Hi Friends, my name is Brad Baker and this is my wife, Carrie. Welcome to Family Ministry Conversations!
I serve as an executive pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. And we just want to spend the next few minutes with you guys and tell you a little bit about something we try to incorporate into the rhythm of our lives to keep our marriage fresh. And that can be a challenge.
We have 4 small kids, Carrie works part-time, and I’m obviously in full-time ministry. So our life is crazy busy at times. And ironically enough, one of the things we’re doing right now is taking a little getaway—a little 24-hour date up to Denver, one of our favorite spots.
Babe, can you just tell us a little bit about our time away and what you feel like that affords us and gives to our relationship? And how it helps kind of keep us fresh?
We really do come home re-centered and refocused and better prepared to deal with our life with the grace that we need.
Carrie:
One of the things our pastor, Brady, has talked about is how intimacy is built with unhurried time and unhurried conversation together.
Our life is, like Brad said, very full right now. Our kids are into soccer and dance, and we do the homework thing, and it feels like by the end of the day, often we’re so tired that we don’t have a lot of time for unhurried conversations.
So we try to get away like this once every 3 to 4 months and just push pause on everything else—all the demands of our life—so we can just get away, and play, and laugh, and eat good food, and just do things that are super fun and refreshing for us.
I feel like even though our kids may kind of balk a little bit at the idea of us getting away, we really do come home re-centered and refocused and better prepared to deal with our life with the grace that we need.
Brad:
Yeah, I think one of the things with me this time specifically has been having time to reflect and think about how we’re doing as a couple, where our kids are, where our relationships with God are, and kind of locate ourselves in our journey.
It takes time to slow down and listen to each other. I think Carrie just said it so well, unhurried conversation. And a lot of times so many of the things that you need to talk about bubble to the surface when you have enough time to start talking about everything.
It takes time to slow down and listen to each other.
I loved this morning. Carrie and I got up and just read together, and then we had a time of prayer together, and it felt like there wasn’t much about our life that we didn’t pray into this morning.
I don’t know—it just felt like a huge deep breath for me, to be refreshed by each other that way. I’m just really grateful, I think, for the time we’ve had.
We just want to challenge you. We’re working hard to fit this in 3 or 4 times a year. We want to challenge you to do the same.
It’s so important for the health and the vitality of your marriage—which then spills over into whatever God has you doing in your ministry.
Carrie:
It’s true.
Brad:
So, thanks for spending a few minutes with us. And take care, God bless.
