Testimonials

My husband and I just attended your conference…, which we greatly enjoyed. Today is also our precious daughter [s]… birthday and I wanted you to know that she would not be here if not for God’s intervention in our lives through your Love and Respect book 9 years ago which saved our marriage.…I had filed for divorce and moved thousands of miles away to be near my family and started my dream job. I was not just one foot out the door, I was entirely out of the door after years and years of struggling . After 8 years of marriage, I was without hope and hated my husband. We had been to counseling…had even been to several Christian family conferences. However, some of the sin strongholds… had nearly put the nail in the coffin of our marriage. During that year, my husband deployed…, which was according to him, the darkest place on earth where hopelessness and temptation have a stronghold. He had other deployments and after each one he came back more distant and changed. However, this deployment was different. My husband met his best friend and brother in Christ and they began bible study in that dark place. My husband came across your book at the library there (a God thing of course) and began to pursue me relentlessly even from thousands of miles away. It took a long time for me to reach the point where I was at and it took a true miracle to soften my hardened heart. He started with apologies to me and others in our lives he had hurt. Then he began writing me love letters, telling my how amazing and irreplaceable I was. He kept telling me that he was not doing this to win me back, but he was doing this because of the commitment he made to God to be my husband, which had nothing to do with the way I treated him. He sent me flowers, drawings and gifts. For weeks I would not take his phone calls except so he could talk to our young son because I was so angry and afraid to love. I was cruel, and skeptical and he kept loving me unconditionally in spite of this. I will never be able to explain the transformation in my willingness to reconcile and see it as a miracle. One day I saw him as my enemy and the next, I was completely in love with him again and saw him as my warrior, hero, and resolute protector. When people ask me how we could reconcile, I tell them without hesitation that it was God and your book that saved our marriage. When he returned, we canceled the divorce proceedings and reconciled. Shortly thereafter we conceived our little girl. We now have a Godly marriage and are much stronger than ever. Thank you so much for writing this book and saving marriages. There is a special place in our hearts for military families and I pray that the Love and Respect message continues to make its way to bible studies and libraries in the darkest corners of the world.

One thing that I just love about The Illumination Project, what makes it unique, is that you have these two different generations being represented in Emerson and Joy. With Emerson, you have his wisdom and years of writing on this stuff and traveling and counseling couples through marriage, and so you have his passion and his truth. But on the other hand, you have Joy representing the younger crowd, and she makes it relevant and brings her passion and charisma, and the real-life context that we young people are up against. And that synergetic relationship working together is really a phenomenal dynamic to watch. Not to mention: People want to talk about this. They want to talk about love and romance and dating and marriage.

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"Love and Respect was nothing short of a miracle in saving my marriage, and I would love the opportunity to make others aware of your Ministry and what it can do for a marriage. I hold a Master’s degree in Counseling, and I am a Christian…Thank you so much, and God Bless you both for saving my marriage."

"Yesterday I tried the "60 Second Test." My husband did not follow me after I commented on the ways I respect him and I was a little disappointed but I assumed I didn't word my statement right. This morning he was in a grumpy mood and as he huffed away to our bedroom he said, "I just want to be awesome like I was yesterday!" This is an odd statement for him so I asked for some clarification. He said that yesterday I had told him I respected him and he wanted to be the same man today that I respected yesterday. It made me smile and I thought you'd like to know. Bring on the next challenge!"

"We were constantly on the Crazy cycle...but I started to act on some of your suggestions. I was amazed at the changes in our marriage."

My marriage is in the process of being restored with every act of respect I perform. I am now able to lead the way in my relationship with a man I had lost all respect for. The Lord now shows me sweet and genuine reasons for respecting my husband. God is good, and he is faithful, and I will continue to share this message of truth.

Thank you for teaching me about respect and what it truly means in my life. You’ve given me the courage to be respectful to those around me, even when they get on my nerves. You’ve given me the tools to have confidence and through Christ all things are possible. I can take that home and be respectful toward my mother and to lay the foundation so that someday my mom will also know Christ. I opened myself up in ways that have been laid on my heart for some time. I can begin again.

The Illumination Project is literally going to help so many people. I love seeing those in our generation step up to communicate these timeless truths in ways our friends would appreciate. So thank you.

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Just wanted to pass along a thank you for all that you have done in bringing this critically important scriptural truth to the church and world. My wife and I saw the application of this material help us take our very good marriage to one of tremendous mutual blessing! We have now taught the first small group version as well as the subsequent two video small group versions to over 50 couples over the past decade, and without fail it has had a positive life changing impact on them. In fact, one of our first couples, who were struggling, now Co-lead our small group with us, and have drawn so much closer to Jesus, and to each other, and that started with their exposure to Love and Respect. Again, thank you for your faithfulness to Him.

…I had a heart-to-heart talk with our 35-year old son this past week. I started reading “Mother and Son” while we were still at the conference and was deeply convicted just after reading the intro! I texted my son immediately and said: “only gotten through the intro to Emerson’s new book and have learned that I have always loved you deeply, but have not always respected you – as a young boy or as a man. For that I deeply apologize and have much to seek your forgiveness for. God has already shown me two very specific times. Can we talk after I get home…at a time convenient for you?” he responded fairly quickly and said: “Yes we can”. We had a great 2-hour talk…and then, just as he was leaving, he came up behind me and put his arms around me and said, “I love you, Mom.” Whew…so special!

"After 13 years I can finally say our marriage is truly like a dream. It is unbelievable how tender and fun and honest and caring and loving and joyful and playful and kind and intimate and generous and forgiving and sincere and giving and wonderful our marriage is. It is a MIRACLE. And only with God’s guidance in His Word and from your Love and Respect series has this been possible."

I listened to the audio book but now I’m ordering the hard copy. There is so much amazing information in here, I need a better way to reference it! After having many years of marriage turmoil, I heard an explanation of the Crazy Cycle. In hearing this, I knew I needed to know more but marriage wounds were too fresh. Having two sons (9 and 4), I knew I needed understanding from God so that I would raise them with their masculine needs met to the best of my ability. This book has given me great illumination on the way God created the male gender and how to respond as their mother. It’s a book I need to reread every few years!