A little input???

Hey Friends!

So much is going on with the McKinney's these days!  At this stage in our marriage (over 21 years, glory to God!), with 3 really busy kids, Blake and I find ourselves rarely able to spend vast amounts of time together alone.  Who am I kidding?  We have little time together even with other people or the children around.  Mind you, I'm really not complaining.  Oh I miss the opportunities to just sit and talk, but the LORD has been gracious beyond my wildest dreams and we have great jobs, invigorating opportunities to minister, and talented kids! I watched a video blog from Christine Cain the other day that spoke to me when she said sometimes it doesn't take huge segments of doing nothing to recoup, it just means that we should be invigorated and inspired by what we do!  That's how it is for me right now, I'm refreshed and invigorated by almost everything I'm deeply involved in.  I love my job, I love women's ministry, I live for Bible study, and being a mom is the richest experience I'll ever have.  And honestly, I love high school band, lacrosse, gymnastic, and dance...which is really what I spend most of my time watching these days.  It's a great life, a deeply meaningful life.  Thank you God!

Having said that, I'm super excited about an upcoming opportunity Blake and I have to work on something together.  This will be the third year our church has allowed us to lead a couples retreat in Branson in November.  Each year we've done this, the preparation has been a bit of a nightmare.  By the time we've gotten to the retreat, we've managed to do and experience all those feelings and situations that we're trying to teach other couples to deal with in a Godly manner.  I've said this before, but surely you realize we are as human as anyone and, dare I say it, we disagree at times! Every year after the retreat we say, "That was worth it!  That was better for us than probably anyone else!"  So when we discovered that we would be allowed to lead again this year, we started approaching the preparation a bit differently.  We are going to take advantage of the blessing of morning preschool and meet for vanilla spiced chai while studying the word and preparing together a least one day a week.  Instead of using curriculum from someone else, we are writing and developing it ourselves.

If you know Blake, you are aware that he is an amazing writer.  I've never claimed to be a great writer, but I am coming to see it as therapy so I enjoy it.  We have no preconceived ideas that we know anything about marriage but we are searching scripture together.  I'm so stinkin' excited I can hardly stand it!  Bring it Lord!  And please work a bigger miracle in our marriage and family than anyone elses! 

Here's where I would love your input.  If you are a wife, I would love for you to share with me what you pray about most for your marriage?  What passages give you encouragement as a wife?  Do you ever feel like your marriage could be better? 

If you are single, do any of the marriages you see up close point you to Jesus?  Why?

Please feel free to share this with other people who might have something profound (or not so profound) to share.

Thanks!  Pray for us as we write together please.  We know the enemy will attack as never before probably, so we are desparate for your partnership through prayer.

Gayla