Love & Respect—a book review

My friend Gretchen has said a few times that she finds keeping a marriage book or two in her reading stack keeps her always looking for ways to improve her relationship with her husband. Marriage is the commitment of a lifetime. And it will take a life time of care and nourishing if we want love flourish as well as last.

I personally haven’t always had the best experiences with Marriage books. So often it feels like they are filled with a lot of words but not so much down to earth, practical information. Love & Respect was different for me. In devotional form, it was short, sweet and to the point. And it made a lot of sense.

I had never heard of Dr. Eggerichs or the Love & Respect seminars, but in the back there was a handy section that explained the terms that were used and introduced the cycles and the “blue & pink” analogy, and it made it easy to pick up and understand without any background in it.

I’m not one to put everyone into a box. And I know that some people feel offended by the way the “Blue and Pink” analogy seems to do that. But it makes sense to that as men and as women we have basic needs of feeling loved and feeling respected. It doesn’t mean that my husband doesn’t need to feel loved, or that I don’t want to be respected. It also doesn’t mean that respecting my husband equals loosing my individuality or brushing abuse under the table.

I have to say that for me, this Love & Respect devotional is probably one of the best books I’ve read or attempted to read on developing a beautiful marriage. It keeps it simple, and yet still addresses not just the surface issues, but the heart issues that go a lot deeper than the face value of a “simple” disagreement. Some of it may sound so obvious, but it is incredibly easy to buy into any number of misconceptions about marriage and relationship and carry them with us as we establish a new home. And even in a really good marriage, there is always room to make it even sweeter.

I really appreciated the encouragement to be positive, to be understanding, and the emphasis on goodwill and forgiveness. I was really encouraged with the good foundations that Scott and I have made in our marriage, and challenged to personal growth in more than one area. (One of those is I need to be a better listener, and offering sympathy, not a solution.) I want to have the best marriage, and I like being challenged to keep striving for that!

Love & Respect is a book that I think I will be keeping on my bookshelf. I believe that any couple—engaged, newly wed or married for years—could benefit from reading, and if you haven’t, I hope you’ll find yourself a copy and read it, take some notes and be encouraged that it is possible, with God’s grace, to have a little heaven here on earth in our homes and marriages

this book was sent to me for reading and review by booksneeze. the opinions shared are my own honest feelings about this book.