Those are my three favorite marriage books. I read Love Life for Every Married Couple at least 4 times before I got married. I still had so much to learn. The Excellent Wife has a permanent place on my bookshelf. For Women Only I just began reading recently in our prayer chapel at church. I saw it on the bookshelf and grabbed it. I’ve been reading a chapter each week.
My husband and I just went to a marriage enrichment featuring videos from the Evans from Marriage Today, and I can’t recommend them enough. Excellent, practical information from a couple who has been through some challenging times.
Thanks Ladies. I knew I would get good advice here. In searching last night I came across Sacred Marriage and Sacred Influence sounded good also. I will look into all these resources as I have time. I thought that I had talked to him about how I felt. But maybe I wasn’t clear enough. He knows that he often says he will do things and then doesn’t do them and he is trying to not promise things if he doesn’t think he can follow through, especially with the kids but he says with me he can’t tell me no. I will try to tell him how it makes me feel though and maybe if I get a time frame as to when he can accomplish it maybe that will help as well. I know husbands need respect but maybe I am not showing enough. I will work on that also!
” I know husbands need respect but maybe I am not showing enough. I will work on that also!”
I would beat yourself up about it maybe not being enough respect. It may just be that your interpretation of respect is not the same as his.
Not a Christian book but was really powerful in helping me understand my husband better “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands” by Laura Schlessinger. It’s been a few years since I read it so can’t remember all the details. But it really smoothed some frustrating spots out for me.
Eventhough I do not agree with some things in Created to Be His Helpmeet, I have to say that when I applied certain parts of the advice given in the book it totally revoluntionized my marriage. My husband changed so much I could not believe it!
There are several other good marriage books as well, but this one brought the most change for us.
James says that if you ask for wisdom, God will give it generously. This is such a wonderful promise for us as Christians. (Personally, I am sorely lacking wisdom in many areas! LOL!) Pray that he will lead you to the right book/person.
All have wonderful suggestions here. My husband and I have been married 20 years, and out of all the marriage books I’ve read none have gripped me more than This Momentary Marriage by Pastor John Piper http://www.amazon.com/dp/1433531119. He also has a series of sermons on Desiring God that correspond to each chapter of the book and i think a free PDF of the book. Here is an amazing video – a personal testimony centered around the book (be sure to have kleenex handy) http://vimeo.com/41843729 .
Not a book suggestion, just a prayer for all of us.
Dear Father,
Help us to see our dh with your eyes, and to see the truth in our marriage relationship as quickly as we are able to handle it. Soften our hearts so that we can accept the truth in humility, and repent where necessary. Please help us to be the women you desire us to be. Help us to be the women we need to be so that our dh’s are free to be the men you desire them to be.
I, too, have read Created but hesitate to recommend it as well sometimes! But…I agree with some others that it truly helped me to feel joyful in the role that God gave me and that, in time, helped to bring our already wonderful marriage even better. You just have to tuck away things that you may disagree with.
I also like the Excellent Wife and am adding the other suggestions to my amazon list!
I wish that I could remember the title of a book that I read many years ago. I saw it at the library and picked it up because at the time my sister was divorcing her verbally abusive husband. It did specifically address verbal abuse, but the basis of the book was extending grace in our marriages. I realized that I was better at extending grace to others than I was to my husband. I realized that there were times that I held grudges, had unrealistic expectations, or perhaps misinterpreted him. I realized that there were times I tried to manipulate my husband into changing instead of trusting God to do the changing.
Anyway, it was one of the better books on marriage that I had ever read. The title had the words “verbal abuse” and “grace”, but I can’t track it down.
I would highly recommend The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. If your husband might be interested in reading a book together, Strengthening Your Marriage by Wayne Mack is excellent.