First Day of Class Nerves are Back

So today was our first day of class. Getting up this morning, I had no idea what to expect. (I was so nervous about our first day that I forgot to put on deodorant this morning... whoops). This week in class we are talking about intimacy within marriages while working through the book Sacred Marriage. I like to put it into the context of my relationships in general, since I'm obviously not married. However I still wanted the information I'm learning to be applicable to my life now in some way. Intimacy is being vulnerable and comfortable with your significant other, and being okay with the good, bad, and the ugly. We learned basic needs of men and women, and the power battle that comes along with those needs. A man's needs are a woman's power, and vice-versa. When that God-given power isn't being expressed by your significant other, it leaves the door open for someone else to practice that power. We learned so much more than this little bit I shared. This doesn't do justice to the five pages of notes I took.

Our professor for this week is Dr. Juli Slattery. She co-hosted Focus on the Family's international radio and TV outreach for many years, and then left there to help become a founder of Authentic Intimacy, which is a ministry designed to help women grow closer to God while improving their relationships with their husbands. She is also the author of a few books and is a highly sought-after speaker to groups in the US and abroad. To put it in short, she knows her stuff. I really enjoyed listening to her today, and am looking forward to the rest of this week with her.

We met at our internship sites this afternoon to get acquainted with the staff and where we will be working at for the summer. The Counseling Department is right at Focus, and has incredible staff at hand to take the incoming phone calls from all over the country, and even the world. I'm so excited to get to work with some of these counselors and listen to what they do first hand. I'm praying that through this experience, I will better be able to narrow down what population I would like to reach out to some day in the therapy world.

Shared plenty of laughs this evening with some of the girls :) They're great. I spent some time on the phone this evening as well with family and friends back home! It was great to hear their voices as well as being able to share my experience thus far. Thanks for the prayers and support! Love you all!