A few months ago, Peanut-lover marked off the Weekend to Remember marriage conference on two weekends of our April calendar. I was all, "I work weekends" and he was all, "Let's just see what happens".
Then I got my schedule for April and instead of working one shift every weekend as usual, I was scheduled to work two shifts each of the first two weekends and then have two weekends off. Yes. That's right. The same two weekends that Family Life was hosting their Weekend to Remember conferences in Seattle (where my dad lives). We were just days from missing the early-bird deadline so we signed up right away.
Here are five things I loved about the conference:
1. Focused time to work on our marriage
This Monday will mark 7 years of marriage for us. And we've had a pretty good marriage thus far. But, you know, it's hard to find time to resolve issues that come up, or even to spend time together when we get caught up in the busyness of life. It was nice to have this time that we had each dedicated to improving our marriage. I'm sure we'll be seeing the benefits for a long time.2. Being reminded about the basics.
It's easy to get settled into the habits of daily life and forget that marriage is work. For me, one of the big things that stood out from this conference is that I've let my attention be focused on what is most demanding of my attention (kids first, husband second, God last) instead of prioritizing my attention by who deserves it the most (God first, husband second, kids third, everything else fourth).
3. Excellent speakers
The speakers were amazing! There were three of them, a married man and a married couple. In each session, they used clips from current movies to introduce the topic and to demonstrate what they were talking about. The speakers were transparent about their own relationships and really used their own experiences to highlight or expand on points. They were funny, believable, trustworthy, easy to listen to. I enjoyed each of them thoroughly.
4. Organization
Family life knows what they are doing when they do a conference. And they should. They run these conferences nearly every weekend of the year! When we arrived, we each received a book with notes to follow along in each of the 10 sessions. Every few pages, there was a "Making it personal" section where we would stop and consider how the information we'd just learned applied to our own lives and marriages. About half of the sessions were followed up by first some personal work and then some work to be done as a couple. These included talking about our hopes for the weekend, writing a love letter to our spouse, talking about our expectations with intimacy, and sharing what we had learned about our individual roles in the relationship. Some of the work was hard. I spent the first half of the weekend feeling raw, vulnerable, exposed. I couldn't look anyone in the eye for fear that the tears wouldn't stop if they started. But it was work that needed to be done to take our relationship from good to great.
5. Seeing hundreds of other couples dedicated to working on their marriages.
Marriage gets a lot of negative talk these days. It was great to be surrounded by couples who wanted to work on their marriages, who believed things could be even better. There were couples that were engaged all the way up to a couple who had been married 46 years! It gave me hope to see that no matter how long you've been together, you can always work together to achieve a new level of closeness.
Is your marriage all that it can be? Right now, Family Life is offering a 50% discount on the rest of their Spring conferences. Click here to find out more. Family Life Canada also hosts similar conferences in Canada, click here for the link.
Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say! ***Mr Linky stays open until next Thursday when I post my next Five Things Thursday, so join in whenever you are able***
I finally did it! It is such a fun, positive weekly prompt. So glad you created it!
ReplyDeleteMarriage is tough and I think it becomes even tougher when you have kids. I will have been married 11 years come June...11 years... wow that is hard to say. Plus we dated a long time before that so we have actually 17 years under our belt. Hard to imagine since I am only 34 years old.
ReplyDeleteI think more couples need to things like you did. It is good quality time and it shows how much you value what you have invested in.
Sorry I haven't played lately. I am not coming up with much to love here lately. I am in one of those really funky moods right now. To much to do and not much getting done is really working my over a bit. Then I find myself doing waistful things and I get more mad at myself. Hopefully I will find a nice balance here real soon.
My husband and I attended the Weekend to Remember in Charleston, SC back in 2005, just before we married. We had an awesome time! Our speakers were so hilarious too, so that was a bonus. I still have my little piece of paper about being a good little wifey (that they gave out in the women only session) taped to my fridge. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on making it as far as you guys have so far.
We hit our 3 year anniversary in 3 weeks, and our marriage is just getting better and better.