I went to a marriage conference this weekend called A Weekend to Remember. I believe I was the only single person there! There were about 300 couples! So you are probably wondering why I went. Well because starting August 17th I will be leading a Marriage Prep class at my church. For over the past year I have been researching and developing a marriage prep class. I am sooo excited about it. God has developed a passion in me to help couples start their marriage off right. That means for them to build their marriage on the foundation of the one who designed and created marriage...God! When you get something new you are excited about, but it comes in pieces and you have to put it together it sometimes can take a lot of work. Let's say you have a new fancy beautiful desk. You have two options. First you can put it together by looking at the pieces and guessing where things go and hope it turns out right. Second you can look at the directions and follow it step by step. The problem with the first one is you might have pieces left over at the end which were supposed to be used and then you will have to go back and figure out what you did wrong by using the directions. This just waists time. Or you might use all the pieces, but two years down the road learn you didn't use them right because your desk fell apart and furthermore your computer and lamp fell and broke too. So....what is my point? Well marriage comes with instructions also. It's called the bible. If you start your marriage off by using the instruction manual you will be building your marriage to last. If you don't it could quickly experience problems which could have been avoided or it could completely fall apart years down the road.
I really felt led to share this! I hope it helps someone.

Something else I learned is it takes three essential ingredients for a marriage to thrive. I believe these ingredients are also true in any relationships. So do a self check. How you doing with the following:

1) Extravagant love: expressed often, places other's needs above your own, it is a choice not a feeling, it reflects God's love
2) Generous Forgiveness: begins with humility, is offered quickly, applied freely, expressed graciously - keeps no record of wrongs, without your relationship will be filled with bitterness, with forgiveness you will have security.
3) Enthusiastic Encouragement: believes in and motivates others, openly affirms others, avoids critical words, maintains positive attitude even in hard times, leads to unity.

So how did you do? Are you an extravagant lover? A generous forgiver? An enthusiastic encourager? If not then pick one today and ask God to help you to apply these ingredients to your marriage!