Monday, February 28, 2011

ONE Marriage Conference: Day 1

Friday night we met some of our dear friends, Dana & Ryan & Chelsea & Brian, over at Free Chapel for the first session of the ONE marriage conference.
We joined in with over 2800 husbands and wives from 28 states ready to learn!  Several people 'jokingly' asked why we were going to a marriage conference (we've only been married for 5 months).  Preventative medicine, duh! It's like vitamins for your marriage, and you know how I feel about those!  Your marriage deserves your effort and attention, and it's something you should ALWAYS be working to improve, even if it's already wonderful. :)  One of the greatest institutions God created is the family, so Satan is no doubt going to attack marriages in any way he can.

Jentzen Franklin led the first session and he was absolutely hysterical!! I loved that he was so REAL. He spoke out of the book of Hosea, chapters 1-3 about Hosea (a preacher) and Gomer (a prostiture, and yes, that's her name! and I have to admit I didn't know there was a Gomer in the Bible until a few weeks ago when I was teaching a SS lesson about her!).
I'm going to let you skip out on the $75 and live vicariously through my marriage conference. So, here are my notes from the conference: ENJOY!
-The greatest marriage misconception and #1 lie Satan uses is "What I am missing is better than what I have."
-80/20 Principle:
-Your spouse typically meets 80% of your expectations in your marriage (newsflash friends, no one will ever meet 100%!).  People trade in the 80% for someone who makes up the 20%. 
-Instead of focusing on the 20% our spouse doesn't have (complaining, nagging, etc.) we should focus on, invest in, and be thankful for the 80% they DO have!
-If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, maybe you need to water your own grass.
-What you CAN have it NOT better than what you already have if you'll invest in what God already gave you.
-In chapters 2 & 3 of Hosea, God is like a jealous/angry lover.  He went through three stages:
1) anger
2) righteous anger (turning anger from the person to Satan/ the situation)
3) unfailing love
-When your marriage is in the valley like Isreal was with God, you have to realize God ALWAYS provides a door of hope.  Anger will leave and unfailing love will take over.
-To have a great marriage, you have to go through the valley TOGETHER.
-We do not know if Gomer ever straightened up, but we do know that God ordered Hosea to "love her again" and start over as God loved the Israelites.
-This is an example to us of how God's love allows us to start over. He ALWAYS forgives us and loves us again.
-Keep pursuing God, even through the vallies of marriage, and He will always provide a door of hope.

This biggest thing I took from this message was to focus on Jonathan's positives instead of complaining about the negatives. I'd say my numbers are more like 97/3 than 80/20 and I am so blessed. Above all, he is a Godly man who desires to be in His will and learn more about Him, and honestly what more could this blissful bride ask for??

After the conference we headed to Chili's. We shared SO MANY laughs....the waiter thought we were crazy!
Brian & Chels!
 The Dossonator & Dana!
 That's better...
 Big Jon (doing who knows what?!?!) and yours truly!
That's a little better.
I bet they were so glad we were leaving (the Chili's employees, not the boys- ha!).
Silly girls!

Ready for Day 2 of ONE marriage conference!

2 comments:

Mama’s Minute said...

Hey maam without a FB! I love that you found the pics! What a great time. When I get my lazy butt back to blogging I will put more up! :)

*Butler, Party of 4* said...

I know....photos courtesy of Mrs. Dossonater!! :) My mom told me they were on FB so I hacked into Big Jon's to get them...hope ya don't mind!

Get back to blogging beautiful girl! I like to see what you have to saye very day! :)