Healing from Experience: Meet the Authors Restoring the Original Intent of Love

After witnessing many struggling relationships, Jessie and Keandra Upson felt called by God to write their book, Organic Love, where they provide 12 strategies to a healthier relationship. The strategies presented in their book include how to communicate, how to grow closer to God, and how to not compare your relationship to others.

“We are very authentic and genuine people, so a lot of the struggles we’ve been through, it actually was not hard to talk about them,” Jessie said. “It actually was refreshing because we have been there, so we have compassion in those areas. God was telling us that we can help people in that area so don’t be ashamed of your past,” he said.

The tips presented in their book are not just for married couples. The Upsons provide strategies on how to deal with every type of relationship including at work, while also addressing relationship tactics presented in their book each from their own perspective.

Keandra believes that this book will help women understand their identity. “It will teach you how to function in every type of role you play in life. It will allow you the strategies and knowledge to function at the highest capacity because you will have the root foundation of what relationships are really about,” she said. Jessie believes that this book will help men seek God and make Him a priority. “I want them to build their relationship with Christ and make that relationship one of the most important relationships they can create or build on because once you make that important, every other relationship will come together a lot easier,” he said.

Jessie and Keandra both believe that the original intent of love starts with the word of God. “It’s just going back and having a mindset of what does God really say about love and how to function properly in love,” he said. He believes this will cause people to begin to ask themselves how God wants them to love their spouse, child or even friend. “The original intent of love is the word of God,” Keandra said. “So we want to take love off of the shelf of being an emotion and teach the people that love is a person, which is God. So there is not giving up or falling out of love because God is unchanging so if it changes then it is not love,” she said.

Jessie believes their book will be impactful because of how their book base’s practical strategies off of the word of God. “A lot of time people don’t feel like they can do what they are hearing,” he said. “So we wanted to break it down for that individual and provide strategies that are more practical.”

Reflecting over the process to write their book, the Upsons describe it as feeling surreal. “I come from a background of not liking to read or write,” Jessie said. “So I know for a fact that God is in the midst of what we are doing; that the Holy Spirit has helped us to be where we are. I feel like this book and the whole movement that we are doing, is really God pouring out of us the things He has put in us,” he said. “This is a baby that we have carried,” Keandra said. “We allowed what was in us to be nurtured. God trusted us enough to birth it out.”

Their Book Launch Celebration will take place on September 14th. Pre-orders for their book have already begun. This is Keandra’s message for people after they read their book: “I want them to take away the knowledge and wisdom that is within the book and pull on that wisdom in their time of need,” she said. “I really want this to stick with them and have them utilize it on a day to day basis within any type of relationship.”

Jessie and Keandra are certified life coaches and provide coaching services through their nonprofit, Organic Love Ministries. Follow Organic Love Ministries on Facebook and Instagram, and visit their website to learn more about their ministry. Watch the interview below to learn more about the Upsons!

Photo Credit: Shayla Kuykendall