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Best Friends
Chapter One:
Why This Book? An old farmer was busily working on the carburetor of his tractor when he was approached by a young, neatly dressed gentleman in a three-piece suit. The young man introduced himself as a representative of The Agricultural Encyclopedia Company of America. He then launched into a forty-five-minute sales presentation of his product. He described how the twenty-volume set of encyclopedias contained the whole of human knowledge on agriculture, featuring the latest in technological advances. The salesman finally took a breath and concluded, “So you see, sir, if you buy this set, I can personally guarantee that your productivity will increase by 200 percent!”

The old salt, who had listened patiently during the presentation, took a deep breath and drawled, “Sonny, if I did everyday even half of what I already know, my productivity would increase by 200 percent.’

Marriage friendship is like that. There are many excellent books out today teeming with instructions on how to have a better marriage. However, if everyday we used just half of what we already know about marriage, we would have a better marriage.

So why this book? First, the information in this book is designed to help you become better friends with your spouse. It will give you both the “how-to’s” and the encouragement you need to strengthen your relationship. Second, it will help you discover for yourself the biblical principles for marriage friendship. Each chapter contains two Bible study sections (“Exploring with My Friend”) designed to help you uncover truth from God’s Word that will enrich your relationship. One section is for the husband and one is for the wife. With a few exceptions, the questions are the same. Third, this book provides opportunities to practice the knowledge you already have. Each chapter has exercises that will help you communicate with, and better understand, your mate. The exercises (“Face to Face with My Friend”) also appear twice, once for the husband and once for the wife. Fourth, the book will give you creative suggestions for dating your mate. Your marriage friendship is like any friendship. Both grow from spending enjoyable times together. When the exercises are combined with creative and fun dates, you will be on the road to living out what you know.

Each chapter in this book begins with a “one-another” phrase based on Scripture. Many of the verses used for these phrases do not specifically speak about marriage, but they all deal with close relationships.

To use this book best, husband and wife should each have a copy. This will enable you to complete the exercises and make notes in the book. Or, you may wish to buy one book and share it as you do the exercises. Another choice is to fill out the exercises in separate notebooks—either by hand-copying the questions or by photocopying the pages of concern and inserting them in a notebook. Or you can remove the pages from the book, using the dotted lines as a guide.

You and your mate can discuss one chapter a week or one chapter a month. My suggestion is to seta goal to finish one every two weeks. This will give you time to work on each chapter and will enable you to enjoy each other during the process.

The examples given in this book are all true, but most are composites of cases I’ve counseled. In each case, the names have been changed to honor the privacy of those involved.

For More Information or to Order: Call 719.590.9270;

or send an email to conrad@reflectionsphotography.com

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Our Mission

We are committed to building and maintaining quality marriage relationships.
Our book, Best Friends is a major tool we use to obtain this goal
but we also lead marriage workshops and marriage retreats.

Contact Information:

Telephone:
(719) 590-9270

Postal address:
Conrad Smith
175 Mikado Drive East
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Email:
conrad@reflectionsphotography.com

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