Excellent Reading about Marriage

Ever since reading my first John Eldredge book, I have appreciated his writing and seminars. The main benefit I found in this book was the openness and vulnerability, which are characteristics in all of John’s books. In this book, Love and War, John and his wife Stasi, collaborate on a book in which they discuss the joys and pitfalls of their marriage.

This book is open and honest. They don’t hold back. That is not their style. They want the reader to gain a greater understanding of the joys and hardships, the love and yes, war of marriage. This is not another ‘self-help’ book which details the 10 steps to make your marriage perfect, nor does every chapter start with the same letter.

We all come to marriages with a great deal of history. We often don’t admit our issues which hold back our marriages. As a result marriages suffer for years, maybe throughout an entire marriage, because we never learned to communicate our wants, needs and hurts. Again, John and Stasi don’t tell you how to do it, but they demonstrate their vulnerability in all rooms in the house.

The only real solution they give is this advice. We must realize that life is a battle, and marriage can also fall into the same category. With that in mind, we must let God use our lives, and our marriages to help us change and become transformed into the holy man or woman God has called you to become. We must always keep in mind that we are in a spiritual battle.

In the end, we are called to find a passionate life in Christ, deal with what is broken in our lives, and to understand the battle for our lives (heart and soul).

There is a great deal of biblical wisdom in Love and War. As well there are many honest, humorous, and difficult (open and honest) stories many of us would never share. Yet, this is part of the power of this book.

I have used it for premarital counseling and believe it is an excellent resource for couples to have and read through together. Then discuss, discuss, discuss . . . with openness and honesty.

This book was provided by Multnomah Press. All opinions in this review are personal.