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★★★★★ 4
A fundamental message for preparing the heart, mind and body
Format: Hardcover
"Preparing your heart for marriage: Devotions for Engaged couples" is a great devotional that should be used by certain couples who follow a certain type of Christian spirituality to help prepare for married life.
As the author Gary Thomas stresses, marriage is an entirely different ballgame from dating. No matter how long (or how short) you've been dating your beloved, living with them and learning how their personality works in daily marriage life is the key. These are 30 pre-marriage devotionals that do not require a Biblical reading with them, and have questions for reflections at the end. First, the pluses of this book. The black and white pictures and the layout of the book is just gorgeous. This is a perfect gift for a couple who has just been engaged. The preparation for marriage is realistic. This book deals with myths regarding a perfect marriage are, what communication is and how to continue to learn to love the other person even when times are tough (it's called taking your marital vows seriously).
Now, the issues I have with the book. There is a big emphasis on being sexually pure before marriage. A lot of people will like this approach. However, some of the most religious people I know don't believe in this anymore, and feel this is a lesser sin. Some people who might be open to Christianity might be turned off by the heavy handiness of this subject in this work. This is a very Southern Baptist approach to sexuality. When I read about the author's credentials (teacher and writer in residence at the Second Baptist Church in Houston, TX which is one of the largest fundamental churches in Tx) I was not surprised by his approach. While I understand this approach and there are scriptural references to this approach, it may not be appealing to those questioning the validity of Christianity or to those who are interested in exploring becoming a Christian.
Overall, this is a good gift. My Husband and I are an old married couple by now, and we enjoyed the book together and read it in one sitting, discussing the questions at the end. I think this can be used by older married couples. (We decided to revisit our courting days and asked some of the questions at the end of each devotional in past tense). I note the author seems to have devotionals for married couples and has written 18 other Christian oriented relationship books as of this writing. This is good for engaged or newly married couples who have a fundamental bent, or who are willing to either skip the sexual purity chapters or discuss the importance of sexuality in their present married/engaged life.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2019
