Hello Dr. Laura,
I just wanted to email and say a huge thank you for your book "Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage". I picked it up and read it and then passed it along to my wife. I have come home from work and found her with that book many evenings.
We married 15 years ago and I proceeded to do everything I could to ruin it. We came to a point last summer where we both believed it was over. She had enough of my selfishness, stubbornness and general jerk nature and had tolerated it for a long time.
Through the grace of God, a mirror was turned on me and I could see how horrible I acted for a LONG time. He broke me and forced me to my knees. I am forever grateful for that.
We went to marriage counseling, a great Christian "weekend to remember" and were making slow progress, usually due to my recurrent behavior. That changed when I read your book. I sat in the bookstore and cried reading so many chapters (kind of odd, a 6'4", 245 pound man sitting in a bookstore chair with tears running down his face), but I was touched and enlightened. Since that time, about a month ago, we have both taken that book to heart.
I now see what I was missing for those years. I cherish that woman like nothing else. I get up every morning and have a genuine desire to be everything she wants out of a husband.
She has started doing things from the book (verbalizing her pride in me, thanking me for working so hard so she can be a stay at home mom) and it truly fills my cup. To know that I'm working for us and providing and that it's appreciated makes every work day almost..... painless?
Thanks so much for your book and for making a mark on a marriage that, one year ago, was going down the tubes. I think we will both re-read the book often.
Keep fighting the good fight...for family.
Paul
