Married Track, part one · the past (weeks 1–7 of 21)
A marriage’s foundation gets poured before the wedding. But a foundation can be dug out and re-poured later. For seven weeks we go back to the beginning together — and look hard at the vow you made (or are about to make), talk it all the way through, and set it deep.
For a couple ten years in, these seven sessions land heavier, not lighter: you signed that covenant, but you never read it.
The 21 weeks are three stretches of one road, not three classes you sign up for separately:
See the covenant clearly, then repair the present, then hand it on — the order can’t be swapped. Without going back to the covenant first, the next fourteen weeks are only technique.
In session 1 you each seal a letter — “the marriage I’m hoping for.” In session 7 you trade them and read aloud: you see the gap between what you each expected, and you see how God narrowed it in seven weeks.
Married couples add one more prompt: “What I thought marriage would be like, back then.” That one is usually the most painful and most useful sentence of the whole seven weeks.
At the end of each session you write one line together — “our covenant.” In session 7 they get bound into your own covenant book. Couples not yet married can carry it into the wedding; married couples put it somewhere in the house where they’ll see it.
Eight areas: faith and church life / money / communication and conflict / family of origin and in-laws / sex and intimacy / children and parenting / roles / life vision. You each answer separately → the mentoring family compares → they mark the three widest gaps → you take one separate evening to talk about just those three. Nothing is scored or graded — it isn’t a test, it’s a way of getting the topics you’ve never discussed onto the table.
The living-room version: eat together → last week’s one thing 10′ → go through the session 25′ → split up and talk 20′ (husbands with husbands, wives with wives) → just the two of you 30′ → write one line of your covenant book → both families pray 10′ → walk them to the door. In session 5 the split-up conversation gets more time.
A reminder: it isn’t one lesson a week, it’s one evening a week in your home. The lesson is one stretch of it — what actually changes people usually happens at the table, or in those few minutes at the door.