Saturday, January 27, 2007

State of the who?

So, thanks to the advice/example of several people (some of you out there in the blog-o-sphere, even), my wife and I just completed a State of the Marriage retreat. We went out to a hotel here in town and spent last night and most of the day today talking about our marriage and looking toward the future.

If you're a married person I highly recommend such an activity. This gave us a chance to discuss pretty much all of the important stuff in our marriage without getting in a fight about it first.

We started off by discussing a purpose statement for our marriage and then we looked at our basic beliefs as a couple. Based on those we crafted some core values and some key practices and habits. Those of you who are involved in church planting may recognize some of the methods we used. We pretty much stole them, and they work for marriage too.

This led us to talking about money and ministry and sex and kids and school and chores and just about everything else. It took us quite a bit longer than I thought, but every minute was worth it. The purpose of our marriage is taken from Ephesians 5: "The purpose of our marriage is to be an example of the relationship between Jesus and the church."


KMiV said...

So are you planning to increase the amount of kids in the next 5 years (as Bush suggested to the army)?

everyday.wonder said...

Very awesome, James. Melissa and I have done similar things in the past, having just got back from a little something like it this weekend. We spend times like this in other areas of our lives, why leave our marriages to chance?

May God bless your marriage and your speedy return to the northwest!