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| A testimony from a couple who is heart-deep in this ministry. |
 Marriage Enrichment: just the name congers up great memories of retreats and growth groups
by Larry & Cindy
When we were first married and lived in Oklahoma, my husband dragged me to our first retreat where Marilyn and J Paul Turner were the Retreat speakers in KC. I was a little nervous, wondering what we were going to talk about. I only wanted our topics to be positive. It was! It was such a great foundation weekend for communication for our new marriage. We heard there was going to be another retreat in February so we gave the retreat as a Christmas gift to my sister and her husband. We went together. A couple of years later, a church where my husband was on staff, sent us for training to be Certified Marriage Enrichment Leaders, again under the leadership of Marilyn and J Paul Turner.
One tool that we learned at our Marriage Enrichment Retreat was the tool of conflict negotiation. This new tool was especially useful one particular weekend.
Larry and I had been asked by our church to attend a Jr./Sr. High Great Ideas Seminar in Dallas. We drove up from Norman, Oklahoma after work on a Friday evening. Larry went to the Sr. High session and I went to the Jr. High session. When we were done with the sessions we came together for a combined service at the end of the sessions. Larry was so excited about all he had learned. I was so tired from working all day, driving to Dallas with Larry and then going to the evening session. I didn't feel that I had learned anything new, probably because I was tired.
When Larry asked me what I had learned and he was so upbeat when he asked me, I turned to him and said I think we know most of everything we need too. I didn't learn anything new. I could see the redness building in his face as he was getting upset. Here the church had paid our way and I wasn't using their money wisely.
He was about to say something negative when all of a sudden he said, Let's talk about this tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. as we are driving home. I burst out laughing as this was a really new concept, but one we had just learned in Marriage Enrichment. We both laughed and agreed to talk about it at the designated time when we were more refreshed.
Marriage Enrichment. It's a plate full of great tools in building the esteem of my partner, giving scripture gifts, learning how to convey what I want in a way that my partner doesn't feel attacked.
We have been involved in Marriage Enrichment several years now, mainly to keep it in front of us.
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