Couples Working Together
by Drenda Keesee
We’ve all watched a romantic movie, sighed, and thought If only I had a romantic life. Hollywood gives us unrealistic expectations of romance, but Hollywood isn’t real life! Romance stories cannot portray the lifetime journey, commitment, and sacrifices of a lasting lifetime marriage relationship. At the movies, in less than two hours, it appears that everything works into a perfectly crafted romantic relationship. The reality is, it takes a lifetime of growing, changing, and becoming one in marriage. Don’t let the Hollywood portrayal make you feel something is missing in your marriage. What is missing in the movie version is the time, commitment, and work that make a relationship thrive. It takes more than a chick flick can reflect to build a great marriage, and the good news is…
…your love can last much longer than a Hollywood romance!
Marriage is the bedrock of the family, so I would be amiss not to touch on vintage love. Today, more and more children are growing up with one parent, divorced parents, stepparents, and all kinds of different family dynamics. My heart breaks for the millions of men and women who have experienced the death of a marriage. Yes, God can still work through those family situations to bring amazing outcomes, despite any hurt or trauma from the past. But I also believe in doing whatever I can to prevent those types of situations from increasing. The marriage is an important aspect in the family, and I want to show you how that union can thrive using the vintage family model.
“Marriage: Love is the reason. Lifelong friendship is the gift. Kindness is the cause. ’Til death do us part is the length.” dawn Weaver
~Drenda
Excerpt from “The New Vintage Family” by Drenda Keesee
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide, and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary, and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesees have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
