Joleyn Larson Photography & Design

A letter from the past…our personal Worldwide Marriage Encounter Story.
March 2003
Dakota Catholic Action Article 01/07

“In order to feel the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm.”
God is our “anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Hebrews 6:19

7 years we had shared between us, and it seemed our marriage was slowly going down hill. 3 small boys, and a baby girl on the way…and we found ourselves drifting apart. Life seemed to have taken its toll on us. Work, school, finances–the fun was gone and so were our smiles. We were lost in the hustle and bustle of this so called “real world”. We talked less, we cuddled less and we laughed less and the things we did get around to doing didn’t involve spending quality time with each other. Late nights at the office, long hours spent with friends—time tearing us apart. Often times, it was the little things that we stopped talking about that really added up to the big misunderstandings. Resentment and anger stored deep inside our hearts as our communication completely shut down. We didn’t “click” anymore.

We saw an announcement in our church bulletin about a Worldwide Marriage Encounter in Richardton, I new we needed to do it. The insert said that it was a weekend to encourage good marriages to find that “spark” again–not to council troubled couples—was our marriage “good” enough to attend—I wasn’t so sure.

After reading the announcement three more times and a nagging tug in my stomach I made the call and registered for the March weekend. We needed to do something about our sinking relationship, and maybe this would help. It was a three month wait for us to get on the next available weekend and it was the longest three months of our lives. Our weekend arrived, we packed our things, kissed our 4 children goodbye, hugged Nanna and Bampa, and then drove to Richardton in complete silence.

We barely looked at each other as we unpacked in our designated room. More silence…and then, we headed out to the hall to wait. My feelings were up and down all night as the presentations began. I remember sitting through the first couple of talks, thinking, we aren’t supposed to be here at this one–this weekend is for only good marriages.

By Saturday morning my uneasiness was replaced with determination. I decided to use this time to listen with my heart, risk and love my husband. I knew I would never have this time again. We gradually worked our way through each presented talk, growing closer than before. On our weekend we learned how to deal with conflict, not avoid it. We did something that we never really knew how to do together—and that was communicate. We learned to listen with our hearts and not our heads. We learned about our personality styles and how completely opposite we were—no wonder it was hard to click. We stopped trying to change each other and we became more forgiving and accepting of our individual personalities. Our smiles came back, and we started to laugh again. We were able to enjoy the time we had. Our love was back! Our weekend was beautiful, it was life changing, and it was part of God’s plan. We renewed our vows that weekend, celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary and we made a promise to love each other forever.

After the Marriage Encounter weekend, getting back into the real world was not easy. Issues were still there, but we were given “tools” and an opportunity to start changing some things and we did. The rebuilding has taken time and we still have to work on things daily, but the love, the trust, the happiness that has been rebuilt is even stronger than before. Our marriage encounter weekend was a turning point for our marriage, it breathed new life into our hearts.
Some after thoughts…..almost 4 years later. We’ll be the first to tell you that marriage is not an easy road. It’s a day to day journey that we must choose to travel together. We still struggle, we have our fights, but each morning we have a choice and we try to choose love.
We hope to share the love we received on our weekend with those we meet by sharing our personal story and encourage you to attend your own Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend.

In Christ We Are,
Joleyn and Tracy Larson