We welcome new subscribers! Please share the link to this newsletter!
Marriage Transformation Project Message:
Marriage Preparation is Vital
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
Over the last few weeks, we have had the privilege of assisting a couple prepare for marriage. It has reminded us, once again, of the vital role of pre-marriage education in assisting couples to begin marriage well. The success of marriage is dependent upon your knowledge and skills of what it takes to be successful.
In the months and weeks before a wedding, it can be easy to avoid raising difficult issues out of fear of disrupting the relationship. You can become so focused on planning a fabulous wedding, that you forget to prepare for your marriage. You may think you have learned all the lessons possible from previous relationships or marriages. Being open to ensuring your relationship is on a solid foundation and learning about each other, instead, empowers you to build an excellent marriage. Have you spent time learning:
- Your financial assets and debts
- How many children you want
- Your philosophies about rearing children
- How you respond to difficulties
- Your practical vision of living together
- Your preferred mutual and separate spiritual practices
- How to build family relationships
- Your views of equality
- How you will spend your time
- How you prefer to give and receive love and touch
All these and more are vital to discuss and explore with each other. Marriage is a place of ongoing learning and development. The more skilled you are at communicating, loving, and cooperating together, the more you will learn and grow together in the years ahead. Please refer to our Resources Page for more guidance.
As you work to build your relationship, you will begin planning your wedding. The period leading up to a wedding is usually one of intense activity. Remember that it is also a time to build relationships and unity with family members. One short, premarital program, The First Dance, helps engaged couples work as a team and helps them and their families manage the stress of wedding planning.
Remember, as well, to practice our Character Quality of the Month: Moderation. We too are focusing on this quality as we launch many new products and head off to our booth at the Smart Marriages Conference in Denver, Colorado, at the end of June.
Loving greetings,
Susanne and Craig,
Relationship and Marriage Coaches
|
Character Quality of the Month: Moderation
"Moderation is recognizing and avoiding extremes in speech, behavior, and choices, seeking a balance that creates positive outcomes." ~ Excerpt from Marriage Can Be Forever--Preparation Counts! (Third Ed.) , p. 573
|
New Books from Marriage Transformation!
Finding insightful resources to help you prepare for your relationships and marriage can be overwhelming with the hundreds of books on the market. We're excited to share our latest selection of books and media that will deepen your knowledge about character, relationships, and marriage. Whether your looking for guidance for children, unmarried individuals and couples, or married couples, you will find a product to match your needs. Please consider adding these to your relationship and marriage toolbox!
A Perfectly Funny Marriage, A Humorous View of Creating a Successful Marriage, a guide to the steps for relationship and marriage success illustrated by insightful cartoons for unmarried individuals, couples, and married couples.
Solving the Commitment Struggle!, the first in our new e-book series, a concise book exploring solutions and insights about this vital topic. Great for unmarried individuals, couples, married couples, and workshops.
Marriage Can Be Forever—Preparation Counts!, a in-depth workbook for individuals and unmarried couples to prepare effectively for marriage. Based on the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith.
Oro Puro: Desarrollo del Carácter en el Matrimonio, a Spanish-language translation of Pure Gold: Encouraging Character Qualities in Marriage (2nd Edition) for married couples. ¡El primero en una serie de libros sobre las relaciones y el matrimonio a ser traducido al Español!
Happiness: A Child's Character-Development Kit (General Audience)
Happiness: A Child's Character-Development Kit (Bahá’í Faith Audience)
Contains Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files to create a fully-customizable book entitled "My Name Is ___, and I Am Happy!" Two distinct versions.
Click here for the Catalog for all Books
NOTE: We are happy to work with anyone setting up group study sessions with our books.
We provide book discounts, coaching for facilitators, and often handouts.
|
Preparation for Marriage...
"When a couple is in an exclusive relationship and seriously considering marrying, they are then “courting” each other. Courtship is currently a little-used term that is being revived and transformed. One of courtship’s essential characteristics is that it includes a couple spending time with parents. This allows everyone to relate and get to know each other within a family setting, helps the couple to practice chastity and to not have sex before marriage, and assists the parents in knowing the characters of the couple. Throughout the entire marriage preparation process, communities are encouraged to help couples with workshops, courses, and study materials.
"If you spend time knowing yourself and your partner, and do your utmost to ensure that you will be compatible and balance one another, then you are more likely to be in a happy marriage that lasts…forever."
~ Susanne M. Alexander and Johanna Merritt Wu, Marriage Can Be Forever , p. 22
Note: Marriage Transformation offers Couple Coaching Services
|
Upcoming Marriage Transformation Workshops
In the planning process: Alberta and Toronto in August 2007
Email susanne@marriagetransformation.com or watch this link for details: http://www.marriagetransformation.com/learning_workshops_upcoming.htm.
Smart Marriages & Happy Families Conference, June 2007
We also encourage people to attend the annual Smart Marriages and Happy Families Conference, this year being held in Denver in late June, early July. See all the details at www.smartmarriages.com! We will have a booth there this year. Please stop by and say hello!
Happily Ever After, Celebration of Love Conference, July 2007
July 12-15, 2007, Orlando, Florida
www.bettermarriages.org/happilyeverafter/Home/tabid/110/Default.aspx
|
Media Coverage/Articles of Interest
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, May 20, 2007
Article: "Grady or Brady, Should a Single Gal in Cleveland Try to Become Mrs. Sizemore or Mrs. Quinn"
http://www.bahai.us:80/node/220
Article: "Want a long, strong marriage? Get set to labor for love"
|
Please contact us if you have any questions or comments, requests for subject matter to be covered in the newsletter, need to change your email address, or want further information about the Marriage Transformation Project. If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click on the link below.
Marriage Transformation™ Project
P.O. Box 23085; Cleveland, OH 44123 USA
Phone: 800-501-6682 or (216) 383-9943; Fax: (216) 383-9953
Email: staff@marriagetransformation.com; www.marriagetransformation.com
The Marriage Transformation Project is a global development project committed to relationship, marriage, and character education and skill building for people at all stages of relationships. In addition to our own independent work in developing materials, with a strong focus on character and communications, we draw on many sources. These include the work of marriage researchers, psychologists, philosophers, traditional wisdom, authors, and spiritual sources. These spiritual sources include the following world's religions: Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.
© 2007 Marriage Transformation LLC; Note: Marriage Transformation is a trademarked term, and the project logo is copyrighted and trademarked. It may not be used for any purpose other than representing the Marriage Transformation Project and Marriage Transformation LLC.
|
|
