I am writing this morning from St. Louis. My husband and I drove the four hours here on Friday afternoon in order to attend a Love and Respect marriage conference… courtesy of Kyle and Marie. Their first anniversary is coming up next month and they attended this conference a few months ago. They were so impressed with the message they asked us if we would like to attend, and ultimately this opportunity became our Christmas present from them. How cool is that?


There was a great deal of good information and a plethora of “Ah-HA!” moments during the 7-8 hours we listened. Much of the way the speaker described men and women and their different reactions to things made perfect sense to me… both in terms of describing why I feel the way I do and why my husband says and does things the way he does! Given that I am a very introspective person, it is rare that someone else helps me decipher my feelings… I am usually way ahead of the game in that respect.


How does this relate to RAD? Most of you know already… troubled kids can easily destroy a marriage. Marriage can be a tough assignment even when not challenged by difficult life experiences. Throw in an emotionally disturbed child or tragedy like what has befallen families of Virginia Tech students, and you either pull together or break up.


According to the speaker at the conference, more women are leaving marriages than men. No one is getting their needs met in the marriage, and our culture and society has made it much easier for both parties to quit.


The message given at this conference is decidedly faith-based. I had heard about it well before my kids suggested we attend… in fact, I had purchased the book months before I even knew Kyle and Marie were interested in attending the conference. Of course, I never get anything read, so I hadn’t yet read the book! But I did get it signed by the author this weekend!


I will be talking more about this… and how I hope to extrapolate some of what I learned into other relationships. But I would encourage you to check it out. Don’t let the “respect” aspect scare you off… there is no part of this message that demeans women or categorizes them as inferior to men. We’re just different!