WWME NAMSO
  • Home
  • About NAMSO
    • About WWME
    • Team Profiles
  • Marriage Enrichment
    • Resources and Links
  • Blog
  • Locations
  • Contact Us and Subscribe

Vacations—His Family, Her Family or Exploring Together?

6/14/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Dave and Lucy Snyder
The Story:  Have you ever had the “vacation discussion”?  We grew up in such different families. Lucy: Being an Army daughter I experienced the annual visit to relatives and thought that’s what Dad’s leave was for.  I was ready to do something fun that didn’t include visiting relatives.  Dave: I came from a small town in PA and a family where my Dad was very work focused.  I was ready to reconnect to my family and friends back in my home town.  It wasn’t until we were well into our military life and marriage that we were able to communicate in a normal tone of voice about this issue.

​We credit our WWME Weekend and the tools we learned about unmet expectations and active listening for our eventual ability to resolve the vacation issue.  After much listening with our heart, we now make decisions about vacations based on what is best for US and our family, rather than on what we ”should” do. By the way, we STILL have to use our tools after retirement from the Army to plan vacations, although now WE are the family waiting for the visits!  Imagine that!

The Strategies:  We have listed three strategies for dealing with vacation decisions. We know that you may have found other ways—we would love to hear your ideas. 
  • Sometimes writing down your thoughts and feelings about a sensitive subject like vacations paves the way for a more open discussion.  This is not a time to make judgments about your spouse, but just to share your values and feelings.
  • LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. We still have to stop our motor running in order to listen to each other and let go of our impatience that blocks listening to our spouse with our heart.
  • We are getting very good at making lists and in this case, you might want to make a list of possible plans that includes both of your priorities. An example of this might be our last vacation, when we were able to meet both our needs for R&R by visiting family in the summer, and saving time in the fall for a special US vacation to see the changing of the leaves and visit our special beach when it was less busy.  It was Great!
The Scripture:   James 1:19  “…Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak.”

Dear Lord, Help us to reach out to one another each day with a listening heart. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Stories, Strategies and Scripture
    …to create lifelong married love

    Authors

    This blog is written by military couples to share the wisdom, insights, experiences and faith that they have gained in their years of Catholic marriage. Comments welcome! Share your ideas and experiences with other military couples and help us support one another in the vocation of marriage!

    Archives

    November 2018
    June 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Attend a Marriage Encounter Weekend:
Worldwide Marriage Encounter

Connect with the U.S. Military Archdiocese:

Archdiocese for the Military Services
Connect with the Canadian Military Ordinariate:
The Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada

Contact Us:
info@foryourmilitarymarriage.com

Worldwide Marriage Encounter is faithful to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching that marriage is a covenant that exists between one man and one woman.  Any reference to marriage or couple made by  Worldwide Marriage Encounter is in this context.

© 2018 North American Military Services Outreach (NAMSO)
Site built by FAITH Catholic
  • Home
  • About NAMSO
    • About WWME
    • Team Profiles
  • Marriage Enrichment
    • Resources and Links
  • Blog
  • Locations
  • Contact Us and Subscribe