Grounds for Marriage, Book and Study Guide


Book Description

Your marriage is in crisis, and you've read countless books on how to make it work, but to no avail. You haven't seen sustainable change in your relationship, and you're ready to give up hope that counseling will be effective. You're weary of striving, and you may have even considered having an affair, doing violence to yourself or to your partner, or indulging in an addiction. Perhaps you already have. You cannot stomach another false promise or simplistic solution to the complex problems in your marriage, and you wonder, is there any other way? Grounds for Marriage speaks into the wreckage of broken covenants with a fresh perspective on relationship, refusing to apply flimsy bandages to fractured relationships and insisting that the core brokenness be addressed and genuinely repaired. This material helps couples and their counselors to honestly evaluate troubled marriages, providing a much-needed compassionate, sensible, hopeful, sound, and sometimes unexpected understanding of the scriptures and of relationship. Synchronizing personal story, anecdotes from her work as a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a review of literature in psychology and theology, Jade G. Stone helps couples in crisis to: --study the scriptures to determine what they say constitutes a marriage covenant --recognize how both partners contribute to failure in their marriage --heal from old wounds so they can be in covenantal relationship with God and with a covenant companion With no-nonsense directness and high-definition clarity, Stone helps you envision how human covenantal commitments must function in order to mirror intimacy with God. She presents the criteria of wholehearted covenant as a measuring stick for relational intimacy (grounds for marriage), without which you cannot determine what comprises broken intimacy (grounds for divorce). From a covenantal/relational perspective, you can maintain scriptural integrity, understanding, and wisdom as you evaluate a marriage in crisis. Grounds for Marriage includes a study guide to help readers personalize the concepts presented.




The Meaning of Marriage


Book Description

Describes what marriage should be according to the Bible, arguing that marriage is a tool to bring individuals closer to God, and provides meaningful instruction on how to have a successful marriage.




The Meaning of Marriage Study Guide


Book Description

Timothy and Kathy Keller will show you a portrait of marriage as it's meant to be according to the Bible...by first throwing out most of what we've been taught about love. Modern culture would have you believe that everyone has a soul mate; that romance is the most important part of a successful marriage; that marriage does not mean 'til death do us part, but merely for as long as my needs are being met; and that when serious differences arise, divorce is the best solution. But all of these modern-day assumptions miss what marriage is really about. In this six-session video-based Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), Timothy Keller, along with Kathy, his wife of forty years, draws a profound portrait of marriage from the pages of Scripture that neither idealizes nor rejects the institution but points us back to the relationship between God and man. The result is a vision for marriage that is refreshingly frank and unsentimental, yet hopeful and beautiful. This study is for anyone from singles to couples considering marriage to those who have been married for any length of time. Sessions include: Service: Marriage Isn't about You Covenant: Created to Make Promises Roles: Loving through Mutual Submission Singleness: Strengthening the Spiritual Family Sex: The Act of Covenant Renewal Hope: Seeing the Great Horizon Designed for use with The Meaning of Marriage Video Study (sold separately).




The 4 Seasons of Marriage


Book Description

Compares the transitional cycles of marriage to those of nature, describes the attitudes and emotions of each season, and offers seven strategies that enable couples to enhance and improve their marital relationship.




The Dude's Guide to Marriage


Book Description

“I am a well-loved wife.” Is this something your wife would say? Here’s your guide to making those words a reality in your marriage. What do women want? This question has stumped the greatest male minds for centuries. Of course, if you’re married, a much better question is, “What does your wife want?” As Darrin and Amie Patrick reveal in this profoundly practical and transformational book, God designed your wife to want—to need—to be loved. And that design is an invitation for you to love her deeply, intentionally and passionately. Practicing ten powerful actions—including listening, pursuing, and serving—will transform you into your wife’s lifelong champion and have her nominating you for the Husband Hall of Fame. The Dude’s Guide to Marriage is for guys who want to grow, who want clear steps to improving their marriage. It’s for men who want a marriage that thrives rather than just survives. Grab this guide, and get ready to be a better husband by becoming a better man.




Incompatibility


Book Description

Do women really spend more time in the bathroom? Are men truly more gifted when it comes to handling the remote control? Will women ever understand the intense concentration demanded by Monday Night Football? Chuck and Barb Snyder (who reveal that their only area of compatibility is having the same kids and grandkids) tackle these and other questions in Incompatibility: (Still) Grounds for a Great Marriage, an entertaining, insightful, and sensible primer on marriage for Christian couples. Ten years after their popular original book, they've teamed up again to present new material and elaborate on their original themes. Readers will learn that differences between couples are actually part of God's plan for marriage and should be viewed as assets, not liabilities.




Tying the Knot


Book Description

Tying the Knot by Rob Green offers soon-to-be-married couples a practical vision of Christ-centered marriage that is realistic, hopeful, and actionable. With homework to help any counselor or couple put crucial lessons into practice, Tying the Knot is a highly relevant premarital counseling book. This eight-session study guides couples through issues like conflict, expectations, communication, finances, and intimacy, showing how each can be successfully resolved with Christ at the center of the marriage. Knowing the stresses and needs of a couple in their season of engagement, Green has helpfully designed the study to require a manageable (and healthy) 60 minutes of at-home work per session, with questions and exercises to build communication and intimacy at the end of each chapter. Tying the Knot also includes an appendix for mentors, making it easy for a married couple, lay leader, or counselor to lead an engaged couple through the book. Field-tested and recommended by multiple counselors in a thriving counseling practice, Tying the Knot has already guided many couples into a stronger and more joyful union. Let this eight-week premarital study reorient your life and marriage around Christ, so you both will experience all the blessings of marriage as God designed it.




When Is Marriage Null?


Book Description

Many marriages are “ended” by separation or divorce, but for the baptized Christian they remain valid marriages forever. There are, however, cases in which a Christian marriage can be recognized as null, i.e. it never existed. This book, written by a specialist with a gift for clarity on a complicated, sensitive issue, is a guide for a first approach to the problems related to the conditions for eventually declaring the nullity of a canonical Christian marriage. This work is an indispensable aid for the pastors of souls, for Catholic counselors, and can be very useful also for anyone who has serious questions about the validity of his own marriage. The primary purpose of this work is to provide clear, well-founded information in sufficient quantity to parish priests and to all who will act as counselors in these matters, either in formally organized parochial counseling services, or in other possible forms of collaboration with the parish priest, or else in the ecclesiastical tribunals themselves as a step previous to the possible introduction of the case. Among the areas he covers are: Violation of the freedom of consent; Error about a person; Exclusion of offspring; Exclusion of fidelity; Incapacity to consent; Incapacity to assume the essential obligations of marriage; Conditional consent.




Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage


Book Description

By using his unique blend of humor and tell-it-like-it-is honesty, he helps couples get along and have fun doing it.




The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work


Book Description

Just as Masters and Johnson were pioneers in the study of human sexuality, so Dr. John Gottman has revolutionized the study of marriage. As a professor of psychology at the University of Washington and the founder and director of the Seattle Marital and Family Institute, he has studied the habits of married couples in unprecedented detail over the course of many years. His findings, and his heavily attended workshops, have already turned around thousands of faltering marriages. This book is the culmination of his life's work: the seven principles that guide couples on the path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship. Straightforward in their approach, yet profound in their effect, these principles teach partners new and startling strategies for making their marriage work. Gottman helps couples focus on each other, on paying attention to the small day-to-day moments that, strung together, make up the heart and soul of any relationship. Being thoughtful about ordinary matters provides spouses with a solid foundation for resolving conflict when it does occur and finding strategies for living with those issues that cannot be resolved. Packed with questionnaires and exercises whose effectiveness has been proven in Dr. Gottman's workshops, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is the definitive guide for anyone who wants their relationship to attain its highest potential. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is the result of Dr. John Gottman's many years of closely observing thousands of marriages. This kind of longitudinal research has never been done before. Based on his findings, he has culled seven principles essential to the success of any marriage. Maintain a love map. Foster fondness and admiration. Turn toward instead of away. Accept influence. Solve solvable conflicts. Cope with conflicts you can't resolve. Create shared meaning. Dr. Gottman's unique questionnaires and exercises will guide couples on the road to revitalizing their marriage, or making a strong one even better.