By Darlene Schacht
Thomas Nelson, 2014
English, 240 pgs
Description:
Love gets messy.
Financial problems, sickness, aging parents, a chronically unhappy spouse . . . trials will inevitably come along to threaten your marriage. No matter how long you've been married or how strong your relationship is, sooner or later you are going to have a mess to clean up.
Messy Beautiful Love is about cleaning up messes God's way, exchanging our ideas for his, and being prepared for both the best and the worst that marriage has to offer.
Perhaps you've picked up this book because your marriage is messy already-now is the time to make a change. If your marriage is tidy, thank God-there is no better time to prepare for the future.
Married life is never straightforward or simple for long. But the reality is this: when you surrender your relationship to God; when you lay your marriage at his feet; when you finally cede control; then and only then will you experience the blessing of marriage as he intended-this is the blessing of obedience.
Messy Beautiful Love is an invitation to that obedience. An invitation to surrender. The cynical world says marriages don't last. God knows better. Tune out the world and tune in to him. When you do that, a beautiful marriage is not only possible-it's inevitable. That's something to be excited about.
About the Author
Darlene Schacht is the original founder of Christian Women Online Magazine and The Internet CafĂ© Devotions and writes the popular blog Time-Warp Wife. She is coauthor of Candace Cameron Bure’s New York Time’s best-selling book, Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness. Darlene has been married to Michael Schacht for more than 25 years. They have four children.
Review:
This is one of the better "relationship" books I've read in a long time. I appreciate that the author is very frank and honest about her relationship issues in the past and how real she is in sharing about how her life and marriage were impacted and restored.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling in a marriage, anyone who is about to be married, anyone who is in a happy marriage....anyone who wants to discover what God wants in a marriage and wants to build a lasting relationship based on God's word.
My only criticism is that the author uses New King James Version of the Bible for most of her quotes and that made it a little hard to read, in my opinion. And that is only because I'm just not used to the language in that particular translation.
The book has 15 chapters which, at one a day, makes it really easy to read in a short time. However, I think you should take your time with it. Study the Scriptures she discusses and really give time to the end of chapter challenges.
So much of this book is now seen as "counter-culture" in that it emphasizes that the man is the head of the family, being patient and compassionate, communicate lovingly and being content and virtuous in your marriage and life. However, this is exactly how things were meant to be. God made rules and boundaries for a reason. The aren't out of malice. They're out of love and wanting the best for His people.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for a review on this blog and a commercial book-selling website. No additional compensation has been received and I was not required to write a positive review.
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