2015 The Marriage Course
The Marriage Course is an 8 session course designed for married couples who want to work together to develop a fantastic marriage and a great husband-wife relationship.
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Developed in 1996, the course is now run worldwide by founders Nicky and Sila Lee, co-authors of The Marriage Book and The Parenting Book, from the Holy Trinity Brompton Church, London, UK (where the Alpha Course originated).
For this issue, we invite Adrian and Emily to share their experience with us!
We excitedly signed up for the Marriage course, eager to experience the course’s objective of strengthening couples' relationships and to gain deeper insights into the various aspects in marriage. The topics, such as building strong foundations and resolving conflicts, were of keen interest and practicality to us.
The highlight of the marriage course was the discussions in the candlelight setting. The video facilitators employed light-hearted discussions and humour to arouse our interest. Week after week, we learnt how various couples across the world, of different ages and years in marriage, improved their marriage by utilising the appropriate tools from the course.
Talking through the material in the course manual within a comfortable and confidential setting during Friday evenings has helped us to understand each other and the individual differences we both have a little better. We dated for eight years before we got married and even after three years of marriage, there was actually more to find out about each other so that we can better match our strides. Discussion duration was set at a good pace, between three to thirty minutes depending on the breadth and depth of the particular topic.
Through all those discussions, we learnt how we can communicate better with each other. We have always taken time to face and resolve issues. However, with the tools, we now understand what our personal and spouse's barriers to talking are, or hindrances to listening. Thus, we are able to identify communication issues and attempt to apply principles to solve the problem more effectively. Discussing our upbringing also gave us time to reflect on our unmet childhood needs and allowed us to list ways to help each other. In the course, we also had time to reflect on how we respond when we feel hurt and how we display anger. Talking about it helped us to identify each other ‘s trigger point and how we can better express our views even in the midst of disagreements.
We encourage all married couples to invest in strengthening their bond through the course. Those with great marriages can make it even greater! After all, it’s seven meaningful evenings of great food and learning in a safe and romantic environment.. Since marriage is designed to be in a dynamic state, we have much more to learn and encounter as a couple in every season of our life! You can also look forward to the 8th session where you and your spouse renew your covenant vows!
