Commercial Break

Do you ever think about those couples who have been married forever, kids are grown and off to college or whatever and they look at their spouse and say "we have nothing in common.. who are you?" Well that is one of my worst fears.

I think Ward and I have a pretty great marriage. Don't get me wrong, we're far from perfect, we make mistakes and we've had our share of ups and downs... But what we've learned in our years of marriage is the importance of making our relationship as a couple a priority.  Sometimes we unconsciously let our relationships take the backseat when life gets busy. And its easy to justify it by thinking, well- I've got a lot of other stuff going on and our relationship is good so I'll just set it in the backseat for now and I'll go back and focus on it when things aren't so busy.  But here's the thing- life is always going to be busy and its up to you and your significant other to make it a priority.  If you don't, you are putting your relationship at risk.  "You don't FIND a great marriage, YOU BUILD ONE!"  But you never see that stuff on tv. I guess the real work happens on the commercial break. So this weekend, Ward and I took a commercial break and went to a marriage conference at our church. 
The conference was entitled IGNITE! and this was our second year to attend. Last year our marriage was a little strained.  We had just had our second daughter and were already pregnant with another.  Ward and I were in our own little worlds- he focused heavily on work and I being pregnant, hormonal  and working focused on everything else.  (And if you've been pregnant or married to a pregnant woman, you know what I mean.)  Anyhow, we drifted apart.  We were happy with our family life, we still loved eachother and wanted to be with eachother, we didn't argue or fight but there began to be an unspoken disconnect between us.  So we decided to sign up for the conference just to see what it was all about. Let me tell you, BEST decision ever! Not only did Ward and I have fun at the conference, but it really did help us understand eachother better and make us closer as a couple.   I am proud to say that we've stayed connected throughout the year and couldn't wait for the conference to come around again this year. Its like adding a little jolt of energy to our marriage :)

So you may be wondering "What do you learn at these conference things?" Well, lots actually, the speakers our church brings in are some of the top speakers in the country about relationships and marriage. And they are wonderful at giving you insight about the opposite sex; what makes them tick; how they think; why they do what they do, and what you as a partner need to do to support them.    And while it was a marriage conference- most of the things I learned didn't just apply to marriages but relationships in general. My relationships with my friends, my children, people in general.  I learned so much that I'm not going to even attempt to tell you all about it in this one post.  Instead, I'm going to do several posts on it as I make "adjustments" in my life and put into practice some of the things I learned.

Here's my favorite quote from this weekend.

"Marriage is two people growing up together. If the two of you are just alike...

One of you is NOT NEEDED." 

 Joe McGee

 (by the way, this guy is HILARIOUS)