Friday, February 21, 2014

Blueprint Marriage Retreat


taken during a break in the marathon weekend...

On Valentine's weekend, EH and I went off to the marriage retreat put on by our marriage group. We were pretty excited to see everyone again, especially since we haven't been able to meet for the past month due to the crazy snowstorms we've been getting up here in the north.

Our retreat took place in Bloomington, New Jersey at the Star Lake camp. I really wish we could have walked the grounds and get a feel for the place but it was pretty cold so we spent most of our time indoors. We arrived at the camp at about 9PM and got settled before we plunged headfirst into the first introductory session. It didn't last too long, thank goodness, because I was pretty beat at 9PM! We did end up having a pretty heavy one-on-one session with another married couple that turned out to be a real blessing.

We shared a little about what we've been going through the past few years and some issues we want to keep working on. They shared some hard things that they've gotten through in their marriage and prayed the most awesome power prayer for us at the end of our session. It really was a balm because at the end of the weekend we were feeling much more secure that our little one was a gift that we would ,indeed, get to open. We also made some really good friends!

Back in our room, a little gift bag was waiting for us that included this gem, 101 Conversation Starters for Couples. We haven't cracked it open yet but I'm really looking forward to it because I loooooveeeee talking. I don't know if I should keep it in the car or keep it in the bedroom. Did I mention there was no television in our room?? I was sooooo happy that we would truly get to spend some quality time together without the darn television. I've become increasingly concerned we spend entirely too much time on media. EH and I have already agreed that we want to severely limit our television/social media usage when the whelp is born.

The next morning we started our first session at 9AM right after breakfast. We reviewed the chapters we'd read so far and had some nice discussions about hardships in marriage. There were a few cool couples' team-building activities as well. In one, we had to write about something we found difficult to live up to in our marriage...using our non-dominant hand. In another, we had to make a play-dough sculpture together with one hand behind our backs.

We had a discussion about sex and intimacy, which I thought could have been a little more in depth, but for the time that we had it was pretty good. I really would have liked to talk about how social media, internet and television serve to inhibit intimacy, but maybe I'll get to bring it up another time.

Since Saturday was our only full day, we went until 7pm. After, we found a cool spot and played a guys vs girls game of Taboo. My favorite part of the trip by far was getting to know everyone better and feeling more connected to our new church family
We look warm, don't we!?

2 comments:

  1. I've always wondered what happens during retreats. Jethro and I need to do one

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  2. This was our very first marriage retreat and it went pretty well. I kind of wish it had been longer. There's something about being outside of your normal surroundings that just makes connection so much easier. Plus, they had good food!

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