There is much afoot these days that can and does lead to a number of side roads and dead ends, constituting a barrier, deterring couples and families from reaching their desired destination. Currently, while not well marked or hidden, for many they have become main highways, leading to a dead end of frustration at best or disillusionment at worst. Marriage and family life are all about relationships. The question is, will the relationship dynamics in the family guide them to their destination or to a dead end? Our universal human desire is to be fulfilled in our life experience. And what better way than in the interactive relationships that can be experienced in an uplifting family adventure? There are certain effective ways beyond good communication skills for couples to interact with each other and their children. Since we are all human, the ideas expressed will bring challenges, yet the rewards are what we are all looking for in our livesjoy and that elusive state called fulfillment. This book reveals the roads they took in order to reach that destination as a family with a peek at what many people hope will work but doesnt.
Make This Marriage Last a Lifetime Leading blended family authority Ron Deal and marriage and family expert David Olson show you how to build on your relationship strengths and improve your weaknesses. Whether you're dating, engaged, a young stepfamily, or an empty-nest couple, The Smart Stepfamily Marriage gives you the tools you need at any stage to create a remarriage that will last. Each chapter of this book explores one of the key qualities of happy remarriages as identified by research. Like a GPS for your relationship, this book has built-in discussion questions that can help you and your partner discover where you are, where you'd like to be, and how to get there. The online survey gives you a report with personalized results for your relationship. "The Smart Stepfamily Marriage is the road map to a healthy marriage."--Gary D. Chapman, PhD, author, The Five Love Languages and When Sorry Isn't Enough "Remarried or marrying again? This book is loaded with specific, useful ideas for helping your marriage reach its full potential."--Scott Stanley, PhD, author, A Lasting Promise; research professor, University of Denver "This book is a must-read for any remarried couple. It includes the tools needed to create and maintain a wonderful remarriage."--from the foreword by Evelyn Husband Thompson, widow of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband, now remarried to Bill Thompson "The Smart Stepfamily Marriage is the most up-to-date, relevant, complete guide for remarried couples--I know of no other resource like it."--Francesca Adler-Baeder, PhD, professor and director, Center for Children, Youth, and Families, Auburn University; director, National Stepfamily Resource Center "This book will help you thrive in your marriage and beat the odds of divorce. The preventative information is the best I have ever seen, and the practical application covers it all. I have put The Smart Stepfamily Marriage at the top of my resource library for couples who find themselves in this beautiful and yet challenging world of remarriage."--Jim Burns, PhD, president, HomeWord, author of Creating an Intimate Marriage, Confident Parenting, and The Purity Code "Remarriages have unique challenges and different relational needs than first marriages. Based on a national study of 50,000 couples, this book is a wonderful resource for remarriage couples. Take the online Couple Checkup and get a report about your relationship, read the book, and build a relationship that lasts!"--Dr. Gary Smalley, author of The DNA of Relationships "You want a marriage that lasts forever, right? Blended family couples can beat the odds--this book will tell you how."--Dr. Dennis Rainey, president of FamilyLife, author of Stepping Up
As a young bride, Jennifer Smith couldn’t wait to build her life with the man she adored. She dreamed of closeness, of being fully known and loved by her husband. But the first years of marriage were nothing like she’d imagined. Instead, they were marked by disappointment and pain. Trapped by fear and insecurity, and feeling totally alone, Jennifer cried out to God: What am I doing wrong? Why is this happening to us? It was as if a veil had descended between her and her husband, and between her and God—one that kept her from experiencing the fullness of love. How did Jennifer and her husband survive the painful times? What did they do when they were tempted to call it quits? How did God miraculously step in during the darkest hour to rescue and redeem them, tearing down the veil once and for all? The Unveiled Wife is a real-life love story; one couple’s refreshingly raw, transparent journey touching the deep places in a marriage that only God can reach. If you are feeling disappointment or even despair about your marriage, the heart-cry of this book is: You are not alone. Discover through Jennifer’s story how God can bring you through it all to a place of transformation.
What does it mean to be called as a husband, a wife, a parent, a child? How does the grace of the gospel impact how we carry out our particular calling? How does God's presence influence the struggles that families face? Gene Veith joins forces with his daughter Mary Moerbe to explore these kinds of questions as well as the roles of calling and vocation in family life. Though we have little control over who is in our family (other than choosing a spouse and deciding to have children), God has placed us with specific people for specific reasons. Veith and Moerbe show how our roles are distinct and important to God's plan for our lives—and that when we have a biblical understanding of those roles in our families, we can move away from common dysfunctions and toward forgiveness and healing. Writing with sensitivity and wisdom, Veith and Moerbe address the common problems facing contemporary families: the crosses, the weaknesses, and the uncertainties. They articulate a compelling, biblical paradigm for creating and sustaining loving and forgiving families who maintain hope in the face of cultural pressure. This book is an important resource for all Christians, including pastors, counselors, and those working in family ministry.
From Bill and Pam Farrel, bestselling authors of Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti and Red-Hot Monogamy, comes a new book especially for dating and engaged couples. Filled with their trademark wisdom, humor, and insight, The Before-You-Marry Book of Questions will help couples delight in their differences plan their financial future sort through family obstacles lay a strong foundation for a marriage that goes the distance give their marriage to God With “his and hers” quizzes and ideas for dates where couples can talk openly and freely about their relationship and future, The Before-You-Marry Book of Questions is a practical and essential guide for any couple building a life together.
The #1 New York Times Bestseller “An engaging look at the often head-scratching, frequently infuriating mating behaviors that shape our love lives.” —Refinery 29 A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from Aziz Ansari, the star of Master of None and one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated? Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?” But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate. For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before. In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.
There is something different about this book. Many couples are confused about how to find the will of God for their lives, marriages and families. Do you desire for more intimacy and passionate linking? Do you miss the feeling of togetherness that you and your spouse felt when you first met? As a couple, is it a problem for you to communicate openly? Are you scared that being honest will hurt each other’s feelings? Maybe you are feeling discouraged by stubborn arguments over apparently irrelevant issues. Alternatively, perhaps you have begun to feel like you have “fallen out of love”. Do you want to have more sex or less sex than your spouse does? If you have had an affair, or if you have been hurt by your spouse’s infidelity, you might be feeling uncertain if, and how, you can settle your feelings, and be able to relink and connect. Remember, you are the person to initiate that, take heart. Unless you learn to identify broken and missing links that disengage you from your marriage and family, you will continue to live in a relationship of finishing life together because of the children you have. In order for strong intimacy and deep connection to take place, forget about the lies of the devil, false messages and cracks around your heart. This is the foundation of rediscovering the joy of a broken heart in your life, marriage and family. A Pure and Forgiving Heart will Restore the Joy of your Broken and Missing Links to cover your physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional aspect of your life.
Discover what factors, beliefs, and attitudes build a successful marriage!In the enormous social, political, and technological upheavals since World War I, the long and happy marriage has begun to seem like an endangered species. In the desperate hunt for reasons that marriages fail, most researchers have ignored the factors that help marriages succeed. Together Through Thick and Thin: A Multinational Picture of Long-Term Marriage reports a landmark study of long-term satisfaction in marriage. Instead of relying on conjecture or unproven clinical hunches, the authors studied the happily married around the world. The respondents’early experiences included the Great Depression, World War II, and the Holocaust as well as the Roaring Twenties. In the years since they married, technological change and the women's movement have made the world almost unrecognizable. Yet these people have managed to maintain both stability and quality in their marriages. The scope of Together Through Thick and Thin is sweeping: eight countries, more than 400 couples who had been happily married for between 25 and 45 years. Factors analyzed include degree of satisfaction, gender differences, socioeconomic level, family history, shared values, religious belief and practice, attitudes toward children, physical health, and problem-solving styles, among many others. Moreover, the book builds on existing documented literature on marriage. This solid background helps put its wealth of practical data into context, an ideal synthesis of theory and practice.This study delves into the reasons couples stay together and stay satisfied. What qualities and attitudes do happily married couples share? Can the factors that keep a Chilean couple together for life also apply in the very different cultures of Sweden, Israel, South Africa, the United States? What keeps a marriage together in times of crisis? How important is love?Together Through Thick and Thin helps you understand the diverse factors that affect marital quality and stability by offering a broad range of information: a comprehensive review of the literature of happy marriage cross-cultural comparisons that kindle fresh insights discussions of factors ranging from gender and economic status to family history and shared attitudes specific behaviors and attitudes that illuminate what matters most in marriage, from mutual respect to shared fun the reasons couples stick together during crises which problem-solving behaviors actually workTogether Through Thick and Thin provides psychologists, family therapists, and couples counselors with the solid data they need to guide couples in crisis toward greater intimacy, commitment, and joy together.
SIMPLE HABITS FOR MARITAL HAPPINESS is an incredible book that covers every aspect of a marriage to help you create a vibrant, rewarding relationship that grows stronger every day. Backed by over thirty years of experience, Dr. Randy Schroeder - a pastor and marriage counselor - helps you develop the habits your marriage needs. These straightforward, easy-to-understand lessons will show you how to... Apologize and forgive. Stay in love after the honeymoon. Communicate effectively with your spouse. Safeguard your oneness. Maintain emotional and physical closeness. Disagree without hurting your relationship. Budget, save, and spend together.
Editors’ Pick for the Conservative Book Club A roadmap to the future for Republicans With each passing election cycle, Republicans face stiffer and stiffer odds for winning elections at all levels. They have long relied on a combination of Baby Boomers and rural voters to propel them to victory in races for office. However, both of these populations will decline in the future. At the same time, the ranks of millennials and urban voters have exploded. Millennials (now the largest generation in the United States) and urban residents (the growing majority of the population) are the two groups that are the key to the future—both for the United States and for any major political party. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has largely put off bringing these vital groups into the fold. In fact, it faces a real identity crisis with them. Mention the words “GOP” or “Republican” and they immediately react negatively. They see the party and its members as being out of touch and focused on the past. What possible reason should they have to vote for them, or even listen to their ideas? GOP GPS offers a roadmap for Republicans to win over these key groups, showing how to do so using conservative values and principles. It addresses a wide array of issues, including social justice, education, marriage equality, debt, and the family. It will challenge all and show that the Republican Party is not the caricature the Left or the media make it out to be.
