserved, and made it out of the airport just in time to be stuck in rush hour leaving the city, so a twenty-five minute drive is set to take you an hour. Sound fun? I thought not, but that’s where Jess and I found ourselves last October. But wait–it gets better…

The Accidental Adventure

She typed the address of the hotel into her trusty navigation app, and off we went. A little over an hour later, we’re driving through a long, dark stretch of woods, and the friendly navigation voice says, “You have arrived. Your destination is on the right.” Except there was literally nothing. For probably half a mile either way. The hotel address number was 5975. The houses on either side of the long stretch were something like 6100 and 5800. So it should have been there, but it wasn’t. Did it disappear? Were we scammed? I turned into a gas station to try and figure it out. It was now well into the night and we were dead tired.

After a few minutes, I pieced together that the hotel confirmation email mistakenly listed the address as a “drive” when it was actually a “street”. So when Jess put “drive” into the navigation app, the nearest matching destination was an hour away and she trusted it. We had thought that the extra time was due to traffic, but it wasn’t. I had asked Jess a couple times if we were headed in the right direction because we were heading south and the hotel was north. She thought it was navigating us around worse traffic.

I can usually look at a map once and drive there from the mental picture. Jess is what she likes to call “directionally challenged.” I usually drive and she usually navigates, which can make for some pretty interesting trips!

I Had a Choice to Make

We put in the right address, and the destination was an hour and a half away. An hour of that was backtracking all but a mile of the drive we had just made. At this point, I knew I had a choice in front of me. Many husbands would get upset at having driven an hour in the wrong direction. We were both dead tired, and now had another hour and a half before any hope of a bed. Jess looked at me, almost waiting for me to say something, seemingly feeling that she deserved it. I did my best to keep a straight face, then I cracked.

I started laughing and couldn’t stop. We were both laughing so hard we were crying. I cherish that moment, and it was a turning point for us in our marriage. Looking back, I learned a few lessons that day, and started to apply them to our marriage:

  1. Don’t ignore the little voice

  2. Sometimes all signs make you think you’re going in the right direction, but some part of you isn’t sure. You can choose to wait and see, or pause to check. It’s better to pause and check. With our marriages, a checkup can get us back on the right path before we go too far off course, and that means less work and hurt. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


    “With our marriages, a checkup can get us back on the right path before we go too far off course, and that means less work and hurt.”

    Share Tweet


  3. Once you realize you’re way off course, there’s no point fighting about it

  4. Jess and I both worked together to get ourselves to the wrong place. Fighting about it just wastes time and makes it take longer to get to where you want to be. Focus on the problem (being in the wrong place) and not on which one of you is to blame for which part.

  5. Laughter is the best medicine

  6. Sometimes you just need to laugh. We were absolutely exhausted and just added an unnecessary two hours to our already long day. But once we started laughing, we found our second wind, regrouped, and got back on track.

Our marriage grew a little that day. We grew a little. We didn’t get angry. We didn’t even bicker. It could have been just another fight, but instead, it was one of the best accidental adventures we’ve ever had.

What unexpected adventures have you had because you chose to go with the flow? Let us know in the comments below…

Want to dig deeper?

Check out Radiant Marriage Academy, our free 16-lesson course!

Tiptoes

(Fully free. No catch.)

adam & Jess

Hi, we’re Adam & Jess--we’re so glad you’re here!

Our marriage got off to a rocky start in 2014 and quickly escalated into a full-out crisis. God healed us, and now we're inviting you to walk with us as we all journey toward healthier marriages together!

7 Days to an Awesome Marriage

Check out our free eBook and connect with your spouse!


7 Days to a More Intimate Marriage

Follow Us

Treasuring the Tiny Moments

The goal for the day was simple...Get food for dinner and prepare a delicious meal for our friends who were coming over (while still social distancing). I had gone to the store and had everything that I needed...except for the fish. I was planning on making fish with...

Choosing Your Spouse Over Your Checklist

We published an image of a quote on our social media not too long ago, and it struck me in just how profound it is. The quote, by D.L. Moody, is this: “If I wanted to find out whether a man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go to his minister. I would go and ask his...

How to Love Your Spouse Through Their Rough Day

There I was in my car in the garage processing through the events of my day. You know those days where everything just seems to go wrong? This was that day. From dropping a smoothie onto the floor in the morning to having a rough interaction with a friend to work...

7 Game-Changer Questions to Fight Disconnection in Your Marriage

Have you ever gotten to a place in your marriage where you felt completely disconnected from your spouse...and didn't have a clue how you got there? In these times, it can be so easy to ignore the problem and become apathetic. In the moment, ignoring things seems like...

10 At-Home Activities to Do as a Couple

Let’s be honest. The past few weeks have been a bit insane. Have you been going a bit stir crazy? Have you craved being with your friends or family? Do you miss hugs? Are you finding yourself losing track of days and time? Us too. In the midst of being under “shelter...

4 Ways to Take Charge of Anxiety

Army. Green. Couch. Can you picture it? Now hold onto that image and I’ll come back to it. If you have read my posts for any length of time, you know that I struggle with anxiety. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I realized how much I can fixate on things…...

Faith in the Midst of Uncertainty

I t was dinner time when we found out that Washington had issued a “shelter in place” mandate. While we live in Idaho, Adam works in Washington. And Washington was the first of the two to issue the mandate. Like many of you who have these state rules right now, we...

7 Ways to Grow Your Marriage During COVID

This last week has been insane. I feel like I woke up on Friday last week and the world had started to end. Grocery stores were being emptied, in-person church services had been canceled, schools were closed, and my graduate program was put on hold...and I couldn’t...

Abandoned, Alone, and Afraid

Abandoned, alone, and afraid. These three words have been the theme of my feelings over the last month or so. We're in this weird stage of life where so much about our current situation feels unsettled and nothing is secure. Our finances, not having a home base, our...

Building Momentum in Your Marriage

Having a great marriage isn’t based on one moment, one action, or one success, but rather a pattern of right actions (and corrected wrong actions) over time. This may seem obvious--doing the right thing is commonly best practice--but the effects are less obvious. It’s...

Want to build an awesome marriage?

Get started with Radiant Marriage Academy, a 16-lesson online course to help you build an awesome marriage.

The best part? Thanks to our patrons, it's completely FREE. No credit card. No upsell. No catch. Just great, free marriage tools to help you make your marriage awesome.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest