[PhilThreeten] Book Review: The Most Important Year in a Woman’s/Man’s Life
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PhilThreeten
Mar 23, 2006, 10:40:10 AM3/23/06
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Susan and Mark DeVries and Bobbie and Robert Wolgemuth have not only put together a helpful first year companion for newly marrieds, they’ve done it with creativity.
This one book is really two books in one. From one side, women can read about what to expect, how to handle, and generally what constitutes a good first year in a Christian marriage. From the opposite side of the book, men develop the same type of material. As you’ve probably already surmised, Susan and Bobbie write the women’s side and Mark and Robert write the men’s side. Then, in the middle, are questions and ideas to bring the two sides together.
By approaching both sides of this equation from within one resource, the authors have created a significant tool for newly-married couples. Topics in the book include needs, spiritual unity, families, roles, communication, conflict, money, sex and in-laws – just about everything that is bound to surface in the first year of marriage. They tackle these topics from a balanced, Christian perspective and give tremendous insight into both sides of the marriage relationship.
The only issue I had with the book was that from the woman’s perspective (yeah, I peaked in on that side :), there is great emphasis placed on the woman’s ability to change the man. Though typical of our culture today, I think this is the only (though not necessarily insignificant) unbalanced part of the book. I would have liked to have heard on both sides of the book how both the husband and wife provide complimentary change into each other’s lives. And rather than this being seen as a power play (which seems to be insinuated on a number of occasions in the book), to see the potential that God sees in the spouse and work together to become that person. This then focuses on mutual change, dreams, and submission.
Even with that problem, I think I could recommend this book to newly married couples as a good guideline on how to build a strong foundation for a life-long commitment to an imperfect person.
Categories: Readings
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Posted by PhilThreeten to PhilThreeten at 3/23/2006 10:37:00 AM
This one book is really two books in one. From one side, women can read about what to expect, how to handle, and generally what constitutes a good first year in a Christian marriage. From the opposite side of the book, men develop the same type of material. As you’ve probably already surmised, Susan and Bobbie write the women’s side and Mark and Robert write the men’s side. Then, in the middle, are questions and ideas to bring the two sides together.
By approaching both sides of this equation from within one resource, the authors have created a significant tool for newly-married couples. Topics in the book include needs, spiritual unity, families, roles, communication, conflict, money, sex and in-laws – just about everything that is bound to surface in the first year of marriage. They tackle these topics from a balanced, Christian perspective and give tremendous insight into both sides of the marriage relationship.
The only issue I had with the book was that from the woman’s perspective (yeah, I peaked in on that side :), there is great emphasis placed on the woman’s ability to change the man. Though typical of our culture today, I think this is the only (though not necessarily insignificant) unbalanced part of the book. I would have liked to have heard on both sides of the book how both the husband and wife provide complimentary change into each other’s lives. And rather than this being seen as a power play (which seems to be insinuated on a number of occasions in the book), to see the potential that God sees in the spouse and work together to become that person. This then focuses on mutual change, dreams, and submission.
Even with that problem, I think I could recommend this book to newly married couples as a good guideline on how to build a strong foundation for a life-long commitment to an imperfect person.
Categories: Readings
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Posted by PhilThreeten to PhilThreeten at 3/23/2006 10:37:00 AM
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