The New England congregations of the United Church of God hosted a Marriage Enrichment Workshop, May 31 and June 1. We were blessed to have Mario Seiglie deliver the sermon message, since he happened to be in town for the graduation of his daughter from Harvard Medical School. His sermon was titled “Four Principles to a Happy Marriage.”

Following a short lunch break, 31 people (14 couples and four singles) transitioned to an adjoining room for the workshops. Each participant received nearly 40 pages of handouts. The presenters for the Marriage Enrichment Workshop were Frank McCrady III and his wife Sonja McCrady. Mr. and Mrs. McCrady are certified instructors of the nationally recognized “Intimate Encounters” program that has provided scripturally sound, effective and insightful workshops all across the United States.

The first four sessions of the workshop lasted until after 7 p.m. The workshops were “Marriage Intimacy: How Are We doing?” “What Do We Really Need From Each Other?” “What Is Filling Your Emotional Cup?” and “Healing Emotional Hurts Through Confession and Forgiveness.”

We then broke for the evening to have dinner, complete our homework, get some rest and be ready for the workshops beginning Sunday morning at 9 a.m.!

Sunday morning kicked off with Mrs. McCrady presenting “Deadly Habits of Relationships.” The final two workshops, “Blending Four Ingredients for Marital Closeness” and “Being Free for Emotional Closeness” were presented by Mr. McCrady. We concluded the day at about 2 p.m.

Although many of us are aware of the biblical principles that lead to a happy marriage, we often struggle at the “how-to” or with effective implementation. This program provided meaningful ways to go beyond theory and gave the participants specific and practical ways to experience biblical truth in their marriage.

Many of the participants commented that this material needs to be shared with the entire Church, since it provides practical, biblical instruction on how to deal with conflicts in relationships. Others felt it needs to be shared with our youth, so they can properly prepare themselves to become the proper spouse for someone in the future.

It was an intense couple of days, but worth every minute!