Rob and Cris Johnson have been married more than 22 years and have two children, 19-year-old Veronica and Paul, who is 14. They attend St John the Baptist Parish in Corpus Christi.
The Johnson’s attended a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend in November 2006 in San Juan Bautista, California in order, “To get away alone with my husband for the weekend without the children,” Cris Johnson said. Her husband was seeking to improve their communication.
“I thought I knew my husband. I discovered that there was so much that I’d either forgotten or didn’t know,” Cris Johnson said. Her husband felt the same way and said he found “things out about Cris that I never knew despite being married for almost 20 years.”
These new insights helped both of them to strengthen their marriage.
“I fell in love with my husband all over again,” she said. Rob, meanwhile, “learned to listen more to Cris and pay attention to her feelings instead of making assumptions based on the past.”
They found a renewed appreciation for each other. She admires his “steadfastness, loyalty, commitment and love of family.” Rob Johnson appreciated his wife’s “level of commitment to everything she goes into.”
“Cris gives 110 percent to her career, our kids and me,” he said.
He advises other couples thinking of attending marriage encounter weekend to keep an open mind and be ready to learn things about their spouse they never knew.
“Just do it! It will change your relationship,” Cris Johnson said. “You will finish with a deeper level of commitment to your spouse and a better understanding of yourself. You will walk away a different person.”