A Great Wedding Gift Idea

Hubby and I were part of the service team of our CFC cluster’s Marriage Enrichment Retreat 1 that took place over the weekend, and definitely we were busy. Hubby was the head of the Marshalls and Logistics Committee while I was part of the Child Care Committee. Fortunately, the overnight activity took place in Auris Hotel at Tecom (unlike past MERs that took place in other emirates), so the journey going to and from there wasn’t long.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the souvenir that the participants received. It was such a nice token, the service team also ordered these souvenirs as well.

It’s a Marriage Memory Jar! Whenever something good or special happens, the couple will just need to write the details on a piece of paper, and put it inside. Or if they go out on a date, they can get a remembrance from that event (a paper napkin from the restaurant, a movie ticket, stationery from the hotel, etc. ) and put that in. It’s a nice way to remember all the special things that they shared and went through together.

One thing that makes it a memory jar especially for (church) married couples, is the sand. There are 3 different colors of sand inside: neutral (white-brown), blue, and orange. There’s an explanation for this.

In all marriages, there is the husband (blue) and wife (orange). But a couple alone can never make their marriage work. Someone should be part of it. Of course I’m not talking about having an affair. I’m talking about God…who is the only third person that can should be part of every relationship. Without Him as the foundation, couples won’t be able to face and overcome the problems that come their way…their marriage wouldn’t last.

Initially, the jars were distributed with only the neutral colored sand in the jar, and the blue and orange sands were given separately.

At the signal during the program, the couples poured in their colored sands into their jars together, at the same time, and were asked to mix them well. The challenge given to them was if the day comes when one or both of them want to part ways (and for sure, that day will happen), they need to separate the different grains of sand. If they could do that, then and only then can they break up.

Practically impossible to do, of course.

Which is why the jar was such a nice token for the MER1. And why I think it’s such a great wedding gift idea. Or even a wedding anniversary gift to couples.

And it’s not expensive too! All you need is a big glass jar, normal sand (from the beach), 2 different colored sands (the ones used for ours were from Ikea; any colors will do), different colored papers to write down memories in, and whatever things you want to use to decorate the jar.

Simple, easy, yet very meaningful.