The Marriage Course in Shrewsbury : Part One

Last night Esther and I embarked on the seven week Marriage Course based on DVDs and materials from the Holy Trinity Brompton stable which we are running at our Church in Shrewsbury.

The course has been recommended to me by several friends who have done it, and also my parents.

So week one, building foundations. The short version? Excellent. It was a lovely evening. There are 12 couples signed up and only 2 missed it due to the snow. We sat by a couple we had not met before from North Shrewsbury Community Church called Lisa and Stuart. They seemed really nice, although they did speak very highly of Phil which always makes me a bit suspicious!

The food was good, the atmosphere friendly, and the book has got some excellent material in it. There were some pretty deep questions about how you felt your relationship was and what you felt your partner valued. Esther and I were pretty close in our scoring of each other and there were no major surprises but lots of important ground to cover. The DVD presentation was very similar to the Alpha DVDs and was clear and warm, without straying into being either dull or exciting.

We were given a certain amount of time to discuss the topics covered but when we got home we had another full hour covering all the bits we had not had time for! There is also homework to do! All in all, a very positive start. Sometimes it is good to have permission to lift the lid on a subject and a course like this is a really safe forum to start talking.

I love my wife, and I want to continue to grow in knowing how to actually make that commitment a reality. I have high hopes for the next 6 weeks, if the first session is anything to go by.