My daughter Hosanna is taking Intensive Italian. I have offered several times to help her study but she has not taken me up on it. 

 

Instead Hosanna's professor connected her to a college student in Milano who wants to practice her English. The two girls skype for an hour or so each week, and Hosanna says her fluency is molta migliore. As a sophomore at a brainy women's college, she has to jam the commitment in between Multivariable Calculus and Mathematical Methods in Physical Sciences. But she wants to do well, and so she chooses to show up, every week. 

 

This is what marriage mentoring looks like, too. A younger couple goes out with a more experienced couple and they talk for an hour or so each month. They get to know each other, they expand their views of il matrimonio, the younger couple raises their MPA (Marriage Point Average) and they have il divertimento. 

In a world where lots of efforts at marital improvement carry a hefty sticker price, mentoring is low budget: the price of due tazze di caffe, and a commitment to show up.

It will probably give you more l'amore, too.

 

 

Photo by Chara Odhner

www.caringformarriage.org