Love That Lasts: When Grace Meets Marriage

Ron and I have been involved in leading a couple's group using the book: Love That Lasts by Gary and Betsy Riccuci.

We invited 4 couples to join us for eight weeks (meeting every other week) to go through the book together. We took turns hosting in our homes, which was a great way to get to know each other and facilitate friendships. We read the chapter together as couples at home each week, discussed the questions from the study guide as husband and wife before gathering to discuss it as a group.

All of us had one common goal - we wanted to invest time and energy into building stronger, more loving marriages. I think all of us were very aware that good relationships don't just happen and that all relationships tend toward apathy and atrophy. This was our way of combating the downward trend that we can so easily fall into.

Sometimes it wasn't easy to talk about issues with our spouses; sometimes we didn't want to face personal issues; sometimes it brought out conflict or tense discussions; sometimes we didn't feel like going to the class-- but each time that we talked, discussed, fought, attended, shared, prayed - we were adding another brick to the foundation of our marriages, making it stronger.

The subtitle of the book is When Grace Meets Marriage. I think all of us are walking away from this class having encountered the grace of God in our marriages and we have been changed.

We have one more class next week and then we will celebrate the completion of the book group by going out for a special dinner. It has been a joy and a privilege "doing life" with these couples and seeing the gospel at work in their lives. We look forward to doing this again next fall with a new group!