Thanks Sandy.  Great idea.

Konichiwa Andy. Thanks for your encouragement, and good to know an old friend is reading.

G’day Di. I reckon your comments are always worth more than one cent; and often far more so.

You are right to acknowledge the variety of families. In our case, the idea probably works well because our kids are all keen readers and love few things better than tucking up in bed with a good book till lights out.

It’s also worth saying that one reason I found Karyn’s idea counter-intuitive at first was because of the very high value we both placed on eating meals together as a whole family when we were both growing up. So it was hard to depart from that even only one night a fortnight.

I also want to say that I think the one-flesh image in the Bible is more than sex, though not less. For us the aim was the intimacy of time alone just for the two of us together, especially in communication, although I am sure there are wider implications for the relationship.

All that said, I like what you do with the Bible’s theological trajectory of applying the one-flesh marriage relationship to our corporate relationship with Christ, in suggesting that whole-family meals are a natural and hopefully joyful expression of our union with Christ.

And we are certainly sticking with that as our basic way of eating together, just with this occasional variation!

Nicky Lock mentioned the sort of idea my wife came up with for us in her excellent article at Sydneyanglicans on “marriage maintenance”.

However she had ten other ideas as well - some of which I am sure my wife and I can benefit from.

And if our idea does not suit your family ‘shape’ I am sure you will get some good ideas from her article!