Dave Willis - Marriage Minute: Quick & Simple Ways to Build a Divorce-Proof Relationship

We want to thank our parents, Brad and Karen Willis and Bill and Mary McCray for your lifelong love and support and for modeling for us what love and marriage is all about. We also want to thank our siblings Joe and Morgan Payne, Ben and Anne Willis and Drew and Erin Willis for always being there for us. Weve got the coolest family ever and we feel very thankful and blessed.

To our precious sons, Cooper, Connor and Chandler, we love you so much! We are so proud of you and we love every moment of being your Mommy and Daddy! You guys are going to grow up and change the world and were so proud of you!

We want to say a very special Thank You to our church family at Stevens Creek Church who have loved and supported us from the moment we arrived in Georgia. We love you guys!

We also want to thank the online community of our Facebook marriage page. Your encouragement, support and shared wisdom have shaped this book. Youve all been a huge source of encouragement to us. Even if we never meet you in person on this side of heaven, know that we love you guys and were truly thankful for you!

We also give a very special Thank you! to Kristen Shanahan and Nina McMorrow who tirelessly worked to edit and format this book. Your efforts blessed us and have encouraged all the readers of this book.

Dave and Ashley Willis are the founders of StrongerMarriages.org. They are college sweethearts who love helping other couples discover new ways to revitalize their marriages. They live in Evans, GA with their three young sons, Cooper, Connor and Chandler.

For more resources, connect with Dave and Ashley online at:

www.StrongerMarriages.org

www.MarriageGateway.com

www.DaveWillis.org

ISBN: 9781483505008

This book is dedicated to every husband and every wife who believes that their marriage is always worth fighting for.

Epilogue:
A Promise of Renewal and Recommitment

As you complete this book, we challenge you to take a final step by recommitting your lives to one another. For some, youll want to stage a big, elaborate ceremony to celebrate with your family and friends, and for others, you may prefer to do this at the kitchen table with just the two of you. Theres not a right or wrong way to do it. Just renew your promises to one another and begin the next chapter of your lives together. You may want to write your own words, or if you prefer, feel free to use these:

Today, I recommit myself to God, to you and to our marriage. I ask your forgiveness for the wrongs I have committed and I promise to do my best never to repeat them. I will strive to be the one who wipes away your tears and not the one who causes them. I freely forgive you for any wrongs you have committed. I promise to let go of any past hurts and unresolved anger Ive carried, so that our relationship can move forward with renewed grace and healing.

I promise to always see the best in you and to strive to become the best spouse I can possibly be. I promise to never say the word divorce, or to see separation as an option in our relationship. I promise to be your partner, your biggest fan and your best friend no matter what life throws our way. I promise to create new memories together that will be filled with joy and laughter. I promise to build my life and our family on a firm foundation of faith in God and His word. Because I am imperfect, I know I will make mistakes, but when I do, I promise to admit it openly, to take full responsibility and to humbly seek your forgiveness. I will never again allow anyone or anything to become more important than my relationship with God and my relationship with you. I wholeheartedly recommit my love and my life to you, til death do us part!

Congratulations on your recommitment to one another! We pray Gods continued blessings for you both and many years of love and happiness. Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your journey!

Dave and Ashley

There was a man from South Carolina who was interviewed on his 100th birthday and asked about the secret to his longevity. His response surprised the interviewer. He simply said, I took the stairs.

When asked to elaborate his answer, the old man talked about how hed stayed busy throughout his life and never really had time to go to the gym for exercise. However, he recognized that exercise was important, so he made a commitment to always take the stairs instead of using the elevator. The old man was dedicated to consistently doing quick and simple things that would give him a burst of activity during the day.

When he had a minute to spare, he would go on a short walk, and he recognized that the regularity of that physical activity would create a healthy lifestyle. One minute at a time, over the course of a century, those minutes added up to thousands of hours and ultimately helped shape his health.

Marriages today are tougher than ever before. One of the reasons is that our lives are just so busy. With all of the other demands placed on us, its difficult to make time to invest into the health of our marriage, but investing in our marriages is vital. This book is designed to help you take the stairs more often in your marriage. If you find ways to bring more quick investments of time and energy into your marriage throughout the day, the overall health of your relationship is going to improve.

We want you to see your marriage as the most valuable bank account you possess, and that account requires frequent deposits. Time is the currency of relationships, so you make deposits into that account one minute at a time. These small deposits arent meant to replace the large deposits of time you need to spend together, but they are an important supplement. Like most things, a healthy marriage requires more than just doing the big things well; it also requires doing the small things with consistency.

This book is designed to create a lifestyle of searching for every free minute, and using it as a Marriage Minute that you invest into your relationship. Some of those minutes will be spent sending a text or having a short phone call with your spouse throughout the day. Some of those minutes can be spent reading passages from this book. All of the readings and videos are designed to be completed in a few minutes or less. The whole concept of creating quick marriage-building resources started with YouTube videos like this one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Rl53npqqs .

Its our hope that next time youre sitting in traffic or stuck in a waiting room, you wont just zone out and consider the time as wasted, but youll see it as an opportunity to invest a few precious minutes into your marriage. Keep this book handy and read it with consistency. Use it as a conversation starter with your spouse.

Thank you for making this an investment into your marriage. We pray that the stories and life lessons on the pages to follow will bring joy, peace, strength, perspective and a renewed passion to your relationship! We are far from perfect and definitely dont claim to have it all figured out, but we are truly honored to have this opportunity to bring some hope and encouragement into your relationship!

Dave and Ashley

Steve and Sarah seemed beyond hope. I sat listening to Sarah pour out her heart, and as I listened, I silently prayed that God would work a miracle in her marriage. To be honest, I wasnt very optimistic. They were in a bad place.

Sarah had been a survivor all of her life. As a young child, she had been an orphan living on the streets in South America. She spent her time searching for food in trash cans and sleeping wherever she could. Then one day, an orphanage took her in. Her life changed completely when an American couple adopted her and brought her to the United States.