Are you going to be back in Europe this year?” What a strange question! And yet, yes, we were. What started mid-summer 2022, with “Can you help us with Prepare-Enrich conversations?” turned into “We would love for you to help us with our wedding!” What a joy to walk with Jan and Margriet through their visits with one another concerning what love, communication, and commitment in marriage looks like! Jan has been down the aisle, repeating “until death parts us” twice before and, sadly, disease has taken his two previous devoted life partners. Here he was again, wanting to make promises and seal covenant vows with God’s help. So, there we stood in Best, Nederland, on Friday, October 13 to do just that. What a blessing! But all of this started us thinking and talking about vows and covenant love.
What does marriage commitment mean to you? “With this ring, I thee wed!” What life flows from the unending faithfulness represented by the ring without end encircling the finger?
Good relationships take hard work! To us, marriage requires love, respect, trust, submission, good communication and yes, deep commitment. What would you add to the list?
When marriage vows are repeated, we encourage those married couples present as witnesses to see each wedding as an opportunity to renew their vows! Love is a decision, made afresh each day! So, also is marriage commitment! Having been asked by a sweet Ohio couple, if we would help them renew their marriage vows on the heels of that Dutch wedding, we have been giving serious thought to what our marriage vows mean to us. In global worker circles, we talk a great deal about “self-care”, but what about “marriage care”. We are convinced that better marriages are going to help build exceptional families, healthy churches, and stronger communities. How can we come alongside each other to provide care as we declare what healthy marriage looks like? One of the ways we want to do this is by training more facilitators to use Prepare-Enrich for both preparing couples for marriage as well as enriching existing relationships. We absolutely love walking couples through this process. Please let us know if we can help. Our next (virtual) facilitator training will be Saturday, February 10, 2024. Feel free to contact us for details.
