A Weekend to Remember [Part 2]
Yesterday Kelsey shared her thoughts and takeaways from our weekend to remember. Today, it's my turn to share. To be honest, I think I am the opposite of most men. I think most men would turn and run at the sound of having to spend a whole weekend working on their marriage. But as I've said before, I love to learn and when Kelsey and I have the opportunity to learn together, it's one of the greatest things that we do as a couple. I so looked forward to strengthening our marriage and re-enforcing the foundation that we have been slowly building over the past five years. Especially now that baby W is on her way, we knew this was the perfect time for a marriage tune-up.
From my perspective, the retreat was spectacular. The material is well developed and the speakers bring life to the content by sharing their amazing stories of their struggles and how they have overcome them. Here are my thoughts from the weekend.
Takeaways
- I am called by God to serve my wife as Christ served the Church. This comes with a heavy responsibility to give up my selfish ways.
- The Bible is my playbook. I need to constantly be studying it to find the direction to lead my wife and family.
- I need to learn to cherish and nurture my wife as the daughter of God that she is.
- There is no such thing as a perfect family.
- Where there is no struggle, there is no strength (as it relates to conflict in marriage).
- This world will offer you something good in order to rob you of something great.
I'm not going to scan my letter as Kelsey did, simply because my handwriting equals the level of most 8-year-old children. I cried while I had to finish reading Kelsey's letter for her, and I bawled as I read my letter to her (photo below is the proof). It was very powerful to put these words on paper and share with each other. This was the pinnacle of the weekend for me.
Dear Love,
Your gentle, accepting spirit and your tender-loving, bubbly personality are what first attracted me to you.
Your loving affirmation of me and encouraging of me publicly are qualities I appreciate in you. I also appreciate how you have learned to respect me as the man that God created me to be and as the spiritual head of our family. Your encouragement means the world to me.
Through our differences I have learned that we are stronger. We each have different strengths and contribute to the family in our own ways. I may not always say it, but your planning skills used to correspond with our families is a weakness of mine and I am thankful you own that responsibility.
Through your gentle nudging and challenging, you have helped me grow spiritually into who God has made me to be. I am fully committed to the process of becoming one with you: a constant striving to be better in all areas of our marriage so that we can mirror God's image to others, complete one another and multiply our legacy for generations to come.
I receive you as the greatest gift that God could ever give me on earth. I receive you for who you are and accept you not based on performance, but because we were made to be together. I trust that God will take care of the details and by letting go of my selfish ways, we can move closer to oneness in our marriage. I love you so much and you are my best friend forever.
-Eric
As Kelsey mentioned yesterday, we would love to see as many couples attend this as possible. It's a great retreat and we hope to do this every year. It's not just for traditionally married couples either. If you are remarried, engaged or in a military family, they offer different projects for each of those areas. It’s offered nationwide and chances are there is an upcoming event in your area. Check out a list of the conferences here. If you register using the group name WORDSOFWILLIAMS, you’ll receive a 50% off coupon code for your Weekend to Remember registration (does not expire). We hope this blesses you like it blessed us.
Have you been to a marriage retreat before? Have you ever considered attending one?