It's important to put your own “State of the Union” weekend on the calendar.

Recipe for a delicious marriage

A good marriage, like a good meal, begins with quality ingredients.

By Sharol Josephson and ChristianWeek | March 26, 2015

I made a beef stew for a family event recently. Nothing complicated. Just quality ingredients and a simple recipe. But it got rave reviews! It made me think.

Marriage is like that beautiful beef stew. It’s all in the ingredients. Simple, healthy things like conversation. Attention. Appreciation. Romance. Sex. Laughter. Gratitude. Give it time. And pay attention to quality. The better the ingredients—the better the end result.

Near the beginning of every year, my husband Neil and I get away for a “State of the Union” weekend. We started doing it about 15 years ago after a particularly troubled time in our marriage. In fact, it was the roughest season we had ever experienced.

We found ourselves frosty roommates rather than the intimate friends and lovers we had always been to each other. We couldn’t believe we had allowed ourselves to get so far off track. A weekend retreat helped us get honest and slowly start making our way back. We realized we had been trying to keep our marriage alive on scraps. Scraps of time, scraps of attention, scraps of energy. Cheap ingredients. We agreed we wanted more.

Now we get away once a year—for a day or a weekend—to take stock, set goals and make sure we’re putting the very best ingredients in our 36-year “stew.”

It’s also why we developed the new FamilyLife Weekend Getaway. Together we explore God’s recipe for a great marriage: emotional, relational, physical and spiritual oneness. Couples get a chance to dream, assess and talk—just the two of them. By the end of the weekend, each has crafted a “Oneness Plan” to take their marriage to the next level.

Join us if you can or put your own “State of the Union” weekend on the calendar.

Make your marriage delicious.

Sharol Josephson is an Associate Director with FamilyLife Canada. Her husband, Neil, is the National Director. They teach at Weekend Getaway marriage conferences across Canada. For more information on FamilyLife Weekend Getaway marriage conferences visit familylifecanada.com.