Confession: I haven’t done the Dares for the last two months. That’s right, I, the CWIVES founder, owe my husband two Dares. Why? Because I have been busy and distracted. Can you relate?

I typically enjoy a full plate, but in March and April of 2012, my work load increased exponentially after a wonderful occurrence: our church found a new senior pastor. Since January 2011, I’ve served on a pastor search committee, which is an honor but also a huge responsibility. It was a lot of work for the seven of us, but manageable until we finally found our candidate and then began to plan how we would present him to the church. I spearheaded the presentation planning, staying up late and getting up early to work. We also were planning a week of events when our candidate would be at our church leading up to his preaching in view of a call on May 6th. It was like planning a wedding: guest lists, invitations, food, trouble-shooting, rallying the troops, strategy, etc.

On second thought, it was more like planning the Normandy Invasion.

(If you wondered why I stopped blogging in April, this is the reason.)

By mid-April, I was immersed in all the details and distracted, oh so distracted. I began making mistakes like double-booking counseling clients. (FYI to all the future counselors out there: there’s nothing worse than walking into the waiting room and seeing two different clients waiting to see you at the same time.) And I made this mistake not once, but TWICE in April. Prior to this, I had only double-booked clients once in 16 years of practice. Plus, the week before the big presentation, I drove to church one morning instead of driving to work. Yep, just looked up from autopilot and realized I was heading in the complete opposite direction. Oh, and I tried to deposit my paycheck into someone else’s bank account. Thank goodness for observant bank tellers.

This level of distraction was bound to negatively affect things in the bedroom, leading to my sweet husband (who rarely complains about anything) saying, “You know, honey, I’ve been praying for months for God to bring us a pastor. Do you think it’s wrong that now I’m praying for him to hurry up and get here because he’s cutting in on my action?”  😉

Please don’t misunderstand–I didn’t make my husband go two months without sex, but the sizzle factor was lacking. That’s what being too busy and distracted will do to your love life.

I’m happy to report that our church called our candidate to be our next pastor, so as of May 6^th at noon, the seven of us on the committee were out of a job (thank you, Jesus!). Now, you might think that I would immediately jump back on the Dare Express, but have you noticed that once you stop doing something, it can be hard to start it back up again? It’s May 16^th, and I still owe my husband two Dares. Unless I make a conscious decision to once again make our sex life a high priority, I’m likely to keep procrastinating, saying “Tomorrow, next week, next month, I will do those Dares.” In the meantime, the sizzle will fizzle in my marriage.

 Join the discussion:  What distractions keep you from making sex a priority? What helps you in making a conscious decision to prioritize sex?