Making Love Last Forever (Paperback)

by Dr. Gary Smalley (Author) "The first step toward achieving the deep satisfaction of a lifelong love with your spouse is learning to love life itself-every part of it, good..." (more)
Key Phrases: making love last forever, five vital signs, love that lasts forever, Forever-Love Principles Our, Howard Markman, Scott Stanley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In an age when the idyllic notion of everlasting love has been battered against the rocks of infidelity and divorce, ever-popular Christian counselor and writer Smalley (The Language of Love) offers his own tried and true methods for making love last forever. According to Smalley, the foundation of lasting love is falling in love with life itself. In the first section of the book, he explores principles for resolving anger, balancing expectations and reality and avoiding hurt. Using anecdotes from his counseling sessions and stories from his own marriage, Smalley fashions, in the second section of the book, a set of "forever-love" principles designed to help married couples improve their relationships. Some of the principles Smalley includes as essential ingredients for lasting love are better communication, understanding a spouse's personality type and using conflict to foster intimacy. Each chapter closes with a set of "forever-love" principles drawn from the topic of the chapter. In the end, however, Smalley's principles are not helpful because they are founded upon, and promote, conventional stereotypes of men as rational and aggressive and women as intuitive and passive. Unfortunately, only couples who accept these stereotypical gender roles are likely to benefit from his principles.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
After only a few chapters, it is obvious why Christian marriage counselor Smalley has sold more than 12 million copies of his videos and previous books. His presentation is highly organized, so that he can summarize each chapter in so many numbered points. He speaks plainly and inculcates his lessons with anecdotes from his clinical practice and his own life that workaday Americans, especially if they are in business and the professions, find easy to identify with and which Smalley weaves cunningly together so that some stories are told all at once, while others are parceled out to create narrative suspense and make the book compelling. Details and metaphors are the stuff of the popular culture: country singers, TV shows, and computer and VCR analogies. The authorities Smalley cites come from the best-seller lists: M. Scott Peck, Stephen R. Covey, John Gray, and Deborah Tannen, among others; not until well into the book are the Bible and Evangelical Christian resources invoked. It helps that the bedrock advice here--to assume personal responsibility for one's life and to love life itself as prerequisites to realizing a happy, permanent marriage--is just that, bedrock, for the modern counseling establishment. Smalley does what he does awfully well, making this the book for staunch Christian couples and an approachable one for enough others to justify Word's confident quarter-million-copy first printing and a 30-city author tour. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; Workbook edition (September 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849940869
• ISBN-13: 978-0849940866
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,162 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #35 in

  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Smalley, Gary

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading, December 31, 1999

By A Customer

This was one of the best books I have ever read. Perioid. Mr. Smalley's book really helped my fiance and I open up to each other and become much closer in our relationship to each other. It should be required reading during pre-marital counciling.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helping families work things out, March 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Love Last Forever (Hardcover)

My aunt gave me this book to read because my father and I are having a terrible time right now. I am engaged and he doesn't approve of my fiance. My aunt thought this book would help me get through the anger I am experiencing with my father. It is great for couples, but also great for parents and children! I highly recommend this book to anyone regardless if you are married or single!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent insight for lasting romance and love in your life, July 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Love Last Forever (Audio Cassette)

I have read several Gary Smalley books as well as many other marriage books. This is one of my all time favorites because of the easy reading, interesting personal stories and chapter synopsis. Smalley's book should be a prerequisite for all couples. Get it and enjoy!