David and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on Friday. We just got home from the Family Life Weekend to Remember in Texas. It is a conference about building a stronger marriage. We think we might make it now. Oh, I'm kidding. We weren't trying to save the marriage, we're just always up for some enrichment.
It was a really relaxing and fun time in an amazing resort hotel. A lot of the conference topics were pretty basic and was stuff we have figured out through trial and error over 16 years, but much of it was very relevant and useful. It is for really strong marriages, really weak ones, new ones, old ones, it covers everyone. I truly believe attending this conference in the beginning of marriage could radically affect the success of a marriage and reduce a lot of the stress that comes with trying to get on the same page as your spouse in the beginning. We will be sending all of our children and their fiances to this conference.
Later I mean. None of them have fiances presently that I am aware of.
The biggest realization that we took away from this conference is that we are frequently guilty of having a “child-centered” home. Between four kids and their activities and family time and training ’em up and everyone needing to wrestle with Daddy and on and on and on, (which is all stuff we really love) we often fail to give each other more than our leftovers at the end of the evening. We committed to make some changes in this area. We know that if we send kids upstairs early once a week or so in order to focus on each other for more of the evening it will be wonderful for us, and it will teach them something that we want them to know with certainty, that our relationship is a top priority.
Have you been to a conference like this? What was the most useful thing you took away?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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11 comments:
Congrats you two! We've never been to a conference like this...too busy raising kids! ; )
Good take-away!
We have a kid centered home too. We need to work on that
It can be easy to give the leftovers! I was JUST praying about this this morning! God must be up to sumpin'!
I would love to attend a conference like that. Our house isn't only child centered but you got to throw in the father in law to. Craig and I are caretaker centered. We always sneak out Saturday mornings and have breakfast just him and I. It took a long time for us not to feel guilty for taking that time but we don't feel that way anymore.
Wow! I wonder how many of us live in a "child-centered" family. I like what you are going to start doing.
It's always nice to stop and take a look/re-evaluate how things are going, huh? We do a weekly date night (just the two of us) which is advice some friends with four kids gave - one of the best bits of advice we've taken. Sounds like a wonderful weekend. We've never done anything like this before, but sounds like it would be worthwhile.
Congratulaions on 16 years. Ours is next weekend. Dave's mom is coming over to stay the night with the kids. Yea! Glad you had a fun time at the conference.
Congratulaions on 16 years. Ours is next weekend. Dave's mom is coming over to stay the night with the kids. Yea! Glad you had a fun time at the conference.
This is a wonderful conference! Chad and I went last year. We're Family Life supporters. I loved "my mate is not my enemy" even though it made us laugh! How about that love letter part?! That was a wonderful weekend for us!
We have a kid centered home as well. We have three boys and a girl, six and under. We are trying to schedule more date nights...being creative with babysitting and cheap!
Congratulations on 16 years, by the way! I'm embarrassed I forgot to mention it earlier.
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