Taking the Hand of A Powerful Woman

It's not easy trying to convince your spouse or significant other to attend church with you if they are resistant.  When I met my wife, I was not ready to connect to her spiritual side. She had some work cut out for her.

In today's excerpt from Intelligence For Your Life:  Powerful Lessons For Personal Growth, I share how taking the hand of a powerful woman ultimately changed my life for the better.

To make a long story short, we started dating, and things got serious. One evening Connie said, “Hey if you like me, then maybe you’ll like this little church I attend.”

My heart sank. “Oh no, not this again.”

She sensed my comfort level had plummeted, but she went on anyway. “I think you will really like this pastor. He is not really a preacher. He’s more like a teacher. She took my hand in hers, and next thing I knew I was John Tesh, churchgoer . . . again.

Connie was right. This was different. Instead of preaching fire and brimstone, Pastor Louis Lapides illustrated the wisdom in the Bible using clips from Seinfeld and John Lennon songs. He taught about integrity and about commitment. And he threw down challenges that you might find in a self-help book, but these were underscored with the ancient scriptures. I was riveted. I was encouraged.

I joined the church band and started writing music for them. I attended men’s events on leadership and marriage building. I became acquainted with the power of prayer and began studying the empirical evidence from institutions like Duke University on how prayer can lower blood pressure and ameliorate depression. And I was introduced to the most powerful messages in the Bible: love and service. People asked what was different with me.

This was church? Not like I remembered it. But it was a new life and a new direction. It started a chain reaction in my life that caused me to leave Entertainment Tonight and to pursue, full time, that deepest desire of my heart: music. Eventually, that led to our radio show. Instead of getting e-mails at E.T. asking for autographs, we got long letters from people telling us how they would use our music and our message on the radio to advance their lives.

I woke up early one morning and realized what had happened: God had given us a ministry. What a humbling experience. This was all ordered by God. But it was orchestrated by that crazy Italian woman who had become my wife. Yeah, I think about it almost every day. Connie knew exactly what she was doing. She knew right where the path was, and she knew that I had stepped off it. She “tricked me” into getting right with God. She used her womanly powers to lure me back to the church. And I owe her my life for that.

Ladies . . . be encouraged. Do not be afraid to challenge your man to get right with God.

Men . . . don’t be afraid to take the hand of a powerful woman. It can lead you to riches you never imagined.

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia

Check out my new book Intelligence For Your Life:  Powerful Lessons For Personal Growth for information about marriage, love and spirituality. You can purchase the book at your local bookstores or order it online from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Here's what one more radio listener who read Intelligence For Your Life had to say:

John: I recently bought your book and loved it.  I've been talking to my Mom and Dad about it (they only understand Spanish so I try to translate it for them).

Bianca

Comments

[Chelsea]

Hi John,

This is a great post. I am very happy that you chose to write about this topic as it is interesting. It is a comfort when a church leader can make topics relevant, current and underscored with Bible teachings... as we all need a firm foundation that helps us connect with our "greater and best" self.

Now if we could only clone your pastor... ;-) to replace the many hi-brow men who speak at us in chuches everywhere... the last sermon I heard had to do with "historicity and specificity"... ? Cannot tell you with what it was in reference to, as this seemd more like a "word-of-the-day" challenge and I quickly zoned out.

So... all this to say, thanks for sharing this personal and important info.