MOMENTS FOR MILITARY MARRIAGES – First Quarter 2024
Happy New Year—and Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day! As we begin this new year we want to share a few thoughts with you about the ways to thrive in your military marriage, as well as possible strategies for enhancing your communication.
We are Dave and Lucy Snyder, a military couple of many years. I (Dave) spent 24+ years as an Army officer and I (Lucy) was an Army daughter, sister, and of course, wife. Now we continue our connection to our military family as grandparents. We will be sharing our story with you in this blog post and will also include the witness of other military couples, both active duty and retired. We also want to introduce Fr. Gary Fukes who has generously agreed to consult with us in this outreach to our married brothers and sisters in the military. Fr. Gary is a retired Army Chaplain and is now serving as Catholic Chaplain at Haley VA Hospital in Tampa. He has wonderful insights about the chaplaincy and serving the people of God in the military..
One of the most important and life-changing experiences of our marriage was attending a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend. We found tools and special communication techniques that have helped us keep our marriage happy and strong, and we don’t know where we would be right now without that Experience and the years of sharing with other like-minded couples.
In previous blog posts, we talked about some basic strategies to nurture your healthy, happy marriage. The first is to connect or reconnect to your base or post Catholic Chapel and Chaplain. This is no better support than other couples and priests who share your faith. Another strategy is to pray as a couple. This can be as simple as saying grace before meals or saying a little prayer before a zoom or call. Yet another strategy is to take the time to attend a WWME Experience or Enrichment. There are dates and locations listed on another page of this website.
At our Christmas dinner this year, one of our guests asked if we still shared our highs and lows. Well, we restarted this little ritual that night at our Christmas dinner, and it became a very special evening. We share it with you now as a wonderful way to “check in” with each other each day—no matter where you are. It is so simple—just listen lovingly as each of you shares your HIGHS AND LOWS of your day. This kind of sharing is especially effective when on a zoom or phone call and even the kids can be a part of this technique. We hope you will try sharing Highs and Lows—let us know if this strategy works for you.
We leave you with our special daily prayer: Dear Lord, Thank you for the blessings You shower upon us. Give us the strength to love each other more than we did yesterday and to affirm each other’s qualities and good points. Help us to remember that You are in charge, so we don’t have to fear for our safety or needs. And Lord, help us to accept that each of us is ENOUGH—we are unique, worthy, loved and loveable! Amen.
God bless you in your marriage, Dave, Lucy and Fr. Gary
WWME-Tampa Florida, davelucysnyder@gmail.com