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Stress-free strategies to discover critical keys to "love longevity." Filled with over 300 marriage and family tips gleaned from personal experience and hundreds of other successful relationships.
Grammageri
Posted March 28, 2012
Days To A Forever Marriage by Dr. Gary and Norma Smalley
I have always loved Dr. Smalley’s books and was excited to read this book that he co-authored with his wife, Norma. Even though I have been married for almost 44 years, I still loved to read books on improving my marriage. This book, actually, helped me this morning. My husband made a mistake and it was costly. He told me about it as I getting ready to go to church. My first thought was anger but instantly, I remembered the theme of this book was choosing love or anger. Because of this, I chose love. He felt bad for his error and he didn’t need me making feel even worse.
This book is just over 100 pages but is packed with nuggets. The chapter titles are, “Loving Words & Actions”, “Communication and Resolving Anger”, “Affection and Intimacy”, and “Trials and Treasures”. At the end of each chapter, there are application questions for the husband and wife to answer. The Smalleys are very honest and transparent, even sharing their own struggles.
They pointed out the “starting point’ is to understand the differences between men or women. An example is, “A woman is usually much more in touch with her emotions, but a man is primarily concerned with the ‘facts’.
I really thank New Leaf Publishers for giving me this book to review. I highly recommend this book for engaged couples to couples that have been married a long time.
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Bible-Geek-Gone-Wild
Posted February 6, 2012
After more than fourteen years of marriage, I am keenly aware of how little I knew about relationships and communication on the day my beautiful bride and I walked down the aisle. Nearly a decade and a half later, we are entering the latter part of our thirties. One of the harsh realities that has come to pass during the past few years is that the marriages of several friends and acquaintances have ended in divorce. We grieve for these losses and broken relationships, but we strive not to judge too harshly for it is but by God's grace and a series of key people and books that we have been fortunate enough to celebrate fourteen wedding anniversaries and counting.
In recent years, it seems that of the writing of marriage books there is no end. With such a wide variety of choices in front of you, it can be difficult to decide where to start. In my opinion, not all marriage books are created equal. It is important to understand who the author is and what he or she is about in order to know whether or not a particular book is right for you. Gary and Norma Smalley are credible authors for a book on marriage. They have been married for forty seven years and have counseled thousands of couples at the Smalley Relationship Center. Whether in their own marriage or in the marriages of those they have counseled, it would be fair to say that they have pretty much seen it all.
4 Days to a Forever Marriage is a tool designed to encourage couples to spend four days working to transform their marriage relationship. The basic concept the book builds upon is that as we interact with our spouse, we can choose to respond in either love or anger. Using that simple choice as the foundation, the book introduces a new relational concept in each chapter. The relational concepts are:
*Day 1: Loving Words and Actions
*Day 2: Communication and Resolving Anger
*Day 3: Affection and Intimacy
*Day 4: Trials and Treasures
The book draws heavily on Gary and Norma's relationship as it has been refined over the course of forty seven years. They share each of their perspectives on a given situation, which I found immensely helpful for a better understanding of how my wife would feel or respond in a similar situation. There are numerous scripture references in each chapter. I would strongly encourage readers to keep a Bible handy as they work through the book in order to maximize their reading experience. At the close of each chapter, there is a "For the Husband" and "For the Wife" section where readers are asked to summarize the principles they have learned in the chapter. Not only will this be valuable for helping each of you to thoroughly learn the concepts introduced in the book, it also presents an opportunity to have an hone
Brigonia
Posted January 2, 2012
4 Days to a Forever Marriage takes four major topics crucial to a great marriage and teaches one each day. The topics are Loving Words and Actions, Communication and Resolving Anger, Affection and Intimacy, and Trials and Treasures. Each chapter ends with questions to be answered by the husband and wife along with action steps to take to help you apply what you have learned. Each page includes twitter like messages and Bible verses. At the end of the book there are separate sections to help you through each phase of marriage such as empty nest, married with young children, and blended families. This book is relevant for those who are newly married or have been married for years.
I enjoyed reading 4 Days to a Forever Marriage. It was full of personal stories of the authors' own struggles and how they solved their issues. The little "tweets" on each page were great summaries of each topic and the Bible verses would be a helpful tool to memorize. I thought the list of action items at the end of each chapter were helpful and should go back and make a list of the ones I want to try. I read all of the sections at the end of the book even though some of them don't apply to me right now and found some helpful thoughts that are relevant to my situation.
I felt this book was a great refresher course on marriage and it helped me find some areas that need a little work. I would recommend this book as a gift or to use yourself to improve your marriage.
I received a free copy of this book in order to write this review and have shared my honest opinion.
Overview
Stress-free strategies to discover critical keys to "love longevity." Filled with over 300 marriage and family tips gleaned from personal experience and hundreds of other successful relationships.