A Weekend to Remember

So, Rog and I spent the weekend at a Family Life “Weekend to Remember” conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Anchorage, from 6:30 Friday evening till 4:30 this afternoon. This was our first experience with a Family Life conference and I pray there will be more to follow. It was a wonderful, blessed time. It was a time of instruction, discovery, understanding, hope, reaffirmation and love. And fun! The speakers – Alan Hlavka and Barry & Pam Abell – were entertaining as well as informative. There were times of audience participation, times of reflection, times of laughter and times of tears. We were challenged and stretched; exhorted and encouraged; prayed for and loved.

All through the classes, we followed along in our own workbooks and, at the end each chapter, there was a homework or “project” section to work through individually and together, for the purpose of reinforcing the lessons learned in that chapter, and to help us begin to “live in” – or put into practice - those things which we had learned. It was great! Rog and I sat together and did our individual homework, then discussed the “couples application” portion. Because we could talk about these various topics in a non-confrontational, non-threatening environment, we actually listened to what the other one had to say. We were blessed. One of the activities that we did individually, then shared together later was to write a love letter. I know my Husband loves me, but to see his heart written out on paper, where I can turn to it for reassurance and a reminder of how much he truly does love me…it’s priceless. At the very end of the conference we were encouraged to fill out a form expressing how we felt about the weekend, the speakers, the hotel, etc. One of the questions asked was, “How do you feel that this Weekend to Remember Conference has impacted the relationship between you and your spouse?" My Beloved’s answer was, “Beyond measure.”

One thing I neglected to mention – Roggie surprised me with this weekend getaway. When it was first mentioned at church in mid February, the Holy Spirit directed me not to say anything to Rog about it. I didn’t make any little noises, didn’t nudge him in the ribs – didn’t even look in his direction. I just prayed, “Lord, if this is something You want the two of us to attend and experience, please make it happen.” He did!

Thank you, Jesus.