"For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health." We say those words and mean them. Until we don't. This is a book about creating a different, better, new kind of marriage with the exact same person--no matter how dire the circumstances--with vision, commitment, and hope in the Lord.
Remember those early days of love? When your heart felt all fluttery, and you saw your person through rose-colored glasses? They could do no wrong. You were going to have the most beautiful life with big adventures and lots of sex. Of course, everyone says marriage is work, you knew that. But that was okay; you could get through anything together. It was going to be great.
Until it wasn't.
Something happened. Or maybe nothing happened. Maybe it was one big something, or a lot of little somethings over many years that landed you in a marriage you hardly recognize. For Josh and Katie Walters, it was a big something: infidelity. Now they counsel couples who find themselves exactly where they were: lost, hopeless, and unsure of how to fix their marriage.
This book lays out the principles Josh and Katie learned in that season when God healed and restored their marriage. This process is broken into four parts and is an acronym for the word STAY:
- S--start with you. (Discovering that when one person changes, the entire relationship changes.)
- T--take quitting off the table. (Bringing your whole self to the solution and not checking out mentally and emotionally.)
- A--allow others to be a part of your journey. (Trusting the right people, in the right ways, at the right time.)
- Y--yield to vision. (Looking past what is and imagining what could be.)
New Marriage, Same Couple is a book about hope. It's about how to create a brand-new marriage with your spouse, whether you've been married for a short time, or for decades.
Walters, Josh: -
Josh Walters began working at Seacoast Church in 2009 as a campus program director for Kidscoast. Since then, Josh has also led the Connect and Creative Teams and served as pastor at the Mount Pleasant Campus. He currently serves as executive pastor of Seacoast Experience, which helps oversee what happens in person and online each weekend. Josh is also a member of the Teaching Team. He grew up in Columbia and attended the University of South Carolina, where he met his wife, Katie. After graduating with a degree in history and secondary education, he went on to obtain a masters in pastoral counseling and spiritual formation from Columbia International University.
Walters, Katie: -
Katie Walters is the CEO of Francis + Benedict, a fashion line that started eight years ago with mission partners Francis and Benedict in Togo, West Africa. Francis + Benedict makes wax print clothing designed for American women handmade by single mothers and widows in Togo. What started as a non-profit to give Togolese women space in the American market and return profits to them has become a for-profit business with a nonprofit arm that runs alongside it to help transform Togo. Katie is also on staff part-time at Seacoast Church, where she currently serves on the Experience Team and teaches occasionally as well.
