Love is Worth the Work: A Workbook of Love Designed for Marriages and Individuals

By Edward Cooper and Angel Cooper

"Love is Worth the Work" is a 30-day love challenge designed to demonstrate love and care for your spouse and self. Readers will be empowered and inspired to create an effective change within their relationships. By completing the questions, challenges, and reflections, we hope that you will gain more insight and be strengthen during y

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ed and Angel The Cooper Chronicles
• Release date: Sep 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781087852492

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Hello, I’m Ed Cooper

During my senior year in high school, I was going down Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island, when I saw this young lady at the bus-stop with a friend of mine. Later that day, I saw my friend again and asked her, who that girl was. She told me her name and that she would introduce us at a later time.

Later that night, I saw that young girl once again. I introduced myself and asked for her name. She said her name was Angel.

At that point in time, I was looking for love and I just could not find the right girl. I would go out with my friends every weekend, hoping to meet someone special. We would meet a lot of people, but this one (Angel) seemed to really catch my eye.

After a month of talking with Angel, I felt a sense of peace in my life, which I knew was a different feeling. Now, she did not like me right away, but I was persistent in my pursuit of her. I think that is why they made anti-stalking laws, simply because of my actions. I was so determined to have her as my girlfriend.

I remember one of my best friends stated that he liked her. Feeling that I may lose my chance with Angel, I threatened him that I was going to kick his butt. Needless to say, he decided not to speak to her anymore. Three and a half years later, we tied the knot.

Hi, I’m Angel Cooper

I remember that story a little differently. Yes, it is true that I was impressed that Ed was willing to fight his best friend for me. I thought it was hilarious that he and his entire crew was at Club Rio the same night my sisters and cousins decided to sneak out.

When he finally asked me to dance with him (I said yes, of course), I was excited because this church girl had never been asked to dance before. To tell you the truth, we were supposed to be at the movies that Saturday night, but I told my dad, who was a pastor, a little fib.

Back to the story, I absolutely was going to enjoy my dance with the popular and famous track star, Ed Cooper, from Central High School. I was never the type of girl who sought attention, but I was very intrigued and excited when Ed asked me. After the dance, we talked briefly before a fight broke out in the club and we had to leave.

The next day, Ed showed up to my parent’s home with his fellas just to finish our conversation. He brought along a keyboard to show how cool they were. I waited to inform them that my dad was a pastor as they were all singing Al B-Sure's hit song, Do You Wanna Rescue Me. When they finished singing, I informed them that I was also part of a singing gospel group. I believe my family and I took them by surprise because they did not know that we could sing just as well. Then we began a friendship. Soon after our third month of dating, we knew we had something in common. Three and a half years later, we began a life of marital bliss.

WE ARE THE COOPERS!

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After 26 years of marriage with three children, we have had plenty of ups and downs with enough excitement and disappointments to fill 26 football fields. We have had our share of joy, tears, quitting, and praying through it all. Still, we shake our heads in disbelief on how we made it through all these years. We realized it was nobody but Jesus, Who kept us together.

This book is designed to challenge you to become productive in demonstrating love and care for your spouse, family, community, as well as yourself. The purpose of this book is to share our stories and tips to help singles and couples looking to find a healthy love or relationship.

Marriage starts way before you tie the knot. Preparation is the key. Too many times, we have read about relationships and marriages dissolving because of everyday life problems that seem to wear us down. If issues in your relationship are left unattended, it may lead to unresolved pain thus separation, and even divorce.

When you work hard, your goal is to be successful. We work many hours on our jobs to receive better pay. We fine-tune our cars every few months to make sure they run better. But, oftentimes, people seem to forget about the hard work that needs to go into a relationship to keep the love going. It involves sacrificing your time and energy as well as consistently reorganizing your ways to make the situations better. This is our way of helping you to realize that yes, your relationship matters and It’s Worth the Work.

DAY 1: UNDERSTANDING THE POWER TO LOVE

What is love?

Think about all the characteristics of love. The Bible states that love endures with patience and serenity. Love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious. Love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked, and it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.

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Many people fail to see the power of love. We should all use it daily. Sometimes we forget that it even exists and wind up getting lost within the hustle