Today, Brianna and I went to our first session of premarital counseling. It was incredible! We were both pretty excited about going, not only because we both agree that it is a necessary step before marriage, but also because we are looking forward to getting to know each other more.
Last week, we met with our counselor to talk about the Prepare-Enrich program that he would be using to evaluate and counsel us. He dirercted us to take an online questionairre that would map out our differences and similarities. Today, we got the results. We are going over the results each week; this week was the communication section. Neither Brianna or I were surprised by the outcome. We scored 90 out of 100 for positive communication. The only part of that section that we were lacking in was the ability to tell our partner what we want…and both of us scored exactly the same. Actually, we had talked about it before…hence the high scores in communication. Today’s session did give us a few more things to talk about, most of which I had already planned on talking about this evening…but it brought it out in the open. In all honesty, Brianna had planned on talking about them yesterday. She is way ahead of the game. I love her!
Our homework for the week is to get a book called Love and Respect (which I’ve heard plenty about…my co-worker basically recited the whole thing for me), to practice assertive communication and active listening (which is really easy for us…so much to the point that it seems elementary), and to pray for each other every day. I really like this premarital counseling business. I can definitely see how beneficial it will be…even after only one day.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Brianna, communication, Love and Respect, premarital counseling, Prepare-Enrich
from what i’ve gleaned from anna willis’ materials of Prepare/Enrich, i like it. we went through the Love and Respect course that the marriages department at IHOP offered last year as our initial premarital counseling and we learned soooo much. i have come to realize that giving pretty much any effort whatsoever to learning what you can about the gift and glory of marriage produces rich rewards. proud of you guys for taking marriage so seriously and for working hard to learn what you can on your way into it. the Lord blesses that kind of thing… can’t wait to hear the stories that come out of your counseling (triumphs are always a blast to report!).