A few thoughts marriage retreat lessons from the 2022 Virginia Marriage Retreat in Williamsburg, VA.
This past weekend, Mary and I attended the 2022 Virginia Marriage retreat in Williamsburg. We actually took the whole week “off”, Mary from school and me from being unemployed. The idea was to focus on one another for a week by relaxing and taking time to reflect, and getting refreshed. Here are a few thoughts from the marriage retreat lessons and other events over the weekend.
Retreat Lessons
The Retreat featured lessons from Darren and Sharon Gauthier, an elder/elder’s wife from the Chicago Church of Christ. The lessons were a call back to marriage basics, from our vows and Paul’s classic passage on marriage from Ephesians 5. The emphasis was on remembering how our love developed in the first place, and how we can grow in our love through focusing on the needs of our spouse. The lessons were full of humor, grounded in love, and convicting with grace.
Caleb Corps Lunch
On Saturday, Mary and I hosted a lunch for the Western Virginia / Shenandoah Caleb Corps group. This fellowship group includes empty-nester couples from the churches in the Roanoke, New River Valley, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville. It was good to be together with this special group in person!
As always, I shared a short devotional thought. This time it was about the passage in Hebrews 3:13 “encourage one another”. I shared about how I’ve been keeping a bullet journal for the past six years, which includes a “habit tracker”. Of course, reading the Bible is first on the habit tracker list. The rest of the list includes my daily exercise (I do a yoga routine daily), reading, writing and finally encouraging.
I usually catch up on the tracker every day or so, and think through who I can encourage. Maybe it’s by sending an encouraging message or saying something to lift them up. I mostly thought of this as encouraging someone at church or outside my home. Starting in March of 2020, the only person I was seeing personally most days was Mary. I realized then that I should be focusing most of my encouraging on my spouse! Now in my review of my daily tracker I include whether I’ve encouraged Mary in some way that day.
Haverim and “One Thing”
One of the men in my haverim group suggested spending a few minutes today (Monday after the retreat) sharing one takeaway we each had from the retreat. Yesterday at the worship service, Ed and Deb Anton shared this thought: find one thing you can focus on coming out of the retreat so that you don’t get either overwhelmed or complacent. We shared with each other in the haverim, and I plan to encourage my brothers by praying for their “one thing” and share with them how I do with mine.
Marriage retreats have been some of our favorite memories over the years. Mary and I have benefitted from the great wisdom from marriage retreat speakers along with the fun we’ve had sharing meals and having discussions with our friends. If you were at the retreat, share the “one thing” that inspired or convicted you. Also, be sure to encourage your spouse daily, and share your “one thing” with someone.