Weekend to Remember

Zach and I had a WONDERFUl time this weekend being filled with God's spirit, His word, and so much wisdom and encouragement in regards to building a godly Christ centered marriage. We had heard about Family Life's "Weekend to Remember" conference in Fort Wayne November 8-10 and I felt like it would be a great opportunity to gain some perspective and useful tools to help us while we're still learning the ropes of being newly married and to prepare us for whatever the future holds for our marriage. Our expectations we met above and beyond and we couldn't recommend this conference more to anyone in whatever stage of marriage you are in! Here are a couple highlights and take aways from our weekend...

If you are not striving towards oneness with your spouse than you are drifting towards isolation
Your spouse is a gift and has been ordained by God to either lead or support you. You must receive your spouse and love them for who they are not what they do or how they perform
Love each other despite your weaknesses
Your spouse in NOT your enemy! Satan is the enemy
We communicate on various levels and effective communication with your spouse is an ongoing process

Focus on what is being said not the way it is being said
Not everything you are feeling needs to be said

Just like a bolt is to a nut, a husband and a wife can accomplish greater purposes together
To reject your spouse in any way is to reject God and his provision for your life and to demonstrate unbelief and disobedience toward God
The goal of marriage is not to be conflict free but to handle correctly when it occurs

You can't afford to win a fight. In a fight there's always a winner and a loser. If you're the winner than the other is the loser and nobody wins

Forgive, forgive, forgive. Seek and grant forgiveness! Withholding forgiveness is selfish and a sin

A great marriage is made up of two professional forgivers
Choose to respond to hurt and insult with blessing

A strong woman demonstrates love for her husband by respecting and supporting him

Respect is a choice to receive your husband in spite of his weaknesses
Tell him that among everybody else, he stands out!
Following his leadership empowers him to be all that God intends him to be

I am not responsible for Zach, I am responsible for how I act
Train the children and help the husband, don't train the husband and over help the children
My life's priorities

Growing in my relationship with God come first
Respecting and supporting my husband comes second
Teaching and training my children comes third

And the biggest highlight/take away...Zach is the perfect soul mate for me and I for him, we are a gift to each other and our differences and weaknesses are a part of God's plan to grow us and to bring us to oneness :)

Ben and Alissa went too and we grabbed lunch at Shigs in Pit (yeah we kinda flubbed the name on accident a couple times...haha) together on Saturday. Amazing food!!

Saturday night was date night and we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Catablu. That was our appetizer of fried calamari. I could only eat the little pieces and not the whole mini squids...weird. Then we went home and discussed our assignment over a bottle of wine and delicious dulce de leche ice cream :)

Last day of the conference

On Sunday after the conference wrapped up we went over to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art for an assignment Zach needed to complete for a class and we had fun looking at the very, dare I say, lame exhibits...poor Fort Wayne...