Today my husband & I will attend a Marriage Retreat that will help us
reconnect in fun, practical, and spiritual ways! We attended last year to
celebrate our wedding anniversary and liked it so much, we
registered to repeat the experience of a marriage getaway as a time of travel
and upliftment, focusing on our relationship.
A Christ-centered marriage radiates
love in thought, words, and deeds; selfishness is eliminated, as much as
possible, while repentance and service are increased. When a husband and wife
are unified in their hearts and souls, they truly become each other’s best
friend. They are sensitive to the others needs and show genuine appreciation
for kind and tender thoughts and actions.
“Under the law of the Lord, a
marriage, like a human life, is a precious, living thing. If our bodies are
sick, we seek to heal them. We do not give up. While there is any prospect of
life, we seek healing again and again. The same should be true of our
marriages, and if we seek Him, the Lord will help us and heal us...A good marriage does not require a
perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to
strive together toward perfection” (Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, General Conference
April 2007).
A marriage that is considered
precious and eternal is a win-win situation for the husband and wife, and also
for their children. Mature marital relationships resolve conflict through the
art of compromise and negotiation. In an atmosphere of mutual respect, children
benefit greatly from increased quality and quantity of time with both mom and
dad, but especially from the addition of an emotionally close relationship with
their fathers (Paul R. Amato, The Impact of Family Formation Change on the
Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation, 77 -
78).
“One study found ‘no evidence that
divorce or separation typically made adults happier than staying in an unhappy
marriage. Two out of three unhappily married adults who avoided divorce
reported being happily married five years later. A woman who persisted in an
intolerable marriage for many years until the children were raised explained:
‘There were three parties to our marriage—my husband and I and the Lord. I told
myself that if two of us could hang in there, we could hold it together’”
(Dallin H. Oaks, Divorce, General Conference April 2007).
I am grateful for the marriage covenant that my husband and I entered into when we were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple.
View
the cute video below called
"Lasting
Marriage"
What a joy it is to take time out of
our busy lives to strengthen our marriage by learning new things, being
reminded of everlasting principles, and rekindle our romance and friendship!
