The Prodigal Parents

My mom coined this term last weekend and I thought it was pretty fitting.  Before we all started DYING last month, Jeremie and I had signed up to attend a marriage conference in Houston that took place last weekend.  Three weeks of sickness paired with some tough work stuff for Jeremie made for two quite wound up folks. We planned to only spend one night, but any type of getaway sounded GOLDEN to me. I was GIDDY when I picked up my mother-in-law from the airport. We got home and she totally took over. I pretty much handed her the baby monitor, said PEACE and slept till 8:00 the next morning. 

While I was pouring my cup of coffee, Nona said: "Would y'all just want to stay 2 nights? Me and Greyson are totally fine!" I LAUGHED. Like a hyena. She said the look on my face was priceless.  So within an hour, I had thrown more clothes in a bag, run the the grocery store, and got my oil changed. (Because doesn't EVERYBODY wait until the last minute to change their oil?! EVERY. TIME.) We LOVE our lives and LOVE that little bandit, but OH DEAR. ADULTHOOD. We spun out with smoke coming off the tires.  

We arrived at the beautiful Houstonian Hotel and grabbed an appetizer at the hotel restaurant. Then we got all settled in our room and ready for the conference.  Since it started at 7:00 that night, we figured we'd better eat supper beforehand, so we ordered room service. Is there ANYTHING BETTER than room service y'all?! It just fills my heart when someone WHEELS in delicious food and when you're done you WHEEL IT OUT. No planning. No prep. No loading the dishwasher. Yes, please, and thank you.  

We headed to the conference, called The Mingling of Souls, which was Friday evening from 7:00-10:00 and then Saturday morning from 9:00-1:00.  This was really perfect, because we got some great teaching, but had the rest of the weekend to spend with the hubs. 

Matt Chandler, who is the lead pastor at our church, was the speaker. (His wife, Lauren actually led worship.) He's an amazing speaker who can really communicate the Bible in a special way.  He makes it understandable and tangible. If you're wondering, here's some of my big takeaways: 

*I can't write a takeaway without mentioning what Chandler ALWAYS says should be the main focus of our lives: To understand and continually remind ourselves of the Gospel and to abide and remain in the Lord. 

Now to the "marriage-y" takeaways: 

1) We live in a society where Consumerism rules. We bring this mentality into marriage by thinking "If YOU aren't making me happy and giving me what I need, then I'm out." If you were married in a church and made vows to God, we actually entered into a Covenantal marriage, meaning: "Neither of us are perfect, so we're going to fail each other, but I'm not going anywhere." 

2) We should be experts in our spouse's strengths.  More often, we are experts in their weaknesses and we compare all of OUR strengths verses their weakness.  How awful and unfair! My job is to own MY junk and work on myself.  

3) It is not my job to "play the Holy Spirit" in my spouse. While accountability is necessary, this is not an excuse to "convict" my spouse of something I think needs "fixing". My job is to support and encourage. 

4) Live with the end in mind. We both loved this concept.  Life (especially with young children) feels so "urgent" and demanding. Chandler talked about actually fantasizing about what the "end" looks like, when you are 80 and sitting beside each other in rocking chairs. 

That is just a small piece of some good points that I learned.  There's an entire study with a 12 session DVD set that you can purchase here.  (It's actually half off right now!) If you're interested in going next year, the link to the conference is here.

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The rest of our weekend was totally blissful.  It was like one big long date. We had a fabulous lunch at Backstreet Cafe, took a NAP (AND ALL THE PARENTS SAID AMEN), went to dinner at Andalucia, and then had dessert at the hotel. We even roamed around the gorgeous property and enjoyed the opportunity to have uninterrupted conversation! 

We are TERRIBLE at taking selfies!!!!!

We finally got a decent one! 

I think it's safe to say that both felt totally refreshed and renewed after our getaway! It was so nice to step outside the Parent/Work/Stress box for a while and relax.

Looking forward to a lifetime of memories with this guy as we work our way to 60+ years and a well-earned set of rocking chairs. Love you hubby!