Strengthening Marital Intimacy

After reading the threads of your classmates from last week, glean ideas from their experiences and write up a simple outline of what you think would be the best approach to premarital counseling (cite at least 3 of your classmates). Engage your classmates and the professor on this. Ask questions and get clarification. Consider the Hawkins text on Strengthening Marital Intimacy. How should cultivating intimacy be a part of this premarital approach?  After reading several of my classmate’s posts from last week I have discover that not many of them had premarital counseling and I feel that the following approach will work best.  In today’s society so many marriages end in divorce therefore I feel that it is imperative that couples seek marriage counseling before they get married. In Hatcher’s (2014) post she stated “I feel that premarital counseling should be mandatory before couples are able to get married.” Premarital counseling is put in place to have couples understand one another in a deeper more freely way. An Appropriate approach for premarital counseling should be one that explore spiritual beliefs, Christian values, commitment and expectations, how to handle conflict and solving problems, priorities on career, children, money, hobbies, future plans, friends, and stress that a Christian wedding is a scared event.

A questionnaire as well as couple exercises and homework given to the couple to better understand when is going on and what areas need work. In Mendez’s post (2014) he stated that he would have “gained the most insight from the opportunity to better understand the future my wife envisioned…” (para. 2). Exploring the future plans with couples would give them some insight of what each one of them have envisioned for their future. A great way to do this would be exercises or homework. According to Hawkins (1991), God intended for the husband and wife to function as a team, but Satan placed a wedge between them; but Christ came to restore man (p.13). Hawkins (1991) also states that, “God’s will in every marriage is that the couple love each other with an absorbing spiritual, emotional and physical attraction that continues to grow throughout their lifetime together” (p. 13). Hawkins (1991) also states that, “you can learn to handle the most difficult problems in such a way that your marriage will become rooted in love and built on a firm foundation” (p.13). Willis (2014) stated in her post “it would be wise for couples to seek premarital counseling to help build a solid foundation to one’s marriage” (para. 1).