What if You Took An Anniversary Getaway with God?

Written By Lori G. Melton

​(Read below or Click Here to listen to the Podcast)​

Hey friends!

Welcome back to Episode 5 of the Sanctuary Stirrings Fall Series!

As many of you know from our past three episodes, my husband and I just celebrated our 40th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, we took a week away together—four days in Branson, Missouri, enjoying the beautiful Ozark Mountains, more shows than we’ve probably seen in the last ten years (hello, Anthems of Rock, Comedy Jamboree, and Dean Z: Elvis Through the Years!), and more all-you-can-eat buffets with our white-haired peers than in our entire married life!

Are we really at this point?

Then we spent three days in Wichita, Kansas, worshipping and listening to powerful teaching with 700 others at The Apprentice Gathering.​

Forty years is a long time to do anything, but especially to be married—to work through personality differences, career challenges, financial pressures, raising six children, and all the ordinary joys and difficulties of building a life together.

But I’ll let you in on one of the secrets of our longevity.

Through all the years, no matter how much money we had—or didn’t have—what job or ministry responsibilities we held, or how many ballet recitals, Boy Scout campouts, or football practices filled every square inch of our calendar, we made time around our anniversary to get away together.

Sometimes it was only 48 hours.

But we went.

We stepped away from everything else to spend time alone. To silence all the other voices. To look into each other’s eyes. To see each other smile again … and laugh. To remember why we fell in love in the first place.

Those times away gave us space to see where life had crept in and gotten us off course—and to put us back on our strong foundation.

This year, as we savored the all-you-can-eat buffet after enjoying the 2:00 PM Comedy Jamboree—yes, apparently this is our life now!—Bryan looked at me and said something that stopped me:

"I haven't heard you laugh like that in a long time."

It was true. And honestly, it brought tears to my eyes.

Life is tough. And if we’re not careful, it can squeeze the laughter right out of us. I never want to stop laughing--or making time for the relationships I cherish.

Relationships Need Time Alone Together

Bryan could do all the important things a husband should do. He could earn a paycheck, take care of my car, shovel the snow, fix things around the house, and check off everything on his “honey-do” list.

But if he never wanted to spend time alone with me? I’d trade all those things in a heartbeat for the gift of knowing that he simply wanted to be with me.

Our heavenly Father, the Lover of our Souls, feels the same way.

More than He wants us to check off all our responsibilities, serve at church, or minister to others — as important as those things are — He longs for us to spend time alone with Him.

Jesus Himself showed us this again and again. In the middle of people needing Him and THE most important work that has ever or will ever need to be done, Jesus withdrew to quiet places to spend time alone with the Father.

Maybe that is one of the greatest invitations of retreat.

It gives us time to look into our heavenly Father’s eyes and let Him look directly into ours. Time to pour out our deepest thoughts and to hear His. Time to give Him unhurried hours rather than a few hurried minutes before the day begins, the next notification beeps, or someone else needs us.

Time to savor being together and remember why we fell in love in the first place.

One Thing

One of my favorite experiences on our anniversary trip was seeing David at the Sight & Sound Theatre.​

It is an incredible sensory experience. Stages sit in front of you and on either side, with actors and animals coming down the aisles and birds flying overhead.

As spectacular as all of that was, what resonated with me most was the play’s message that David was a man after God’s heart. Long before he became king, he was a shepherd boy who spent hours alone in the wilderness talking and singing to the Lord as he tended his sheep.

Then life got bigger. His responsibilities multiplied. The pressures of kingship grew larger.

David didn't always get it right. At times, he lost his way terribly. And yet, when you read the Psalms, you hear the heart of a man who kept turning back toward God—pouring out what was inside him and longing again for His presence.

Like this passage from Psalm 27:

One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.

Oh, friends, there is no better description of what happens on retreat. Does it describe the longing stirring in your heart as well?

One thing.

As I sat there watching David’s story unfold, I heard the Father whispering that same invitation to me.

I have a large family I dearly love. An incredible retreat center the Lord has given us to steward. And doors in the writing world that I could never have imagined Him opening. They are all wonderful gifts.

But none of those things are as important as my intimacy with Him.

Like David, the Lord blessed me with a close relationship with Him when I first came to know Him as a teenager, and He has continued to do so through the decades since.

I want to cherish that relationship until my last day.

And as I thought about our upcoming fall retreat, my heart burned inside. Time to be alone with my Abba Father was just around the corner.

An Anniversary Getaway With God

Retreating has become so precious to me.

Like an annual anniversary trip away with your spouse. Going away on retreat is a powerful way to keep the Lord as your first love and ensure you remain, like David, a person after God’s own heart.
​
And perhaps even to return home with this prayer, pouring from your lips...

One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.

But What Exactly Is a Silent Retreat? Is it Even Christian?

This kind of retreat may be completely unfamiliar to you. When you see the words Silence & Solitude Retreat, you may have questions—or even a few alarm bells going off in your head.

I know I did!

So today I’m also sharing an article I wrote a few years ago that explains what a silent retreat actually is, answers some of the questions and concerns I had when I first encountered this practice--and perhaps you do, as well--and shares the incredible story of what God did during my first silent retreat.

It changed my relationship with the Lord forever.

​Silent Retreating: Is That Even Christian?​

Perhaps It's Your Turn to Come Away...

Friends, if your heart has been stirred as you’ve read these words, perhaps the Lord is inviting you to come away to spend some unhurried time alone with Him.

We would love to have you join us for The One Whom Jesus Loves Women’s Silence & Solitude Retreat this November. Or find a retreat center near you and set aside your own time to be alone with God.

However you do it, give yourself permission to step away from the noise for a little while—to rest in His love, listen for His voice, and simply enjoy being with Him.

November 18–20, 2026​
The Hermitage Retreat Center | Three Rivers, Michigan​
Cost: $275​
Private rooms and rustic cabins available

Click here for more information or to register, or email me at lori@thesanctuaryatbearcreek.com

Resources Worth Noticing:

Worth Remembering:

“We are starved for quiet, to hear the sound of sheer silence that is the presence of God himself.”​
—Ruth Haley Barton, Invitation to Solitude and Silence

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So thankful to be journeying together,
Lori

Lori G. Melton
Next

Cheers to 40 Years! Pt. 3:Two Really Are Better Than One