Customer Reviews

Preparing for Marriage God's Way

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is an excellent resource for several reasons. I'll list just a few that were helpful for us: 1) It discusses numerous common areas of unmet expectations. 2) It helps you compare your interests on a wide variety of things that you wouldn't normally think about. 3) It helps you compare your priorities and commitment level on things like work, hobbies, family life, raising children, how you spend your time, spiritual beliefs and convictions, etc. 4) It has advice on how to handle practical things like in-laws, sexual differences, finances, etc.

The book is from a Christian perspective, and as such there are TONS of Bible verses listed on each subject. You could look them all up or just a few to answer the questions. Even though my wife and I were pretty ready for marriage, this book asked some tough questions that helped us realize there was lots more to learn.

Practically speaking, you will need a few things for this book: a good chunk of time - like 2-3 hours per chapter, but it will be well worth it, and you and your potential spouse will both need a copy of the book to write in. This book will perhaps save you years of pain by going through it and discussing it together. It may even reveal that you really shouldn't get married. That's hard but it will save you from a lifetime of painful memories.

I also recommend the book to married couples. It's a good way to start fresh from a biblical foundation.

This book will help couples focus on the important things that make a marriage work long-term. It is best used with someone helping them discuss the various aspects of marriage. My wife and I do pre-marital counseling and have found to to be a great help to our couples.

An excellent marriage text for the committed evangelical Christian couple. It has extensive lists of scripture and will take motivation and committment to finish. Its perspective is apparent from the connection with Dr. John MacArthur's church and is solid Biblical information.

As a biblical counselor, I use this workbook with Christian couples who are comtemplating marriage to ensure that they understand the scope and gravity of the covenant and commitment they are about to make to each other before God. It is chock full of excellent tools and exercises targeted at helping the counselees understand themselves, their motives, their failings, and of course, their prospective spouse. It deals with a wide range of issues, such as individual spiritual development, relationships with parents/in-laws, dealing with the past biblically, marital roles (including hot-button issues like authority and submission), finances, sex, communication, and much more.

Generally I would say that, if used systematically, these exercises and tools will be of great benefit in dispelling unbiblical notions about marriage, and in equipping counselees to deal with the challenges of living up to scriptural norms for marriage. My only criticism is that, in certain portions of the book, particularly the earlier chapters, the author tends toward overkill. Some of the tools are a bit redundant, and could just as easily be omitted without detriment to the user. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book for those contemplating Christian marriage, or those who counsel them.

This is more of a formal study rather than a practical "how-to" book. It basically has two people go through the study together and compare answers allowing the couple to see where they might thinking differently on topics that might not be covered before marriage. A very through overview of many of the issues facing a couple pursuing marriage as well as keeping it focused on God's perspective biblically.

This book is an excellent tool for examining the many details of marriage. If you think you have already talked about "everything" believe me, you have not. This book goes step by step through so many important things of marriage. It also is great at using scriptures to give you answers to many questions. The only thing that is difficult, is that you really need two books, one for the bride-to-be and one for the groom-to-be. Each person needs to answer the questions separately. You can also get by with copying just the questions, so one person can write his or her answers down on a separate sheet of paper and then the couple can come together and compare them. I would recommend that you use this book along with a pre-marital counselor rather than instead of one. We meet with our pastor as well and he does use some examples from this book to help us better see certain things. My wife-to-be and I are about half way through it now and believe that it has been and will be a great benefit to us. Lastly, this book also has a follow up for after the wedding. This is a chance for the couple to evaluate how each person is doing in fulfilling their roles of Husband and Wife and whether they are setting a Godly example to each other. So, pay close attention and remember what you said you were going to do.

This book seems good to those providing counseling, but is a book that the couple being counseled will not enjoy. Many of the exercises are repetitive and lengthily; some don't even make sense. Don't get this book unless your counselor tells you to, it would be hard for a couple to motivate themselves to finish this book on their own.

This is a great book. If you follow this book and have a couple leading you through it. It would be really hard to not see if you are ready for marriage and if you future intended is the one for God has for you.

Okay...I know what you're thinking. You think that you don't need any workbook or another workbook to prepare for marriage. Quite honestly I felt the same way. But after having gone the first 4 sessions of this workbook, it has been an incredible blessing. It really fosters healthy communication among you, your betrothed and the premarital minister that you would not otherwise bring to the table. It helps you to be honest for integrity's sake and allows you to understand your intended's thoughts.

I highly recommend this workbook for ANYONE (Christian or no).

My fiance' and I learned so much from this book. It is definitely a great resource for couples preparing for marriage. It has allowed us to have good discussions about topics we never would have known was important to talk about! We loved it so much we plan to bless other couples with it as they get engaged.