Customer Reviews

The Marriage Project: 21 Days to More Love and Laughter

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Kathi Lipp, the inspired author of The Husband Project is back with her next 21-day, practicality oriented love-fest for married couples, and this time it's even better! Designed to be completed as a team, The Marriage Project provides suggestions for dates, cuddle times, words of affirmation, and positive bonding experiences that promise to strengthen and support both strong and faltering marriages.

With a perfect blend of real-life witticisms, honesty about the joys and difficulties of married life, and a touch of scriptural support, Lipp's latest is a fast, engaging, and eminently do-able guide to setting your marriage to `project status'. Complete with planning pages, daily project assignments, suggestions for tweaking, room for journaling, and testimonies from real-life couples who've completed each project, The Marriage Project is all you'll need to embark on three-weeks of high-quality marital bonding.

I love Lipp's writing - flirty without being tawdry, willing to laugh at her own quirks, and - when circumstances demand - in our faces about getting out of our lazy relationship habits, she's always a pleasure to read. I don't normally laugh a lot when I'm reading non-fiction, but Kathi Lipp is sure to get some giggles from me every time.

Better yet, her Marriage Project is simple and flexible enough to provide most any couple, regardless of their financial or physical locations to bless their marriage for 21 consecutive days. The projects can be dressed up or down according to budgets, and many can be completed for little or no cost.

Lipp is sure to provide suggestions that accommodate a range of budgets and none require vast amounts of planning. That's reassuring for an organizationally challenged woman like myself. Lipp also devotes page space to overcoming common obstacles, setting an accountability structure in place, and devoting a week to planning out the project with your mate - on paper, in advance.

Providing a good balance daily projects that appeal alternately to male and female interests, husbands can embrace the project without the fear of endless candle-lit dinners or chick-flicks. Women can likewise rest assured that giving foot massages, serving pretzels, and planning "bonus projects" (Lipp's catch phrase for projects focused on sexual intimacy) will be the course of the day for the entire 3-weeks. Spouses can instead look forward to all of these things in moderation as their hearts are drawn closer to one another.

We've all read marriage books, we all have a great deal of theories and principles about marriage in our heads, but Lipp helps readers get intentional, and put what they know to work. There isn't a lot of theorizing, explanations, or scriptural proof-texts in The Marriage Project but there is a wealth of ideas to put that existing knowledge into practice and to become intentional about improving our marriages.

Additional resources for leaders who want to take the project to the small group, or church-wide level are available for download at Projects for Your Soul.

The Marriage Project is a practical guide to help husbands and wives infuse more love and laughter into their relationship. Written in a unique, humorous, and quirky style that is Kathi Lipp's alone (she is fast becoming one of my favorite authors!) I found this book to be a wellspring of interesting ideas and gentle motivation to help me keep my marraige a top priority.

Lipp speaks of a time in the very beginning of her marriage where she and her husband Roger decide that the watchword for their marriage would be intentional. She writes, "We determined that if we wanted to make this marriage work, we had to be intentional in everything we did. We would be intentional about inviting God into our marriage each day. We would be intentional about our time spent together and the conversations we shared. We would be intentional about supporting each other and looking for the good in each other, instead of constantly recognizing what was driving us nuts."

Reading (and then doing) The Marriage Project would be a great way for any of us married folks to intentionally bless and nurture our marriages.

The Marriage Project is by far the most fun marriage book for both men and women. There is a good balance of loving gazes into each others eyes and sex. It is a great way to get to know your spouse better, have a fun filled experience, repair a strained relationship, or re-ignite those honeymooner feelings. The best part is the projects are easy and it's only for 21 days! I absolutely love it, especially the stories and testimonials Kathi includes throughout the book.

In her fun and helpful book The Marriage Project, Kathi Lipp suggests putting your marriage on "project status" for 21 days - that is, making it a priority for both spouses to do one thing every day to strengthen your marriage and put the fun back in it. For each day there is a manageable project, a little background on the reasoning behind that project, some testimonials from couples who tried it, a prayer suggestion, and a place to record your reaction/response to the project. Kathi suggests making a detailed plan in advance so you can put the projects on your calendar, which I think goes a long way toward actually getting them accomplished if you're busy and tired like most of us are.

I thought the projects seemed doable and worthwhile - like making a point to do something you enjoyed doing together before you got married, cooking together, writing down things you appreciate or admire about your mate, taking over a duty your spouse dislikes or is burnt out from, and so forth. Basically it's about making time for your spouse and putting more effort into your marriage. I think any marriage could benefit from a short project like this.

Kathi's writing style is funny and laid-back, so I think you'll find the book enjoyable and a fun read. The Marriage Project is not a theological treatise on marriage, or a theoretical book about the institution, rather it's a very practical set of things you can actually do starting today to make your marriage stronger, no matter what point you're starting from. I found the book very hopeful and helpful and I would recommend it to you even if you've been blessed with a solid marriage.

I enjoyed reading Kathi Lipp's book, The Marriage Project. By encouraging spouses to think of each other first and then act on those selfless thoughts in fun and creative ways, it cannot help but cause a marriage to become strong, fun, and enduring. This book is well-balanced so that both men and women will enjoy the projects. Kathi addresses all the facets of a marital relationship which cause it to become and stay healthy, and I believe couples will have fun as they work through the book. I can see the benefits of doing this with other couples, since the accountability and sharing of results will be encouraging to everyone involved.

You can check out more information about Kathi's books at her web site:

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The Marriage Project is easy to read and encouraging in a realistic, no-stress way. Without the foresight to plan dates and private moments, it just doesn't reach the top of our priority list due to such hectic schedules. My husband and I are looking forward to the quality attention we will be providing on another.

This book and each of its project sections is a quick read, presented in a friendly, casual voice. Kathi Lipp, both a writer and public speaker, offers real insight, comments from past participants, and personal anecdotes that make the tasks-at-hand easier to wrap around.

This book would be perfect for a husband and wife looking for redirection, or a little lift in their marriage, and it's ideal for church or women's groups. Or, gift The Marriage Project to newlyweds.

Definitely a worthy "project."

While my marriage doesn't really need any help, I was pretty excited to read this book to see what fun activities it would suggest. The basic premise of it is every day for 21 days you and your spouse do the project for the day. Easy, right?

Let's talk aesthetics first. I am, sadly, one who judges a book by its cover. I like a book that looks pretty, something that sticks out on the shelf, and when you open the pages it looks easy to read. This book had all of that, thank goodness. And I was pleased that it wasn't super long!

Now, the content. The first third of the book is in preparation for the marriage project. It outlines what to expect, why you're doing this, and everything in between. While I found this part a little too long, it was also helpful. Throughout the whole book she injects personal stories of either her marriage or others and ties them into the whole Project.

The rest of the book deals with the Projects. There are 21 projects, 3 major projects and 3 bonus projects. Basically each day there is a project to do and every week there's a major project, which is a date with your spouse. The projects are so easy to do I couldn't believe it. For example, Project #6: Get Active Together, turn off the TV and connect through exercise; Project #11: RESPECT, write down the reasons you respect your husband; and Project #19: Text or Email Sweet Nothings. These are all things we can do every day with our spouses but we can never "find the time" to do them.

I only have one complaint, and this is just me... it is a Christian-centered book so the entire thing is filled with Bible passages and prayers and talk about God. This does not mean that if you're not Christian (just like me), you can't read it. You definitely can! I knew when I was getting the book that it was being published under Christian non-fiction so I wasn't surprised. Anyway, I guess it isn't much of a complaint, just something I wanted to get out there!

In the end, this book was really well written and I was excited as I was reading through it. I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks to jump right into the Marriage Project and see how it works for us. I recommend it!

I absolutely loved this book! It's an easy and fast read, is well formatted, and is chock full of great information. I haven't formally done all of the projects yet, but it already has had such a wonderful impact on my marriage. Kudos to Kathi!

[as seen on Bookish Mom Reviews blogsite]

When a couple first gets together everything is exciting and new. Both partners are simply head over heels about one another, and there's never a dull moment. Kisses, whispered sweet nothings, breakfast in bed, lazy walks to no where in particular, conversations about anything and everything that can go on and on for hours. These are just a small sampling of the things relationships are made up of in the beginning. And then time to starts slip by. We grow together but we also grow apart. There can be many reasons for such changes- as we grow older our interests change, our physical appearances change (for better or worse), our family grows to include children, and time in general becomes thinned out by all the new responsibilities we've taken on as a couple and as individuals.

Written with an easy application process in mind, this is a book that any couple at any stage of life can follow. For each of the 21 days readers will find a new project to complete. It may be something as simple as writing a loving note to their partner, or it may be more indepth such as requiring the couple to plan a special date night. Again, nothing is too extravagant, and the entire purpose of the book is to help bring couples closer together.

It's a great book, and a wonderful marriage resource. I myself can't wait to get started!