Skip to main content

Reconnect - reconciliation - rediscovering marriage life's purpose

This year, we gonna celebrating 15th years wedding anniversary and as a gift for ourselves, we decided to attend Marriage Encounter.

This is our 2nd ME retreat, the first one was 10 years ago on our 5th year Wedding anniversary. Even so we haven't forgotten everything. The only take away that we remember is expressing "I feel..." and writing love letters.

Before coming to ME on Friday, we were full with baggages, bitterness and resentments. We pretended that everything was well, we tried to be lovey dovey but we knew deep inside our heart, we have been hurt.

Whatever we said was just critics and sarcasm which came from the root of bitterness and resentment.

On Friday night, we had a long talk especially the unresolved issues. Thanks God for the solitude time and no distraction, we were able to focus to one another. We listened each other's feelings and understood the reason behind. We clarified things that we assumed, we tried to understand each other's point of view and needs.

We had a long night and couldn't sleep well, but we felt peace transcend in our heart. We started to be open to each other.

The next day, the topic grilled us deeper, it's like peeling the onion.


We were required to write love letter describing our feelings and even the most difficult topic to be discussed. We were challenged to reveal the stumbling blocks that hindered us sharing our feeling.

On Saturday night, we got clarity, love and peace are transcending to our heart. Hubby was prompted to a new mission which was "Adventure to Unknown". We discussed what did it mean ?

And it seemed God affirmed it when we had dinner together with other couples, and one of the couples shared how they decided to travel and stay in Singapore from the other part of the world with just 2 luggages, no job to start, no family and no house to stay. Not only that, they decided to go to China to learn Chinese also. It's really a leap of faith testimony. We were so inspired about this couple.

Thanks God, we had good night sleep on Saturday, it felt that our burden and yoke have been lifted.

On Sunday morning, again God gave us a sign to affirm about the new mission when we had breakfast with other couples and one of the couples shared about their spiritual adventure how the wife decided to be babtized and persuaded her husband and their daughter and the whole family were babtised together last year and how they started to learn more about Catholic faith together regardless the age.

It's getting clearer what God wants from us and we closed the retreat with Sunday mass and apparently the topic was about the light of the world and the reading was about salt and light which is my favourite reading for my mission.




We went back home full of love, joy and hope. We saw our kids missed us so much and they were very excited to hear our stories.

The take away we had from this retreat :

1. Cleansing our souls 

We had a lot of bitterness and resentment that disconnect us and making us having difficulty to communicate to one another, but by the power of healing and forgiveness, it cleansed our souls

2. Rediscovering our marriage life purpose

As we have moved to the next stage of life where the kids were growing up, we became complacent. Thus our marriage was shook by small waves. We lost our vision and purpose.

And now we understood that we need a new "adventure" with the kids, to serve 2 purposes so we can be humble, working together to survive in the new quest and able to see our kids's potential blooming.

When we are in the space that we have superior knowledge than the kids, we couldn't see our kids' real potential instead it hinder their growth.

3. Homework

I need to be mindful with my words and hubby needs to take his role again as a king, priest and prophet in this family. 

We also want to recreate this ME style to our family by asking each of us including the kids to write love letter to explain their feelings about something. Hopefully it could help in their emotional being.

We really grateful to God and because of His grace, we are able to reconnect, reconcile and rediscover our marriage's purpose again.

Thanks be to God !







 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jubilee Year - Year of Hope (2025)

Year of Hope: A Personal Reflection on 2025 The year 2025 has been declared a Jubilee Year, a  Year of Hope  by the Pope—a time for peace, joy, and prosperity. For many, entering a new year brings feelings of happiness and optimism. However, I find myself on a different path, starting the year with anxiety and uncertainty rather than joy and hope. For me, 2025 is a year of the unknown. It marks the first time in four years that I will not hold the title of a working mom. Transitioning from this identity feels daunting and unfamiliar. It is also the year I plan to embark on a new venture: starting a winter rental business. This endeavor excites me but is fraught with challenges. There are countless pieces of the puzzle yet to be solved, and I pray for wisdom and the support of "ordinary angels" to guide me through. This is also a pivotal year for our family. Two of our children will face major exams. While I know the journey matters more than the results, I hope they develop s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer for broken marriage

Lord, Your word promises that you’re near to the brokenhearted.  I am broken.  My heart hurts from all the hard parts  of this marriage.  You promise to save those who are crushed in spirit.  My spirit hurts from the deep cuts.  Save this marriage, heal my heart, restore the hope and joy in our marriage.  No, make it more full than it ever was, to begin with.  In Jesus’ name. (Psalm 34: 18) Heavenly Father, you said I could cast my burdens upon You and You will sustain me.  This hard season of marriage has lasted longer and been more painful than I ever could have imagined and I am failing.  Please take this burden and help me to not be shaken from the commitment to our marriage.  (Psalm 55:22) Holy Spirit, I am weak, hurting, and ready to give up on this whole mess of a marriage.  You said,  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness”, but I am struggling to believe there is hope.  Take this ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dreams come true - Cappadocia (day 7)

This is the highlight of Cappadocia which is hot air balloon ride. As it depends a lot on the weather, we were lucky that we could fly to watch sunrise. We were picked up around 5.30am in the morning to Urgup area and arrived 20 mins later. They provided us with light breakfast while they lit up the balloon.  We started riding it around 6.20am and it's so breathtaking to see the Goreme area and hundreds of balloon joining us. The sunrise is around 7am and by 7.30am we already landed safely.  We had champagne celebration and received certificate too and returned back to our hotel for breakfast. Around 10am, we were picked up for Green Valley tour. Stopped by at Goreme Panorama and Pigeon valley for photo spots. After that, we went to Underground city where Anatolian people lived underground to survive from natural disaster and dangers. It's amazing how they build the houses and lived there for a long period of time. Then, we continued our tour to Selime Monastery and Cathedral ...
Post a Comment
Read more