Ignite your Marriage!!

Matt and I attended the Ignite marriage conference at our church this weekend. We have had several friends recommend the conference and of course we pretty much love anything and everything that our church puts on, so we figured we may as well check it out. It did not disappoint and I feel so incredibly blessed to have spent such an encouraging and rewarding weekend with Matt. The speakers were incredible and so open and honest and really used their experience, education and expertise to not only help to correct any issues you may currently be experiencing, but also to help you prepare for and avoid issues that may come up in the future. I think Matt and I went in with a "well, we already have a good marriage and don't need a bunch of advice" attitude, but I can honestly say that we left with so much useful and practical advice and definitely with a renewed appreciation and respect for one another and our marriage in general. I don't know how else to describe it except that I feel like a newlywed again, but even better because I know so much more now about Matt and about myself now than I did then. I seriously walked out of there with several pages of notes. I figure if I sit in class and take pages of notes about being a lawyer, I may as well soak up as much info I can about being a good wife and having a great marriage! There are so many tips and practices and ideas that I wish I could write about on here, but it would take forever and I know I wouldn't be able to communicate them quite like our speakers did. All I can say is that if your church or other organization ever offers a marriage conference or retreat, DO IT! Don't think that since everything is hunky dory right now, you won't need it in the future. Definitely don't think that there isn't anything someone could teach you about improving your marriage, because just like in every aspect of your life, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Matt and I are so blessed with a great marriage and friendship, but our marriage is not perfect by any means, just like I don't think any one's is. Even a great marriage can use a tune-up every now and then, and the more effort you make in working on it and pursuing one another, the better it's going to be for the long haul. I pray that we will always have a desire to want to pursue one another and just have a desire to make our relationship better and better as time goes on. My ultimate prayer is that we will never wish we were like we "used to be" but that we will be so excited for what's to come because we know it will just get better and better!