Originally published Monday, 20 April 2015.
The TV show, The Office, first aired 10 years ago last month. I had friends in college who were super obsessed with the show during its run, but I never watched a single episode until November of last year when my mom gave us her Netflix log-in information (best early Christmas present ever!).
Feeling a little behind on The Office "love train," I wanted to see what all the fuss was about one night while I was up all through the night feeding and cuddling my newborn son. I got hooked in right from the first episode and knew my husband, Paul, would enjoy watching it with me too. We were both huge fans of Scrubs (I own every season on DVD, including the weird "college days" spin-off of Season 9 and can referene a quote relating to pretty much any situation), so I kind of felt like I was cheating on my beloved show of almost eight years.
As Paul and I started our Netflix journey of getting sucked into viewing season after season (sometimes in one sitting), it was obvious that our favorite part of the show was the love story between the famous TV couple, Jim and Pam. We found ourselves rooting for them (aloud) and tearing up every time they got closer and closer to becoming an item.
*Spoiler alert* for all of your non-Office peeps:
The first time they kissed at the Casino Night episode, we squeeled in bed. You couldn't wipe the grins off of our faces. The tug-of-war on our hearts as we watched the ups and downs of their (sometimes almost) romantic relationship kept us both excited to see what was going to happen to Jim and Pam next!
We completed watching the whole show after an entire day in bed on a Sunday from being snowed in. Seriously, we stayed in bed with our eyes glued to the screen for about twelve hours and I don't regret it one bit.
A month or so ago, we started watching from the beginning of Season 1 again to enjoy the hilarious antics of the office family, as well as the thrill of seeing a beautiful love unfold between our favorite characters, Jim and Pam.
One of Paul and I's phrases that we say to each other now is "you're the 'Jim' to my 'Pam'." Like most couples whose relationship is rooted in friendship (where Jim and Pam's relationship stays for quite some time), I'm sure they can recognize themselves in Jim and Pam's story. When my husband and I watch this iconic TV love story, we see glimpses of Emily and Paul's love story.
Being able to reminisce of our "falling in love" days, while we watch Jim and Pam fall in love, I realized recently that this ficticious couple has helped start a fire back in our marriage of a little over five years. Like I wrote in this article for Start Marriage Right late last year, my husband and I have experienced a little shaking in the foundation of our marriage since our son was born.
Since our roles in life have changed now that we are parents, we have struggled to find our roles as husband and wife in the midst of the responsibilities of caring for son. Knowing that our marriage has to come first, we have began to become extremely intentional on keeping the flame alive between us. Yes, even at just five years along, we have had to throw some wood on the bonfire of our relationship.
In addition to balancing our focus and responsibilities between our son and our marriage, we have also started the journey to debt freedom throughDave Ramsey's plan. The Lord has blessed my husband with an amazing job, not only with incredible health benefits for the whole family, but with multiple opportunities for paid over-time compensation. For us, this means Paul is gone for over fourteen hours a day. As someone whose primarylove language is quality time, this is a struggle for me, so I've had to adapt to our limited time with each other. To stay connected throughout the day, while my "superhubs" is at work and I'm at home with our son, we send emails to each other.
Recently, I started sending pictures that I've found on Instagram of Jim and Pam in our favorite scenes (when Jim proposes and when they get married, of course), as well as old photos of us when we first started dating.
Although I know that love is not based on a feeling, it is wonderful to be able to feel something for your spouse, especially those "butterflies" you once felt when you first met them. Being reminded of that time in your relationship keeps things fresh and new all over again.
For us, even if it sounds silly, it is watching Jim and Pam from TheOffice that helps ignite that passion for each other. I never thought a TV show would be a part of my love life, but I'm thankful that God has used it to bring Paul and I closer together during this difficult season for us in our marriage.
From now on, He'll always be the 'Jim' to my 'Pam' and I wouldn't want to trade that for anything in the world.
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