Worship singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth Chapman don’t present their marriage as a tidy success story.
In a recent TBN interview, Mary Beth recalled her son Caleb’s description of them: “My parents, they hobble, but they hobble well.”
The Chapmans appeared with Kirk Cameron on TBN’s Takeaways to discuss their new book, Still Here: Life Together on the Long Way Home. The TBN episode revisit the loss of their youngest daughter, Maria, and the grief that followed while pointing to prayer, counseling, forgiveness and the daily work of remaining together.
Chapman, a Christian music artist who was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2024, and Mary Beth have been married for more than 40 years. Their official book page describes the project as an honest look at joy, struggle, loss and the hope of redemption, rather than a formula for a perfect marriage.
In the video, the couple spoke candidly about the season after Maria’s death. Chapman said the family considered touring together, even though grief had left them deeply at odds, and a counselor challenged them to show up together and see what the Lord would do.
That decision did not erase the pain. It gave the family a way to move through it without pretending they had already arrived. The Chapmans also described counseling as a place where they learned how differently they were wired and how to repair conflict in front of their children.
Related: Coffee & Conversation with STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN
“We’re learning how to love each other. We’re learning how to do this,” Mary Beth said, explaining how the couple prayed with their children after they had failed one another. The moment is less polished than a marriage slogan — and much more useful for families who know that children learn from the repair as much as from the conflict.
Prayer, Mary Beth said, became especially important when the family did not know what to say. She described the Psalms as a guide to bringing anger, despair, confusion, doubt and fear directly to God rather than hiding those feelings behind religious language.
“We don’t know where to go. We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re looking to you,” Steven said. The words capture the couple’s posture toward prayer: not polished certainty, but a decision to keep turning toward God in confusion.
The couple’s testimony does not turn grief into a neat lesson. Mary Beth acknowledged that joy and sorrow have remained tangled together, and Chapman said their hope is anchored beyond this life. The official Show Hope account of the book likewise describes their story as one of grace, forgiveness and choosing each other again and again.
Near the end of the conversation, Mary Beth urged couples to take a hard look at “laying our life down for our spouse” and bearing with one another in love, while carefully acknowledging that some situations cannot be excused. She said she hopes people see that “it’s worth it in the end.”
Her husband agreed. “There’s something so worth this journey, this long way home,” he said, encouraging viewers to remain on the journey because it is worth it.
For the Chapmans, staying together is not proof that life stayed easy. It is evidence of what they believe God can do with imperfect people who keep returning to grace, repentance, prayer and one another.
Read Next: Steven Curtis Chapman After Daughter’s Death: ‘God Has Been Faithful Still’
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
