As you may have read in last month’s marriage article, my wife and I just got back from our weekend marriage retreat. This was not something that we had planned to do, but something that we believed we were led by the Holy Spirit to do.

Our weekend away served two purposes. The first was to provide an opportunity for my wife and I to seek the Lord together about the path that He is continuing to lead us on. We have a variety of different ministry works that are either already in place or starting soon, and there are several events that He has also laid on our hearts for the future. Our desire is always to hear His voice and do what He has called us to. And this weekend was intended for us to hear His voice so that we know how to move forward. Secondly, one of the events that the Lord has placed on our hearts is to do a marriage retreat for couples in October of 2024. This weekend away allowed my wife and I to experience exactly what we believe the Lord would have us to do on that couple’s marriage retreat.

So, what did we learn and experience while we were away for the weekend? First, we know that this weekend confirmed in our hearts that we as a married couple must always remember and seek our first love. That first love is not each other, but Jesus. We must always remember that He must be the center of our hearts and our marriage. Second, we were reminded of the importance of seeking Him both as an individual, and as husband and wife. We each have our own relationship with Christ, and we also have our relationship together with Him.

This weekend allowed us to not only know what it is that the Lord is leading us to do for the marriage retreat, but it also allowed us to experience it as though we were attending it. We know that through our study of the Word together, our time of prayer together, and our time of worship together we were drawn closer to Him and also closer to each other.

Our prayer is that each couple who reads this, and those who will attend the marriage retreat next year will learn to remember their first love, Jesus Christ. We pray that through that remembrance, they will choose to pray together more and seek Him as the foundation of their marriage.