Pre-marital Seminar

This morning Tony and I arrived at Bethel Lutheran at 7:50 am (yes, on a Saturday...) for an 8 hour long pre-marital seminar. We had no idea what the day would entail, but I know I was excited for it!

We started off with a retired pastor talking about commitment. He was very sweet. He's in his upper 80s, and his wife passed away 22 years ago. There were several times that I had teary eyes from his very loving stories about his wife. He still had his wedding band on. I didn't know she had passed until the very end of his session.

Then, Pastor Wahl did a talk about having a church wedding and conflict resolution. We have discovered that I solve conflicts by blaming myself, and Tony solves conflicts by fixing it by himself. These will be good things to know when we have arguments throughout our marriage. Yes, I'm sure they will happen sometimes...

Next on the agenda was a licensed psychologist. She typically deals with people who are having marital troubles, but she spoke to us about our family origins. It really was interesting to have some good conversations about our family units and how similar and different they are.

We had a delicious lunch from Bread Baker.

Pastor Andy then spoke about communication. We did an activity with the Gary Chapman book The 5 Love Languages. Tony and I had already read the book and discussed it together, but it was a nice refresher. My top love language is Quality Time and Tony's is a tie between Quality Time and Physical Touch.

Pastor Anjanette came in next. (she's doing our wedding ceremony) She gave a talk about marriage and sexuality. We read from Song of Solomon. Who knew there was a romance novel within the midst of the Bible?

Our last session was with a young man from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. We talked about financial planning starting now instead of after our wedding day. Apparently 75% of divorces are caused by financial problems, so it's a really good thing to talk about now. Tony and I have spent a great deal of time preparing for our marriage, but it was still a nice session to learn more at.

Overall, I enjoyed our day. I think it's really beneficial to have something like this. There were four other couples in attendance as well, so it was good to hear other experiences and ideas. I liked that all 3 active full time pastors prepared sessions. I am starting to really feel like Bethel is my church and my congregation!

On a different note: the house is ours! We'll begin moving in soon! Watch for more updates :)