281 of 294 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Be Daring, December 22, 2008
This review is from: The Love Dare (Paperback)
As most people might already know, this book is based upon the Christian movie "Fireproof", which is about a man who saves his marriage by completing a character-testing, 40-day list of "dares" suggested to him by his father. Like the movie, the book of course is Christian based as well.
I loved the movie and the book is more of the same. However I looked at both of them from the perspective of a person happily married for over 15 years. I can tell you that while I don't practice all the dares in the book, my spouse and I are good about doing many of them- and of course there's always room for improvement. From my personal experience, I feel like concentrating on the kinds of ideas presented in the book have been absolutely key to making our marriage last.
Now the book itself also consists of a 40-day list of dares. For each day, there's about a page and a half or so of advice, followed by a specific dare and some space for you to write down your personal reflections. Dares range from things such as practicing patience to writing out a renewal of your vows. The guys will probably particularly like Day 32!
As you can tell, I highly recommend going to see the movie and reading the book. In a society that places a high value on looks and money, while sporting a 50% divorce rate, its nice to see more movies and books coming out that get people more focused on the right values in life. Even if you don't do anything more than just glance through the book, you're going to be given something to think about. Other self-help books I enjoyed include
The Sixty-Second Motivator.
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95 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hope For Those Unequally Yoked, March 18, 2009
This review is from: The Love Dare (Paperback)
I became a Believer 5 years ago. Married for 6 years to a beautiful, amazing woman and blessed with 2 adorable children from this union, why do this 'challenge'? Why read this book?
I love my wife, and our marriage thrives. Sometimes I think if men would simply, truly love their wives, divorce would go out the window. In general, and forgive me for generalities, woman thrive at relationships and social activities if we give them a reason.
My dilemma: I became a Christian and my wife didn't. Still, our relationship works even with an essentially 'New Ager' married to a 'Jesus Freak'. I pray and witness to my family openly and try to do it with love and without a better than you, condemning, preachy attitude. But I'm flawed, and sometimes she'll roll her eyes or sigh, and either I or her get a bit defensive or worse, offensive. Whew!
The Kendricks' 40 day challenge offers daily encouragement essentially for Believers; although, anyone could benefit from a program that stresses kindness, attentiveness and re-discovery, but unless non-Christians are open and friendly towards the Faith, most will probably be put off by the Christian theme.
If you like a daily to-do format and the feeling of having a 40 day period of cleansing, starting over, renewal, I strongly recommend this for you. Most of the challenges are simply commonsense, but it's nice to hear it in short, digestable pieces and wonder what tomorrow's challenge will bring. And of course, it goes well with the movie.
I gave it 5 stars, not because it's a great, voluminous revelation, not that now I'm highly enlighted as my wife might say, and not just because I'm a Jesus freak, but because it calmed me down and help release my control; it urged me to look deeper, to want to give more freely without conditions, to try to love without too many expectations and to appreciate her for her. And as a man and a Christian, may I say: everything in the world is not about me!
"Yes, yes, I know all this." But, it sure helps to repeat it and be reminded of what's really important.
Finally, did it help my marriage? Yes! She didn't know what I was up to. And not to brag, because we struggle with life problems like anyone, and she's still a non-Believer(that's in God's hands) but our closeness and intimacy jumped to a fresh, new level. There's fireworks in more ways than I can say. Whatever you do, there's always hope, start anew.
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111 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Giving love another chance, November 18, 2008
This review is from: The Love Dare (Paperback)
After 15 years of marriage and three children, this simple little book helped me to remember that marriage is not just about meeting the right person, it's also about being the right person. A small time commitment over 40 days breathed now life back into our marriage. I highly recommend it to all married couples.
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