Somewhere around four years ago, I was listening to a podcast that included the topic of improving your mental health. I decided I needed to investigate this opportunity to get help for myself and my marriage. On the podcast, this guy named Sam from Las Vegas spoke with confidence. He claimed he could help someone no matter what their problem was. He was quite confident in himself. He didn’t specifically specialize in bipolarism. He just had this confidence in his abilities to help. I had to investigate. When I called Sam, sure enough, he told me he could help me. Not only was he confident he could help me, he was also confident he could help me and my wife in our marriage. After an hour long conversation with this guy, I was convinced that he could help me. His program was very expensive. At this point in the conversation, I didn’t even know what his program was! However, I didn’t care. I was totally onboard. I had a large sum of money flowing in with a recent sale that I had made. It was the exact amount that we would need. I told Sam that I was all in. However, I had to run this opportunity by my wife. I figured we would get started in the new year. Sam’s thoughts? Let’s start next week! I told him I didn’t have the money from my sale yet, and I didn’t even talk to my wife yet. His response? “That’s fine, let’s start next week and you can pay me later. We start next week, and you pay me when you get your money. We can even do a payment plan. I guarantee I will help you. If I don’t, I will give your money back.” Who does that? 

There are some caveats to this scenario. First off, you have to understand that I had 100% TRUST in the source of this podcast. Secondly, I had already done years and years of work on myself to prepare me for this moment. The most important point of this entire scenario is the fact that the conversation that I had with Sam was incredibly God driven. My heart knew that God was providing a path through this man to help me. My heart knew that God was providing a path through a trusted source, with a man who was going to help me with my bipolarism and my marriage. That was a lot to ask. Again, Sam was 100% confident he could help me with both my bipolarism and my marriage. It was like someone telling me I guarantee you that you will win the lottery. That evening I took this idea to my wife. I was extremely disappointed when she was not on board. It wasn’t a bad conversation, she just wasn’t convinced. The best description I can provide is that she thought, “Oh here we go again, Phil is taking us down another crazy train.” It was a tough conversation. I had this God moment. I knew God was providing a path to help me and my marriage. I was as confident as Sam was that he was going to help me/us, I was 100% confident. My wife said to me, “Let me get this straight. You want to take all the money that you are getting from your sale and give it to some guy that you listened to on a podcast who is from Las Vegas?” I have to admit, her argument was pretty solid. This is how I finally convinced my wife to enter into Emotion Focused Therapy together as a couple for an unofficial 12 week program or however long it takes as Sam promised. I asked my wife. “How much is our marriage worth?” The answer? 

IT’S PRICELESS.