MFP 324: Moving from Isolation to Unity

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24

Summary

Unity between man and woman was God’s original plan, but the Fall not only broke our relationship with God, it also broke our relationship with each other. But the good news is that Jesus has given us grace in the sacrament of Matrimony so we can have a oneness in marriage that would be impossible otherwise! With unity, couples can handle anything life dishes out. Without it, even the easy things will seem hard. Couples need to constantly be striving for unity, because if spouses aren’t intentional, those marriages will drift apart! In this podcast, we will give you three tools - honoring, forgiveness, and vulnerability - that you can use to start moving towards your spouse. We need to intentionally use these tools to work towards the greater unity within the gift of marriage that God has for us.

Key Takeaways

• All couples must strive for unity - if you float along, you will drift apart

• Unity was what we were made for, but the fall introduced distrust into the male/female relationships

• There are three things you can do to move towards unity: honoring, forgiveness, and vulnerability

• On the scale of Affirmation/Criticism, choose to honor your spouse, even publicly to build them up

• On the scale of Resentment/Forgiveness, choose to forgive them instead of being resentful of their shortcomings

• On the scale of Detachment/Intimacy we need to choose vulnerability and openness to our spouse.

Couple Discussion Questions

• On a scale of 1-10, how are we doing in our unity? In which of the three areas can we do better?

• Which one of these three areas is the most challenging for me? Why do I think that is?

Resources

• Free Mini-Marriage Retreat: https://messyfamilyproject.org/guide/mini-marriage-check-in/

• Register for the Family Board Meeting!

• https://messyfamilyproject.org/course/family-board-meeting/

• Easter Webinar

• Register here….

• www.Catholiccouplesgetaway.com