Marriage Preparation - not only for church folks anymore!
While you're planning your wedding, why not plan your marriage?
Myth busting
“Marriage Prep is for religious folks” – a good marriage preparation is for everyone who wants a healthy, long term marriage
“Marriage Prep only talks about God” – In truth it’s all about you, the couple
“Love is all we need” – Even the strongest love requires healthy habits of action
“We will be together forever” – No one marries thinking it will end but the divorce rates of %40 say otherwise
“We know everything we need to know” – Excellent! But there might be something more to discover
Love is so great. Falling in love, devoting yourself to each other and planning for the big day are so exciting! But what about all the days after you say your "I do's"? Your marriage will be a long one and during it you'll find that love takes work, attention and focus. Let us help to give you some concrete methods to support you when the days get long, if the road gets hard or if the flutter in your heart goes silent for a while.
In our exciting Marriage Preparation class you will be with a number of other couples in the same stage of life as you are. What will be different about this day is that the wedding will not be the focus - you've got that covered - but we will be talking about all of the days that come after. To your great relief you'll find that there is no group sharing but instead you'll have some very intentional, very intimate opportunities to have focused conversations with your partner about some very thoughtful topics.
We cover
- Communication - are we really hearing each other?
- Values - who am I, who are we and what do we want?
- Family of Origin - what assumptions do I have that come from my childhood and how might they affect my current relationship?
- Parenting & Blending Families - Do you want children? How many? Why? Who will stay home? How will we discipline? What will we do if we can't get pregnant? Who will we spend Thanksgiving with? What about Christmas? What if my mother-in-law keeps showing up?
- Family Abuse - just some good things that everyone should know
- How to Fight Fairly - what bad habits do we have? Does everyone leave with their dignity intact?
- Finance - what's your plan? Do you have one? What if something changes?
- Sex - Oh yeah. We go there. We encourage couples to have great sex - after all, why else would we have all of these beautiful bits?
You will find that each and every topic builds on the first lesson of communication, after all, our intention is to open up new and more authentic ways for you to talk about hard things.
