Preparing for Marriage: A Complete Guide to Help You Discover God's Plan for a Lifetime of Love

Rating:
Summary: I've read this book, other books by the authors also
Review: I am familiar with Family Life. They are on a par with Dr. James Dobson's outfit, Focus On The Family. They are a part of the umbrella organization Campus Crusade For Christ. Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine have a daily radio show called Family Life Today. I've read this book and I have other books by Dennis Rainey and Barbara Rainey about marriage and teenagers.
A lot of this information is also in their conferences and Family Life really tries super hard to connect not only with your mind by providing you some insight into marriage troubles and how to overcome them...but Family Life goes beyond this and motivates and urges action. This book is a book to use as a workbook to put you through the action part of working out the ultimate question... "is this The Person."
I read this book AFTER i was married and was seeking answers to questions. This book has an accompanying Leaders Guide that is intended to be used by a mentor right alongside the real book used by the couple. I have the leaders guide and if the book is used with the leaders guide with an older wiser mature couple guiding the younger couple this book can be a wealth of valuable information. I recommend the book from a conservative southern baptist perspective and I know absolutely that even liberal christians will get a lot out of this book.

Rating:
Summary: I've read this book, other books by the authors also
Review: I am familiar with Family Life. They are on a par with Dr. James Dobson's outfit, Focus On The Family. They are a part of the umbrella organization Campus Crusade For Christ. Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine have a daily radio show called Family Life Today. I've read this book and I have other books by Dennis Rainey and Barbara Rainey about marriage and teenagers.
A lot of this information is also in their conferences and Family Life really tries super hard to connect not only with your mind by providing you some insight into marriage troubles and how to overcome them...but Family Life goes beyond this and motivates and urges action. This book is a book to use as a workbook to put you through the action part of working out the ultimate question... "is this The Person."
I read this book AFTER i was married and was seeking answers to questions. This book has an accompanying Leaders Guide that is intended to be used by a mentor right alongside the real book used by the couple. I have the leaders guide and if the book is used with the leaders guide with an older wiser mature couple guiding the younger couple this book can be a wealth of valuable information. I recommend the book from a conservative southern baptist perspective and I know absolutely that even liberal christians will get a lot out of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial
Review: My husband and I were given this book by our pastor to use in our premarital counseling. We found it to be utterly superficial and disappointing. The examples the book gives are very trite and not very enlightening. A lot of the chapters brought up issues that we had already discussed many times (and we hadn't be dating for more than a year and a half). The only purpose of them for us was to tell the pastor what we had already talked about. In fact, we thought that if couples had not already talked about most of the things in the book, they must have some serious communication problems. The book takes a very traditional view on the woman's place in the marriage. It isn't super-conservative, but it was a bit conservative for us and we don't consider ourselves liberal. Also the authors used Bible passages out of context. While the verses made good points where they were in the book, its not what they mean in the Biblical context. I know it is very hard to find good books on this subject. Most of them stay in the realm of superficiality and cheeze, and this is another one of those books.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial
Review: My husband and I were given this book by our pastor to use in our premarital counseling. We found it to be utterly superficial and disappointing. The examples the book gives are very trite and not very enlightening. A lot of the chapters brought up issues that we had already discussed many times (and we hadn't be dating for more than a year and a half). The only purpose of them for us was to tell the pastor what we had already talked about. In fact, we thought that if couples had not already talked about most of the things in the book, they must have some serious communication problems. The book takes a very traditional view on the woman's place in the marriage. It isn't super-conservative, but it was a bit conservative for us and we don't consider ourselves liberal. Also the authors used Bible passages out of context. While the verses made good points where they were in the book, its not what they mean in the Biblical context. I know it is very hard to find good books on this subject. Most of them stay in the realm of superficiality and cheeze, and this is another one of those books.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended Preparation for engaged or pre-engaged
Review: My wife and I went through this book before we were married and found it to be so helpful. This is a hands-on tool that will help you to explore your relationship and find God's plan for marriage. It also fleshes out the topics that are ESSENTIAL in any premarital counseling. My wife and I have a stronger relationship as a result of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended Preparation for engaged or pre-engaged
Review: My wife and I went through this book before we were married and found it to be so helpful. This is a hands-on tool that will help you to explore your relationship and find God's plan for marriage. It also fleshes out the topics that are ESSENTIAL in any premarital counseling. My wife and I have a stronger relationship as a result of this book.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT for pre-marital counseling
Review: Our pastor recommended this book be used for our pre-marital counseling. My husband and I each had our own book and would go throught the chapters seperately. This helped when we got together with our pastor every week, because our answers were honest. I felt this book helped us think about the expectations we each had for different aspects of marriage. Ex: who does the housework? how much do you spend a month on food? what type of debt do you bring into the marriage? how often do you expect to have sex? It also encouraged us to discuss issues from our pasts that we didn't believe to be relevant, but would have affected our marriage down the road. We really enjoyed this book, but as with any pre-marital counseling book the key is an AWESOME pastor.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT for pre-marital counseling
Review: Our pastor recommended this book be used for our pre-marital counseling. My husband and I each had our own book and would go throught the chapters seperately. This helped when we got together with our pastor every week, because our answers were honest. I felt this book helped us think about the expectations we each had for different aspects of marriage. Ex: who does the housework? how much do you spend a month on food? what type of debt do you bring into the marriage? how often do you expect to have sex? It also encouraged us to discuss issues from our pasts that we didn't believe to be relevant, but would have affected our marriage down the road. We really enjoyed this book, but as with any pre-marital counseling book the key is an AWESOME pastor.

Rating:
Summary: A true blue-print
Review: Wow! My husband and I used this book in our premarital counseling class and we learned more about what a true Godly marriage is all about. From your roles and responsibilities, to handling your finances, to unrealistic expectations, even to dealing with each others pasts. I don't know what we would have done if it wasn't for this book, it helped so much in determining our strengths and our growth areas. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is engaged or contemplating marriage! We still go through parts of it even though we're now married!