Walk With Me

Peter and Celeste choose to travel as one on the lifelong journey to the King's City. They are blissfully in love and bound to each other by the Cords of Commitment. Shortly after visiting the Moon of Honey they discover that the journey proves much more difficult than they expected. 

When they find themselves laboring through the Swamp of Selfishness, crossing the dismal Plains of Distance, and nearly becoming separated by the River of Unfaithfulness, their love for each other and for the King is challenged. They must choose whether to continue on together, not knowing if they can be warmed again by the Kindling of Affection, or visit the Valley of Cut Cords to journey alone once more.

Inspired by the timeless classic
Pilgrim's Progress
, Annie Wald's
Walk with Me
exposes the journey of marriage as the epic passage that it is and the refining process it can become. 

John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" became a timeless classic. Annie Wald's, "Walk with me..." deserves a spot on the same shelf. That's powerful praise for a debut book author, even though she has many anthologies and short stories to her credit. This amazing book of insightful wisdom belongs on every pastor's, counselor's married or engaged couple's bookshelf.

--Gail Welborn, Examiner.com, August 31, 2012.

Annie Wald reminds us that a wedding is more of a journey than an event; and that 
marriage is more of a story than a to-do list.
  There is no map, but 'Walk with me' is a creative guide."

-
John Ortberg
, senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and author of
Who Is This Man?

Annie has given couples a glimpse of hope with an amazing story through
Walk with Me
! Using
Pilgrims Progress
as a foundation for her story was the perfect plan.
Every couple should read this book
to get a different perspective of what it takes to succeed in marriage through the power of the Holy Spirit!

-
Dr. Gary Smalley
, author of the DNA of Relationships

In marriage, "two become one flesh" and travel together on a journey full of great troubles and joys.
Wald's allegory provides Pilgrim's-Progress realism
about how daunting the troubles and ultimately joyous the journey when two lovers set out in faith for the King's city.

-
Harold Myra
, author and former CEO of Christianity Today International.

Annie Wald has written a classic.
It's a classic not just because Annie is a skilled writer, but because she will touch the depth of your soul. She really gets love. Not everyone does. Annie does this by combining two genres-a marriage book and an allegorical pilgrimage-that no one has combined before. It works beautifully because marriage is a pilgrimage; in fact, all long-term love is a pilgrimage. The allegory form allows Annie to say hard things about love easily and lightly, allowing her to get in close to your heart and do surgery before you know it is happening. It is an excellent book. I teared up several times in the last twenty pages.

-
Paul Miller
, author of
A Praying Life
and
Love Walked Among Us
.  

Walk with Me
lights up married life in fresh ways, on virtually every page. Its insights are simultaneously fascinating, instructive, encouraging, sobering and transforming. And all of this comes in the form of a
story
that
reads like a good mystery novel; you can't put it down
!  Above all, Annie Wald shapes her compelling allegory around the singular passion that assures fulfillment for any couple: the King's Highlands, the King's City - the King, Jesus. Ultimately,
Walk with Me
is about for Whom and to Whom we're walking together. That's why it overflows with great hope for anyone seeking God's best for their marriage.

-
David Bryant
, founder, Proclaim Hope!; author,
Christ is ALL!

Walk with Me
is the kind of story that
hits to the heart of every couple's journey
toward healing and restoration! We will make this a must read for every couple before they come to our Smalley Intensive program!

-
Michael and Amy Smalley
, founders of SmalleyCenter.com

Broken marriages mean broken families which mean broken societies. Is there any hope? Annie Wald's book, 'Walk with Me', illustrates in a meaningful way that there is hope by helping us understand that marriage is not a onetime event, but a pilgrimage. Using the allegory of 'Pilgrim's Progress' is a unique way of instructing all of us, newlyweds and older couples, that the pilgrimage of marriage really only has meaning when God's love in Christ is made the central object of our walk together.
This book will help not only newlyweds, but all who truly strive to make their marriage a pilgrimage of joy and peace, as we walk together
!

-
Denton Lotz
, General Secretary emeritus, Baptist World Alliance,
and Janice Lotz,
hospital chaplain 

©2012 by
A
NNIE
W
ALD

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the
Holy Bible: New International Version®
,
NIV®.
Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the
Holy Bible, New Living Translation
, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189, U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked
THE MESSAGE
are from
The Message
, copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Edited by Andy Scheer
Interior design: Ragont Design
Cover and illustration design: Maralynn Jacoby
Author photo: Jack Wald

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wald, Annie.
 Walk with me : pilgrim’s progress for married couples / Annie Wald.
   p. cm.
 ISBN 978-0-8024-0593-7
 1. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. 2. Married people—Fiction. I. Title.
 PS3623.A35665W35 2012
 813’.6—dc23

2012020939

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Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to Jack
who walks the pilgrim way with me
and to Elizabeth & Matt, Caitlin & John:
Happy trails …

“How blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys,
come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools,
brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain
and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!”

—P
SALM
84:5–7 T
HE
M
ESSAGE