This book was a great read. I started reading the book wishing that I had read it before marriage, but when I got halfway through, I realized that the two years of marriage had taught me a lot which I used to understand and apply the book. When I finished it, I realized that it's a book that should be read regardless of how long you've been married. It's thought-provoking and encouraging.
While I can't say that my marriage changed overnight because of this book, I can say that I took a lot of Wangerin's ideas and am trying to implement them into my marriage.
My favorite chapter in this book was the one on forgiveness. Wangerin gives steps to forgiving your spouse, and he said to forgive your spouse you first have to let him know that he's done something wrong or hurtful. Otherwise, the forgiveness doesn't do much. So you have to be open and honest with your spouse when something he did hurt you and tell him that you're hurting because of it, and then you can move to the forgiveness stage. That's hard to do though. But it made me think of all the times I've "forgiven" my spouse for something he did or didn't do, without telling him that I was upset by it, and so nothing is really resolved, right? I'm trying to be better about talking to my spouse in those moments instead of just thinking and processing it all by myself.
This book is so full of insight and is incredible to read. It's easy to read, and it's easy to take breaks from which is great because then you have time for processing and practicing. I highly encourage anyone dating, engaged, or married to read this book.
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