Hope is Our Strategy!
Don’t you love it when the research catches up with the word of God!
Here are a few nuggets from the NARME conference research that was shared:
Dr Chan Hellman, Director of the Hope Research Center - highlighted that hope is the #1 predictor of trauma recovery. Those with even a moderate amount of hope had a 236% higher rate of recovery. Here is a 2 minutes of Dr. Hellman sharing about Hope Rising. Interestingly, Dr. Hellman described hope as a "skill that can be taught".
Rev. Scott Heare of the Institute of Global Human Flourishing at Baylor University shared findings from The Global Flourishing Study. What they found was that "marriage is the #1 indicator of flourishing worldwide. It was consistent across all 20 countries surveyed."
Shaunti Feldhahn shared that people with high hope have certain habits including scaffolding (think spiritual rhythms) and gratitude. 60% of people who build scaffolding (spiritual rhythms) in their lives and 73% of those that "think and express gratitude" are high hope individuals. You can learn more about her research on hope in her soon to be released book "Habits of Hope". Team Blackwell and I both have one ordered!
When we help couples turn their eyes to the God who loves them with an everlasting, hesed love, they can hope and they can flourish! Together, we are believing for a move of God in the marriages of Virginia.
We serve THE GOD OF HOPE and HOPE IS OUR STRATEGY!
Fall Marriage Strategy:
This fall, we are running it back to the community with The Virginia Marriage Challenge! #VAMarriagechallenge And we are looking to you. As your plans become solidified, share details of your marriage small groups, activities, classes, or events with us and they will be added to the TVMI Marriage Map. We will drive the community to this map through a meta campaign. The National Marriage Week Campaign brought almost a million views on our calendar and events page so couples are looking for ways to invest in their marriages. We are available if you would like to discuss your fall marriage strategy. Email or text to set up a conversation.
Looking ahead to 2027!
We are following the Spirit and being led to reach couples with the gospel through churches, community leaders, speakers and events. We made some great connections at NARME and have some ideas. Gary Chapman (5 Love Languages), Shaunti Feldhahn (For Women Only/For Men Only and When Hurting People Come to Church), Brad Wilcox (Get Married) to name a few. Share who you would most like to see here.
If you’re interested in the pre-order of Shaunti Feldhahn’s new book, Habit’s of Hope, click here. It goes along with the HOPE strategy!
August 22nd Marriage Roundtables - Dream with Us!
What can we do together for the marriages of our community?
We will have marriage roundtable gatherings across the state on August 22nd! If you are near Fredericksburg, Richmond, or Yorktown - join us to gather with other marriage champions and dream together about tactics we can do together to bring hope and flourishing to marriages. These gatherings will also include an introduction to the Weekend to Remember and a time of prayer. If you would like to get involved by reaching couples in the commuity, register for this event HERE
