Chris and I both went to LFR for retreats with Campus Crusade for Christ during our college years, and Chris goes back every year for a men's retreat. LFR holds a special place in our hearts, and we were so excited to go back as a couple.
Just last week, the CCC director from our days at MSU mailed us his monthly newsletter, and randomly included 3 pictures they found of me and Chris from college...and one of them was this picture, I think taken in fall 2000, of me and Chris on the lake at LFR!
Once I saw that picture, I could hardly contain my excitement about our retreat!
We had a great drive to LFR on Friday afternoon, getting an opportunity to talk and listen to a radio show together. We had fun laughing at the callers on the show! We checked in Friday evening, and got settled into our cabin. We had a great dinner where we met some of the other couples who were attending the retreat. The first worship and teaching session was that night, too.
And let me tell ya, the worship was awesome! It was led by a guy named Chad Lewis, whose name I had heard from Chris before. He plays acoustic guitar and sings some great worship songs. He is a big fan of the modern hymn, so we sang songs like In Christ Alone (you MUST listen to that one!), O Church Arise, and Come Thou Fount, along with some of my other favorite worship songs, including some I sang when I was in the CCC praise band in college! (Ah! Memories!) I absolutely loved the music and the spirit in the room when everyone was lifting their voices!
The main speaker was a guy named Bill Reif, who I had also heard of from Chris. He is a great speaker. A counselor by trade, he had lots of great advice for married couples. The LFR director's wife, Sandy Malone, and a good friend of hers from Australia, also did a couple of sessions on temperaments and how they affect our marriage relationships. It was all very interesting, and Chris and I have discovered that he is a "Thinker" and I am a "Feeler". Which explains why when he gets quiet I think he's mad (because that's what I do when I'm mad), but really he's just thinking and is not mad at all... I can't tell you how many times we've had that discussion!
The theme of the weekend was John 15...Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Our desire for a good marriage is not our goal...our goal is a relationship with Christ. The great thing is that our relationship with our spouse (and others) will drive us to Christ because our spouse was not designed to meet all our needs. But God will give us the desires of our heart...a good marriage! We learned so much and were very encouraged. I even gleaned some wisdom to use in my parenting (with my "thinker" son and my "feeler" daughter), even though parenting was not actually a topic of the weekend.
There were fun recreation options to do on our beautiful Saturday afternoon. We walked a nature trail, and then wandered over to the ropes course and climbing wall. Chris did the zip line and said it was lots of fun! I will soooooo do that when I go back and am NOT pregnant! They had horseback riding and paddleboating available, among other things, but we opted to go back to the cabin for a nap before the evening activities.
There was a beautiful, delicious candlelit dinner with live violin music on Saturday night, and after the worship/teaching session, we had a hay-less ride around the lake and a bonfire. We really enjoyed some of the couples we met, especially two from Birmingham. Chris already knew one of the guys from the men's retreat, and I enjoyed chatting with the wives. We exchanged e-mail addresses and will hopefully see each other at more retreats in the future.
It was sad to leave Sunday afternoon. I was glad to see the kiddos again though--they had a good weekend with their Mimi and Pa--and today we're catching up on laundry and getting back into routine. I actually have to COOK to get food on the table!!
PS...pictures to come! I didn't take many, but I did get some of the zip line experience!
3 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful weekend. I'd love to hear more about it.
sounds like lots of fun...can't wait to see the pictures :)
Glad you two had a great time. Sounds really nice.
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