14: Strengthen Your Relationship at a Marriage Conference

Strengthen Your Relationship at a Marriage Conference Thanks for joining us again on the Love How Deep Podcast.  Sometimes in a marriage relationship, couples like you can tend to drift off course.  It could be for various reasons.  Maybe conflict resolution has become more difficult.  Maybe outside stressors like we discussed in our last episode may have ramped up.  It could be a health issue or simply to feeling a bit stale about life.  Whatever might be the cause of the drift, we have a great answer for you.  You both could really benefit from attending a marriage conference to get your relationship back on track.  Here are some benefits:   I. Investing in Your Marriage – There are two big things that happen when you spend time together in a marriage conference  A.  The Content:  You will learn all sorts of new things about relationships.  The facilitator can teach new ways to see your own blind spots, how to forgive more effectively, and how to overcome stress and celebrate victories in your relationship B. The Process:   We are talking about simply taking the time out of your life to do something like this can help you connect with your spouse.  It can help change your attitude about you, yourself, and your spouse.  It tells your spouse; they are important and this is important.  II.  Going Deeper Often it is difficult in life to deepen intimacy because we are all busy, have kids pulling us in all kinds of directions, or are simply just too stressed.  A marriage conference will force you both in a good way to set aside all of those things to focus on each other.  III.  Setting Goals Simply agreeing on attending at a future is like setting a goal for your marriage.  It says you both are on the same page and want to walk in the same direction moving forward.  IV.  Improving Communication Whether or not the conference focuses directly learning communication skills, you will no doubt have time to spend talking at length with each other.  Remember we talked earlier that communication could be discussed and tools provided which is "Content."  Or it can just be better through the "Process" that you both doing together.  V.  Connecting with Other Couples Learning from other couples and their experience can be very powerful in 3 ways.  First, it will help you see that you are not alone.  Often, we can think that we are the only ones going through something when in fact it might be very common.  Second, we can share what strategies might work for us with another couple and vice versa.  Sharing what works can be immensely helpful.   Third, depending if your conference is local, you may be able to connect more with the couples you meet outside of the conference.  II. What You Should Look for in a Marriage Conference A. Christian Focused – There is nothing more powerful in our opinion than focusing on God's Word as the foundation for a great relationship.  B. Facilitators With Experience – Make sure the facilitators have years of experience working with couples in various settings – mentoring, counseling, groups, etc.  C. Couples Experience Time – It's nice to listen and glean help from the speakers, but it is so important that you be given time at each session to connect with your spouse through activities that drive home the points you are learning.  III.  Love How Deep Marriage Experience at Your Church Brian & Heather lead a Marriage Conference called The Love How Deep Marriage Experience.  It is a conference that focuses on God's Love as the foundation to build a more deeply connected relationship.  Couples in this conference will do things like anoint each other with oil, a footwashing experience just like Jesus did for his disciples, an intimate taking of Communion as a couple just to name a few.  If you are interested in this conference, we would ask that you check out our website to see if there is a conference near you.  If not, share this link with your pastor or other church leader and have them contact us.  We would love to discuss with your church, the possibility of facilitating our experience  Closing: Thanks so much as always for listening.  See you next time.