We Met A Christian Author

Last year as I was driving home from work, I was listening to Bott Radio Network and they were talking about an upcoming event.  They were saying a well known Christian author was going to be speaking at a church in Ballwin on Friday night.  When I heard about it I got so excited I could hardly wait to get home and tell my wife.  I walked through the door and gave her three guesses at who the author could be.  She tried to guess but could not figure it out.  I didn’t want to keep her in suspense so I told her, and she was just as excited as I was.  We checked our schedule and we were free so we decided we were going.  I reached out to the church got tickets and we were also given access to the meet and greet before the event.  At first I thought it couldn’t get any better but it did.  I know you are probably wondering who I’m talking about, but keep reading the suspense is building.

He Was About to Help Our Marriage Again

That Friday we arrived at the church, we were greeted and shown to the meet and greet area.  We walked in grabbed some appetizers and started mingling with other guest.  As we were mingling I looked to my right and there he was talking with some of the guest.  I told my wife it’s time to get our pics and conversation with him before the line gets long.  We waited in line for a few minutes as he finished talking with another couple.  Then it was our turn and I stepped up shook his hand and I said,”Mr. Chapman it is an honor to met you.”  Yes it was none other than Gary Chapman the author of  the book The 5 Love Languages.  My wife and I told him how that book helped change our marriage for the better.  He went on to tell us about another he had written with Jennifer Thomas called The 5 Apology Languages.  My wife and I were shocked as though we had missed the memo about this book.  We asked was this a new book and he said no, it was written in 2006, once again egg on our face.

What do we do now?

He continued to give us more information about the book and we knew we had to buy one.  We finished our conversation with him and took a couple of pictures and went back to our seats.  Later when he spoke he was a wealth of knowledge with practical insights on marriage.  Armed with the lecture and the five Apology Languages we were ready to go a little bit deeper in our marriage.  About a week after we read it we determined we should do a book study at our church on the book.  We picked the dates, made announcements and put out a sign up sheet.  The sheet filled up quickly and before you knew it our first class was in session.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the sessions and they said they learned a lot, as did we.  When we finished I felt another layer of protection was added to our marriage as well as everyone else involved.  Every since we read the book and taught the class I am more focused on speaking my wife’s apology language.  If there is something I can do to make our marriage better sign me up.

Take Away

The take away is you should always be gathering resources to add to your toolbox.  The more tools you have the better prepared you are to quickly make repairs if something breaks.  It’s nothing worse than needed a tool that you don’t have a critical time.  Therefore we should always be stocking up before we ever need them.  That’s what the tool box is for, it sits in the corner out of sight until it’s needed.  It’s like when you store up certain scriptures in your heart and when the time comes you put it into action.  The other thing is the fact that my wife and I did it together.  She was excited just like me when I told her Gary Chapman was going to be here.  We read the book and felt it would be beneficial to other couples, so we shared.  There’s nothing more beautiful than when you and your spouse are on one accord.  If you haven’t the book go get it, read it together, put it into action and watch your marriage grow stronger.