Dick and Barb Ivey
Educators, Mentors, Coaches
The gorgeous redhead and I are not on our first marriage. We both wish that wasn’t so and that somehow God might have put us together the first time around.
We stumbled around in the darkness for lots of years getting relationships wrong until one day we both wound up in a single adult Sunday School class at Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas, TX.
I was teaching that group and had the best seat in the house. The day she showed up was a WOW! Day for me. We still did not have the skills to make a relationship work long term, but after a stormy courtship that was on and off again, we finally connected.
Our courtship really firmed up the weekend I was transporting my youngest son to his Junior-Senior Prom. I had borrowed a vintage right hand drive Rolls Royce to deliver the kids to Market Hall in Dallas. I had to wait until the Prom was over to pick them up and decided to go to the Anatole Hotel to listen to some golden oldies piano music and called Barb to see if she wanted to join me.
We had a great time and it was over all too soon. I invited her to go with me to take the kids home and we made the late night leisurely drive back to my business partner’s home to deliver the Rolls. She followed me out there and drove me back to my car.
During the evening she had asked me if she could go with me the next day to Austin to a rugby tournament where her daughter’s boyfriend and my oldest son were playing (they all went to the same college). Barb had never been to a rugby game before. I readily accepted and we agreed that I would pick her up at 6:00am.
She was expecting me to have another woman with me…thinking I was dating someone else.
Not only was she surprised when I was alone when I picked her up, she was even more surprised when. as we drove, I reached over to see if she would hold my hand.
My!! My!!
Well, we made the rugby tourney, fed our kids afterwards and then drove home. It was about twilight when I delivered her back home. As I was about to take her in, she asked me if I’d like to come in and maybe sit in the hot tub for a little bit. She had some champagne just begging to be consumed. I told her I just happened to have a swimsuit in the trunk of the car and so we did.
We’ve been together ever since.
I wish I could tell you that the fairy tale beginning ended “they lived happily after,” but it did not. Several folks told us we were a train wreck looking for a bridge to fall off, but we married anyway.
Fast forward two years and we were both on the brink of quitting one more time. We had not learned that it takes more than a marriage license and saying “I Do” to make a relationship work well. Fortunately for us, several circumstances and people impinged on our lives and we decided to see if we could figure out how to mend it and not end it this time. People like Ken Pepper, Paul Royal, Harville Hendrix, Pat Love, Pia Mellody, Ann Worth and since then a host of other stalwarts in the world of marriage education have come our way. The likes of Scott Stanley, Howard Markman, Gary Smalley, John Gray, Les and Leslie Parrott and others have helped us learn how to “get it right this time.” Blessed indeed!
When the lights finally came on for us, we began to work on ourselves. Learning to have servant’s hearts toward each other, how to live in the present and to eliminate the negative. For the longest time we thought it was about finding the right person only to discover that it was far more about being the right person.
Our lives are now devoted to one clear purpose—teaching, mentoring and coaching couples to be successful marriage partners. We want YOU and anyone you know to learn how to “get it right” and to have the joy we do in our marriage. If we can, anyone can.
We will meet you in a variety of ways to make that happen:
- Our one-on-one Marriage 3.0 – Revive, Renew, Restore weekends
- We’ll coach you individually or in groups
- We’ll come to your church to do retreats and/or workshops
- We’ll come to your church to teach your congregation how to build a marriage education and mentoring program that works.
We believe no marriage need ever fail as long as the partners are willing to learn and practice new skills. So, as you start seeing the 24k Gold Nugget arrive in your inbox help us reach other couples.
Please share email addresses for 10 to 20 of your friends/family who can use the education, enrichment and encouragement of a 24k Gold Nugget each week. Send contact info to dick@dickivey.com. We will not abuse this email or share with others. Just help us reach one family at a time.
You just never know how far-reaching your encouragement may be.
In His Service,
Dick Ivey
Passionate About Family Education Making New Ones Good, Good Ones Better and Bad Ones Whole
