She Fed Her Husband Dog Food ...

This is no joke. Real people. Real struggles. Real despair.

Brett returned home from work one night, took a bite from the meal his wife, Tina, had prepared, and declared, "This tastes like dog food!"

"Fine," Tina snapped back, "you don't have to eat it!"

The next night Brett took a couple bites from dinner and practically choked. "What on earth is this?" he said.

"Last night you said my meal tasted like dog food," Tina replied. "So tonight I decided not to waste my time making anything special for you. I just fed you dog food!"

Seems hopeless, doesn't it? Wait until you hear the "rest of the story."

Many would have said this was a marriage without hope. Brett and Tina were so typical of many couples today—struggling through life with no tools or game plan for how they could be successful in their marriage and family. No idea of where they were heading or what they believed in.

Alarming Facts

In fact, it would be easy to become discouraged about the circumstances facing our families today. Consider these alarming facts:

• Divorce is a raging epidemic. Six out of 10 children today will spend part of their first 18 years of life in a single parent home.
• Less than 7 percent of graduating college students believe in the concept of absolute truth. Instead they believe in a botched brand of "partial" morality promoted in the world.
• The militant homosexual movement is gaining ground, making inroads into the hearts and minds of our children through education and entertainment.
• The "building block" of society, God's biblically-sanctioned definition of marriage is in danger because of same-sex marriage.
• A lack of strong role models combined with other distracting factors (media, video games, etc.) is producing a generation of young people who do not know how to develop lasting relationships.
• Our wealth and materialism as a nation have spawned a poverty of soul and character.

And on and on it goes. And yet …

Despite these circumstances, I see God working dramatically in so many families today. God is using FamilyLife around the world to help people like you not only safely weather this storm, but also become God's messengers of hope for the family.

Winning Her Over With Love

Let me finish the story of Brett and Tina. They decided to attend a Weekend to Remember conference because someone gave them a free registration. What did they have to lose?

Midway through the weekend, Brett recommitted his life to Jesus Christ. For Tina it was a different experience. She disagreed with many of the messages she heard. In the middle of the women's session on the final day she slammed her book, stormed out, found Brett and demanded that they leave. Brett drove Tina home, then returned to the conference and attended the rest of the sessions by himself.

In the next few months, Brett began to show he was a changed man. He applied some of the lessons he learned at the conference and gradually began to win Tina over through love. Eventually they joined a church, and then began attending a small-group study using The HomeBuilders Couples Series®.

Tina's heart softened as she went through the material, and eventually she invited Jesus Christ to be Lord of her life and The Builder of their marriage. A year after they first attended the marriage conference, they came back, walking hand in hand. They still struggled, but NOW they possessed a relationship with The One Who designed marriage in the first place.

God is Working

At FamilyLife, that is what we are all about—helping couples like Brett and Tina learn how to make Jesus the Lord of their marriage. And that's just one story. Each week I hear and read stories of how God is working in families today. Here are just two more:

A wife in Missouri wrote to say that when she first heard me talk about "sacrificial loving" on our FamilyLife Today radio program, she was "revolted"! Then she heard me suggest that wives smile at their husbands each day when they return home. "I would've much preferred glaring at him, but I tried smiling," she wrote. "It was very hard! But to my amazement, and as I continued to smile at Ben and listened to the good teaching on FamilyLife Today, God began to change my heart.

"There is so much more to this story than I can possibly put down, but you all and your guests and resources have ministered to Ben and me powerfully over the years. God has poured His grace into our hearts and lives and marriage in ways we would never even have imagined, and today we have a marriage that is happy, fun, and mutually satisfying. We are best friends and growing together in Christ."

In Oklahoma City, a young couple walked into the first session of our Weekend to Remember and drew a lot of stares. She looked "normal," but he was dressed in "gothic"—chains, spiked hair, and a black t-shirt featuring an obscene message on the back. The FamilyLife representatives wondered if they should ask him to change his shirt, but decided "we needed to let God work."

God did work. Indeed.

At the end of the conference, the young man wrote on his conference evaluation, "This conference has helped to open my eyes in many areas. I not only realized how much I was doing wrong, but I also realized how blind I've been. I opened my eyes and prayed for the first time. I accepted the Lord into my heart and into my life. We went from talking about divorce already to actually sitting and talking for hours on end! I strongly believe that we are going to thrive."