Monday, February 13, 2012

I heart you

This past weekend we had 35 couples from C3 go on a marriage retreat. It was aweome.

It was a great reminder that a marriage centered on God makes for a much better marriage. The things we most often argue about are issues that come from our fears. Once we are able to identify those fears we can deal with them.

We had a very brave couple sit in front of everyone and work through an issue that has been going on for quite some time. They changed their focus from getting their own way or making sure their opinion was heard to posturing themselves with an open heart to truly understand the other. They changed the goal to understanding the other persons heart.

When you are in a position to understand, you don't have to get all emotional and defensive. When the other person "feels" understood (not when you "think" you understand them), they are more open to trying to understand you.

Watching this couple be that transparent with everyone staring at them was a life changing experience. It took away everyones excuses: If this couple can talk like that in front of everyone, we should be able to do it in private.

My point: marriage is a journey. Are you being a good journey partner. Would you want to journey with someone like you.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, we went to our room and they had personalized cookies - now that is a great retreat! (of course our kids ate them...)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

anonymous

One of the best things about my job is the joy of watching anonymous generosity.

I have had the privilege of telling people things like: their entire missions trip has been paid for, someone paid for your marriage retreat & here is a brand new 64gb iPad 2...

I have been on the receiving end of some anonymous gifts too and I used to wrestle with it. I would drive myself crazy thinking - who did this? I then realized that if I thanked them, that was it but if I allowed them to remain anonymous then God would bless them. I thought it was a better "thank you" if I allowed God to take care of it.

Konan just did a great series on the "blessed life" and it has radically changed lives. People are being incredibly generous and God is doing amazing things. You can listen to them on the C3 website but be careful - it will wreck you (in a good way)

My point: Anonymous is fun to be, hard to receive and AWESOME to be the messenger for.