Contact: Christina Loznicka, Focus on the Family, 719-531-3386, [email protected]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 11 /Christian Newswire/ -- While approximately 82,000 Illinois couples received marriage licenses in 2003, entering into what they believed was a lifetime commitment, nearly 35,000 couples filed petitions for divorce. Marriage is in trouble across the country today but for those couples that really want it, a happy, fulfilled and long-lasting marriage is possible—Love and Respect is the key.

Focus on the Family is partnering with author Dr. Emerson Eggerichs to bring the Love and Respect Conference to Christ Community Church, located at 37 W 100 Bolcum Road in St. Charles. The conference, which will be held Oct. 13-14, is co-presented by Focus on the Family and Love and Respect Ministries.

The Love and Respect Marriage Conference benefits all marriages—strong and healthy or struggling and on the brink of divorce—by presenting three basic principles to a happy and fulfilled marriage:

• The Crazy Cycle explains the simple reason why two good-willed people negatively react to each other.

• The Energizing Cycle explains how two people can positively motivate one another by doing one simple thing.

• The Rewarded Cycle explains what a person can do if personal expectations are unmet by a spouse.

Emerson Eggerichs has spent more than three decades counseling couples. He has sat on the boards of the National Center for Fathering and the Michigan Family Forum and has served on the committee for Michigan’s Year of the Child and Family with Michigan’s Lt. Governor. He began the Love and Respect Conferences in 1999. Among the 2.6 million people who listen to Focus on the Family’s daily radio program, the Love and Respect message was the most popular program of 2003.

Tickets are $70 per couple. For more information on the Love and Respect Marriage Conference at Christ Community Church, visit www.ccclife.org.

Learn more about Love and Respect Ministries by visiting www.family.org/loveandrespect.