Dear LifeSpring Family,
This past weekend Dorothy and I had the privilege of serving our Lord Jesus Christ at Blue Mountain, Collingwood with FamilyLife Canada.
This is FamilyLife Canada’s first live in-person Weekend Getaway marriage conference since the pandemic start back in March of 2020. There was great excitement both on behalf of the participants and our FamilyLife Staff. Over 80 couples registered and almost 80 couples showed up for the Weekend Getaway. It would have been over 120 couples if not for COVID 19 protocols of only allowing those who are fully vaccinated to attend.
As many of you who had invested by attending a FamilyLife Weekend Getaway would know, the Weekend Getaway is designed for the couple to mostly interact with one another and not with other couples. As we observe and interact with the couples throughout the weekend, we notice that generally, the couples fall into three broad groups. The majority were coasting in the marriage relationship and wanted to give their relationship a boost in the right direction. A smaller group of couples wanted their good marriage relationship to become even better. A third very small group of couples was in somewhat of a crisis. The weekend was something that one or both of them were looking at as a last chance to put their marriage back on track towards reconciliation.
In one of the sessions, the speaker couple reminded us at the conference of the importance of our mind and the thoughts that we allow to inhibit it. The speaker couple pointed us to Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things.“
As I sat there and thought about Philippians 4:8, Holy Spirit convicted me of my thought life. Not only towards Dorothy in my marriage relationship but also towards all of you in LifeSpring. Are my thoughts towards others “true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise”? Or are my thoughts based on personal biases or worst. Allow Holy Spirit to search your heart and thoughts and see if there are any grievous ways in you.