Giving and Receiving Love as a Couple: The Heart and Soul of a Marriage
By Lalig Musserian
WATERTOWN, Mass.—Over 110 people gathered at the St. Stephen’s Armenian Church Hall to hear Rev. Dr. John Mokkosian, a licensed pastoral psychotherapist, discuss how to strengthen marriages and relationships and how to show appreciation and support to enrich and maintain a couple’s life. Using humor as a backdrop, Rev. Dr. Mokkosian shared stories of couples’ struggles and some common stress areas that cause relationship troubles. His points resonated with the attendees, and there were a lot of laughs, nods and a few sighs, too.
The key message was that marriage is a work in process, and just like anything valuable worth nurturing, your partner also needs to feel loved and cherished. In our busy lives, it is easy to feel taken for granted and sometimes neglected. Over time, these feelings will create a divide between spouses, then can grow into a bigger and bigger separation of emotions and lives unless we are paying close attention to each other emotionally and verbally.
Following the event, the organizing committee conducted a survey to gauge whether future events like this would be valuable. Overwhelmingly, the attendees encouraged more events like this at a greater frequency. While this was the third time this event was held, the organizing committee will consider increasing the frequency based on the feedback. Stay tuned for more to come!
As apostle Paul urged us in Titus 3:14, “Do good by meeting the urgent needs of others.” The Couples Ministry, led by New England Armenian clergy for parish families, organized this event. The goal of the program is to help our community and parish family couples pause and reflect on their relationships, address the challenges of their relationships, give them hope and motivate them to invest in their relationships to prevent them from withering.
Rev. Dr. Mokkosian specializes in individual, couple and family relationships and is a popular speaker on spirituality, faith development and couple’s enrichment.
