1. Choose Love Connection
Remember when you were first in love? You felt like your partner was the “one”, and that he/she was the center of your universe. In fact your entire mood was dependent on how your partner felt about you. After a while, the initial passion inevitably cooled off. When that happened, many couples then begin to settle for less – a relationship without spark and connection. The first session examines the different phases of the marriage relationship and how couples can develop an emotional connection.
2. Choose Love and Respect
Few would argue that husbands and wives have different needs. However, do you know what your partner’s needs are? You may have misconceptions about your spouse’s needs. You may be unaware of the importance of meeting each other’s needs. You may feel that you are simply not able to meet a particular need and have settled for “live and let live”. In this session, we will show the importance of meeting the needs of Love and Respect for both husbands and wives, and discuss how to go about meeting these needs in very practical and manageable terms.
3. Choose Awareness
Even when we want to meet the needs of Love and Respect, we sometimes fail. Our character weaknesses, negative thinking (calledlifetraps), and off-putting behavior can become roadblocks, preventing us from meeting the needs of our spouse. In this section of the program, we will systematically identify the different types of negative thinking. We will also explore their possible origins and empower you for change.
4. Choose Vulnerability
Many spouses have no problem being “open” with one another, but they don’t know how to be “vulnerable”. In this part of the program, we will discuss the difference between openness and vulnerability. We will also talk about how to resolve conflict, teaching couples to communicate in a more endearing way.
5. Choose Fidelity
We investigate the perilous consequences of not meeting each other’s needs – emotional distance and infidelity. We will discuss some of the common myths of marriage, and the false assumptions upon which some marriages are built. We will also talk about the signs of infidelity and what we should do to prevent going in that direction, as well as how to rebuild trust if that stage has already been reached.
5. Choose Reconciliation
Since we are all sinners, understanding forgiveness and knowing how to extend it to each other is a very crucial component of a healthy marriage, especially for Christian marriages, seeing as how forgiveness is not exactly optional for followers of Jesus.
In all sessions, movie scenes will be used to highlight our teaching points. Participants will hopefully find the movie scenes captivating and memorable, and will leave with new skills, convictions, and information that will bring about greater satisfaction in their marriage.
