A Brand New Marriage: Staying Married Through the Storms of Life

By Brian Walden and Gina Walden

Brian and Gina Walden's A Brand New Marriage is an open, honest, and intimate look into their own life and the struggles they have endured. Through their story, Brian and Gina share hope, healing, and restoration for every marriage.

As children we all have dreams and hopes about our future. Who will I marry, how many children will I have, and what kind of house will I live in? As a young girl Gina asked herself these questions and dreamt of a life of music and a lifetime of love. Her dreams came true as a Senior in high school, when she met a young man named Brian. They quickly fell in love and made a vow to spend the rest of their lives together.

In their 20+ years of marriage they have experienced pain, loss, heartbreak, joy and victory. Now as marriage and family counselors, the Walden’s have opened up their hearts and lives by helping others believe for their own brand new marriage.

This book ends with a 30-day challenge that will help you open pathways of communication in your marriage and rebuild what is broken. Accompanying this book is a compilation of beautiful love songs by Gina Walden. Each 30-day challenge and every song have been designed to help you and your spouse rebuild oneness in your marriage. 

 The Walden’s have been featured on the 700 club, TBN, and have ministered in churches across America. Both Brian and Gina Walden are available for church services and special events. For booking information go to www.abrandnewday.org or email them at [e-mail]

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossLink Publishing
• Release date: Dec 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386929512

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A Brand-New Marriage

A Brand-New Marriage

Brian and Gina Walden

A Brand-New Marriage

New Harbor Press

www.newharborpress.com

Copyright, © 2017 Brian and Gina Walden

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in reviews, without the written permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law.

All scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Dedication

This book is written for, and dedicated to, you and your marriage. There are so many things pulling against the fabric of marriage and family that if you don’t purposefully work to stay married, your marriage will be pulled apart.

If you look at the statistics, over 40 percent of first-time marriages, and nearly 60 percent of second, will end in divorce. And children who grow up in broken homes have an even greater chance of being divorced themselves.

God has a better plan. His plan is for marriage, for family, and for oneness. He designed you to love and cherish each other, and stay committed to each other, for life. There are great blessings that come from a happy and healthy marriage but no greater pain than a marriage and family torn apart. Our nation, our families, and our generations depend on us not only staying married, but living a life committed to God’s way of marriage.

Background and Thanks

Brian and Gina Walden have been married for twenty-two years, have two teenage boys, and are authors of A Brand New Day, which is a story about Faith, Music and Victory over Autism.

Together they started Walden Family Ministries and A Brand-New Day Foundation. Today they have shared their message of hope and healing around the nation, helping families all around the world who’ve been affected by autism.

This book has been written to meet another need in families today, the need for health, communication, and reconciliation in marriage.

We hope and pray that their story of reconciliation in their marriage will help bring restoration and healing to yours.

A Brand-New Marriage

Gina Walden

As a young girl, I sat on my bedroom floor playing make-believe with my dolls. I dreamed of a tall, dark and handsome prince that I would one day fall in love with. We would get married, move into a two-story house, have two beautiful, healthy, perfectly behaved children, and live happily ever after.

These were easy stories to dream up because my parents had this kind of fairy tale love story. They were both children when they met at a youth summer camp and became best friends. A few years later they started dating, and at twenty years old, walked down the aisle to start their life together.

Throughout my childhood I never once heard them fight or say an unkind word to each other. My dad treated my mom like a princess, and my mom respected and honored my dad with all her heart. As far as I knew my parents had a perfect marriage, and that is what I wanted for my life too.

I had big dreams for my future: first, I wanted to be a singer and share God’s love through music; second, I wanted God to handpick the perfect man for my life, someone who loved God like I did, and shared the same dreams of life and ministry. I knew God was going to bless me with the right man because I felt his hand on my life from an early age.

I started singing at my grandfather’s church when I was six years old. Almost every Sunday I was his special musical guest. Within a few years I was singing at different churches in the area and, at the age of ten, my dreams to perform my own music became a reality.

I was invited to sing a special song at a church in our area. After my song, I stepped off the stage and was approached by an older, well-dressed lady. She knelt down, looked me in the eyes, and told me that God had spoken to her. She proceeded to tell me that one day my music would be heard all over the world. With the biggest smile she said, I want to plant the first seed into your ministry, as she pulled a $100 bill from her purse and handed it to me. She told my dad that her nephew produces Christian music and she was going to have him contact us so I could record my first music album.

One week later I was in the studio with her nephew, Brent Jeffers. At the time, he was producing music for many Christian bands as well as touring as Natalie Cole’s music director. Although he was busy he made time for me, and within two months he had written and produced my first project.

Over the next few years we recorded three albums together. Our last was recorded as I was turning seventeen. It had always been our desire to record an album that would catch the attention of our local radio stations. We had been told that it is almost impossible to get radio play without the backing of a major record label, but we believed we could do it.

On our last day of mix down, we listened to the entire project and picked a single to present to the radio stations. It was a Christian love song that I had dedicated to my future husband. It was about waiting for the right one and waiting for God to write your love story. Before we left the studio that day, Brent prayed over my CD and asked God for direction and favor. When he opened his eyes, he said, We’re going to the radio station right now. Let’s be bold and go ask them to listen to it.

Without hesitation, we jumped into our car to chase the dream in our heart. My heart was racing as we walked up to the door of the local Christian radio station. There on the door was a sign that said, Recording in Process. Do Not Enter. As we were turning around to leave, the door opened and an older gentleman asked if he could help us. Brent introduced himself and told him that he would like to introduce him to an amazing young singer.

After a short discussion, we were invited in and taken on a tour of their studio. He invited us into his office and said, Let’s hear what you’ve got. We were excited and a little shocked that he wanted to listen to our project right then. A few songs later he said, You remind me of a young Crystal Lewis and I love the lyrics. I’ll see what we can do to get some of this on the radio.

Driving home, we tuned into the radio station. I imagined what it would be like to hear my music on the air. About an hour later, as we were getting close to home, the radio host announced that they had some brand-new music from a young up and coming artist they would like to share with the listening audience. This song is fresh from the recording studio. Just a few hours ago, I met this young new talent and I’m excited to introduce her to you. Keep an eye and ear out for This young, up and coming new artist who goes by the name, Gina.

We couldn’t contain our excitement as I heard my song on the radio for the first time. For the next few years it received a lot of positive attention and was played by stations all over the country.

I was beyond excited for my future and was focused on making Christian music my career and ministry. My parents were behind me 100 percent and were very protective of the call on my life. At the time, I felt they were too protective as I was only allowed a small circle of friends that my parents knew and trusted.

I was determined to be a role model for my generation and stay away from anything that would take me away from God’s plan for my life. My dad told me that every decision I made was creating a path for my future and reminded me how important it was to seek God before making any decision.

Many of my friends fell into drugs, drinking and premarital sex. God gave me strength to do the opposite. I was blessed to speak at many schools in the area and encourage kids to say no to drugs and peer pressure. As a senior in high school I became a mentor and sang at many true-love-waits conventions.

I continued to dream of music and and one day meet the love of my life. I often would share my hopes and dreams with my mom who was excited about my future, but she too would always remind me to move slow and seek God for every new step.

One day my mom and I were shopping at the local Christian bookstore. While standing in line at the register, my mom started acting funny. With this silly grin on her face, she nudged me to look across the room. I glanced in the direction and saw a tall, dark, and handsome young man reading a book. I said Mom, please stop pointing at random strangers! What’s wrong with you? You’re kind of freaking me out. After paying I quickly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the store.

Gina, she said, there is something special about that guy. You need to go back in there and meet him.

I don’t want to meet him. And why are you trying to hook me up with someone? That’s weird, and not like you, I said. She got in the car as I requested, but seemed disappointed the whole way home.

Two weeks later I was invited to an album release party at the very same store. Some friends of ours were releasing their first album to the Christian market. We were just getting ready to leave when my mom grabbed my arm and said, Gina, there he is! I looked up to see the same guy that my mom had pointed out a couple weeks earlier.

She said, Please go meet him, Gina. Something in my heart says that it is important for you to meet him. I thought my mom was going crazy because she taught me that girls do not pursue boys. She said boys should always make the first move, but all of this seemed to be thrown out the window for this handsome stranger.

I refused. I had never walked up to a guy before, and who knew if he would like me or not, so I told my mom that he probably had a girlfriend anyway. So my mom double dared me to go introduce myself and ask him his name. Fine, I said as I pushed my shoulders back and confidently walked across the room. I think I startled him when I tapped him on the shoulder and said Hi, I’m Gina, what’s your name?

He looked at me with a shy smile and said, Hey, my name is Brian.

We stood there for a moment in awkward silence. Look at his beautiful eyes, I thought to myself. I was trying to think of what I might say next when I noticed my mom peeking around a bookcase spying on me. I wanted to run back over and hide with her, but I stood tall and proceeded to talk to him.

Are you enjoying the concert? I asked. He responded by saying that he loved it and really enjoyed Christian music. I told him I love music, too, and I also sang. All the while I thought to myself, This guy’s hot! He’s obviously a Christian, and Mom seems to approve. Maybe she’s on to something.

I reached in my bag, handed him a card