Troublesome Topic: My Recommendations for a Marriage Get-Away

1. Plan a time to get away with only your spouse – no children, no friends, no work, no distractions. The best results will come if you go somewhere else, rather than staying home. Make sure the place you go to has cell phone service so you can access Song of Solomon on this Bible app. Go someplace where you will not have to spend your time preparing meals. If you want to save money, one option is to prepare some of your favorite meals at home ahead of time and freeze them; then take a number of frozen meals with you. Make sure the place has a microwave.

The key is – plan to have lots of uninterrupted time with your spouse, in a place of natural beauty, with few or no other people around. A cabin works well if you can work out the details regarding food.

2. Plan to be gone at least 2 days and 2 nights, preferably more. If you cut this time too short you will probably not get the full benefit from it.

3. I offer you two ways to read through the Song of Solomon together. One way is to read the Song of Solomon (paraphrase column only) one chapter at a time (there are 8 chapters). The other way is to follow my thematic study series called Lessons from Song of Solomon. I have 9 lessons in this short series. There is no set order for them, so go through them as you wish. You will not cover all of Song of Solomon if you choose the second option, but you will find the lessons to be arranged according to various topics that are important for a marriage. However, there is one exception; I don’t have a study specifically about sexual issues. That is because sexuality is often implied in the Song but seldom addressed directly. So you will have to go through the Song on your own and find the places where you think sexually is implied.

4. Whichever system you choose, I recommend you start by reading only the paraphrase column; ignore the translation column and the footnotes the first time through. Once you have read the paraphrase column, if you are interested in more, you can read the translation column and then the footnotes that interest you.

5. I probably don’t need to say this, but I will anyway – crawl in bed together and read from my paraphrase of the Song of Solomon in Bed. Along with praying together, this is a good way to prepare your hearts and minds for sexual intimacy.

Some may say, “Wait, Paul, didn’t you say that this book has been overly sexualized or overly spiritualized? Don’t you claim that very little of this book is specifically about sexuality?” Yes, that is true. The book of Song of Solomon is about healthy close relationships, and a marriage is the closest relationship possible among humans. It is about being a source of reviving refreshment for each other. It applies to all of life; it is very balanced. It focuses our attention on what is most important. It encourages us to meet all the needs our spouse has. We all know that there is that one need that can only be properly met within a marriage relationship. That is why reading this in bed together makes everything else more special.

The next lesson in the topic Solomon’s Life and Writings is: Who Wrote Ecclesiastes?

This is the last lesson in the topic Marriage Issues. Thank you for reading.