Marriage Encounter

Last weekend April 8-10, Grant and I spent a weekend together experiencing Marriage Encounter. It was held at the Aqua Resort Hotel. It was such a beautiful hotel and right from our room we had a view of the beach. The weekend was for couples who had great marriages and wanted to make it better. We had heard about about it from couples in our church and wanted to experience it for ourselves. One thought I had this weekend was we spend a lot of time focused on getting ahead in other areas of life and spending time to focus on them, why not marriage too? It was definitely an intense weekend. We spent the whole weekend together and grew in our marriage. One important concept I learned was when I listen to Grant I can't motor run, which means think about other things while listening to him. When I am listening I need to listen with my heart and head and to give full attention to the other person. I also learned that we talk a lot about the details of our day to day lives but we need to talk about our feelings as well. I also realized that in our case the littlest things can cause an argument and to be able to take a minute to look at what is really worth arguing about. What really meant a lot to Grant and I was when we found out our prayer partners for the weekend was our Pastor Greg and his wife Sandy. Prayer partners means they prayed for us throughout the weekend. We have spent some time with them and really enjoy their company. It brought tears to my eyes when they came in when we had officially ended our weekend and they handed us a gift basket. When I see true Christian love I cry, because it is so beautiful. We ended the weekend with a huge potluck and got to sit with our church community. It felt like an accomplishment to finish the weekend and to be able to feel supported by our church family. Grant and I are going to start the Steps Class soon which is a 10 week session of the topics we learned but broken down and are ready to learn more. It was a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to any couple who wants to deepen their marriage. If you want more information on how to find one close to you go to the WorldWide Marriage Encounter website www.wwme.org/
Grant took the pictures of the end of Marriage Encounter and I hope you enjoy them!
Kara