What a beautiful morning! Yes, I know that it is cloudy and windy and cold, it is still a beautiful morning to me (because I haven’t left the house yet, lol)! Seriously though, it brings a great start to Monday morning when I had a great weekend with Hubby. Hubby and I are teaching Sexuality in Marriage at an upcoming Next Level Marriage Retreat and we’ve known about it for a hot minute. I am a spontaneous person that can ad lib things if you give me a topic, Doc (I call him that when I am thinking about this side of him, it’s his nickname in the office) on the other hand, he is a planner, thinker, intelligent man who thinks through his words because he wants to make things clear for the listener. We decided to go away for the weekend and begin our processing on what each of us has been thinking and praying about over the past few weeks. (Not to mention it was clearly time for a weekend in a hotel!)
Hubby booked a Hyatt property so we would have a living space to work during the weekend and within walking distance of some restaurants so we wouldn’t have to order in pizza. We spent the weekend reconnecting because to write a teaching on sexuality in marriage together, we have to be connected in our thoughts, as ONE you might say. Several years ago Craig Groeschel (Life.Church) taught us to do a planning weekend with your spouse to measure the last year and to pray about and write out what the coming year will entail. We began this practice several years ago and learned it is better to remove ourselves from distractions for a weekend with any projects we are working together on. When I contacted Pastor Craig by email a few months after that teaching, I asked him what the weekend looked like for them. His main response was 25/75 principal, 25% of the weekend working and 75% enjoying the time and playing! I loved it! So that is what our weekends look like most of the time because when we are disconnected, our world doesn’t work well and we nourish it with these weekends away regularly.
This past weekend was fun! We enjoyed hanging out together running errands, working out, shopping, dining, laughing, crying, and last but not least…working. We got our outline prepared and assignments to each other for input into the teaching and will re-convene when he gets back from Georgia helping our son. Sex is an interesting subject to teach on for sure, its a fine line we have to draw in desiring so much for others in their marriage bed and respecting the intimacy of the act. I was a wounded little girl and an even greater wounded young woman with a somewhat passive husband, we didn’t start out our marriage with the picture of health when it comes to our sex life. We did know that it was a high need for men and women tended to be challenged by that need when they were so busy with everything else we do in this life. We chose to work on ours because it was important to us, we wanted to affair proof our marriage (in this one area) to the best of our ability and that led us to a desire for growth.
This process of growth has had it’s ups and downs. It has brought us to a place of realizing that without this intimate act, we are nothing more than glorified roommates with unfulfilled needs and that is unacceptable! Life is way too short to be left in want when you have a best friend lying next to you that accepts you the way you are. That is what we discussed this weekend in preparation so I had to share. We are so very excited to offer what God has given us and taught us through the roller coaster ride of our marriage! We are grateful for this opportunity and I am amazed at what God has done in Hubby’s life, standing in the front of the room has never been something desirable to him. Now, I see the excitement in his eyes as God is changing his point of view. I never really dreamed this would be my husband, but I can say I had a vision of it a few years back. It was hard to believe when God showed it to me, but God is AMAZING and He can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. I have prayed regularly for Matt throughout our marriage but got serious about it a few years back, things I never had a full confidence could come true. God brought them to life, He tells us that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours and He can do all things, it’s true more each day of my life. I have to give a shout out, “GO GOD!”
So, here I am Monday morning and although it will be cold when I go outside to leave, I had a great weekend reconnecting with my Hubby and I am warm on the inside and wanted to share. God bless and stay warm!
As Beauty Unfolds... 