Love and Respect - Closeness

Hi everyone!


Hope your week is going well! We are plowing through Love and Respect and I know I can speak for all of us as I say we are definitely being challenged in many areas, which is so good, because challenges move us toward change. We have to begin to realize that our marriages are such a process of seasons of growth, and we can never settle in and feel like "we've got this". It is at that moment that we are easy targets for the evil one who absolutely hates the idea of a healthy marriage and family.



We started with the acronym C.O.U.P.L.E.

C loseness

O penness

U nderstanding

P eacemaker

L oylaty

E steem



There is another C.H.A.I.R, but that's weeks down the road. I will say, that COUPLE is geared more toward the man, and CHAIR toward the women. We are praying that these next weeks you will absorb these truths like a sponge that will ultimately help your marriage be all that God created it to be in Him.



CLOSENESS

We talked for most of the class time on closeness/connection. Here are some of things that helped us define closeness.

*inseparable; comfort; trust; share with one another; intimacy; to know; soul to soul; touch; tolerance; heart to heart; not necessarily proximity; common goal

LIFE CHALLENGES: when I'm sick; birth of child; sickness of child; death of a parent; financial struggles.



We agreed that in those life challenges God can use them to draw us closer, or if our marriages are on a shakey or shifting foundation, they can drive us apart.



A woman's innate desire is be close to her husband. Many times in confrontation, it is a woman's way of crying out for connection/closeness with her spouse. As we learned from the book and workbook, a man moving toward his wife and realizing her need for closeness will take a step off the Crazy Cycle and move onto the Energizing Cycle.



Know that you bless us every week with your input as we talk through this thing called marriage. I know we're getting stronger!!