For those of you who missed the retreat I must say that you missed a lot!! Because of that I put together a recap of the weekend with the hope that all the couples within YMM will listen and grow their marriages. You can listen to all or part of the weekend at your own leisure. Where possible, we’ve included discussion questions and visuals.

Session 1: Friday Evening

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Questions to discuss with your spouse:

1. Review the beginning of your relationship. How did you meet? What were your first impressions of each other? How did you grow to fall in love and decide to marry?
2. Are the reasons that you decided to marry still evident and a part of your relationship today?
3. What have you learned about each other since marrying that you like or admire about each other?
4. What have you learned about each other since marrying that you don’t like or admire about each other?
5. What do you consider to be the strengths of your marriage?
6. What do you consider to be the weaknesses of your marriage?
7. How can the weaknesses be turned to strengths?

Session 2: Saturday Morning

We separated into groups (men and women) and were tasked to create a list of what we thought was romantic and then what we thought the other group thought was romantic.

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The Lists (Click to Enlarge):

A Man’s Perspective on Romance

What the Women Think the Men Want, Take 1 (Notice how short the list is…)

What the Women Think the Men Want, Take 2

A Woman’s Perspective on Romance

What the Men Think the Women Want (Notice how long the list is…)

Session 3: Saturday Evening

We started by completing a spiritual gifts assessment. This is where the recording picks up.

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Special Bonus - A Somewhat Off Topic Discussion On Spiritual Gifts

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Session 4: Sunday Morning

After a short time of worship, we watched a short clip from the movie The Breakup. This is where the recording picks up.

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As couples arrived to the Hershey Farms Inn Friday night Lancaster was coated with a blanket of fresh snow. The setting was picturesque as the surrounding farmlands were bathed in pure white. The theme of the retreat was not white, however, as we dove into the topic of romance in our marriages.

We had fifteen couple attend the weekend and it was good to get to know each one better. During one game we learned that we have some interesting characters in our midst including ninjas, frontiersmen, competitive ice skaters, Indiana Jones stunt doubles and a man who does his own laundry. The teachings were wonderful and filled with good insights and lots of room for laughter.

As a special bonus to all of you who were unable to attend we will be providing you, free of charge, audio copies of all of our sessions. So check back soon for the audio clips and picture highlights.

We’d like to send out a sincere thanks to Jen Phipps for organizing this great weekend for us and to Chris and April LaGarde for their contributions. We all had a wonderful time. We’d also like to send an “atta boy” to Bob Kruse for being our speaker. Another big thanks goes out to Janelle and Dustin for providing babysitting services for us during the sessions. Finally one last thanks goes out to the people at Hershey Farms Inn and Restaurant for putting up with our loud laughter and late nights.

We hope you all can make it next Year!!