A Fierce Love: One Woman's Courageous Journey to Save Her Marriage

by Shauna Shanks

Overview

Love is easy to give when you are getting it back. Are we still called to God’s plan of how to love when we are getting none in return? Shauna Shanks’s brave journey through obedience reveals the outcome of when we dare to follow God’s ludicrous outline for love as described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Wrecked with news of her husband’s affair and his request for a divorce, Shauna finds herself urgently faced with a decision. Does she give up and divorce her husband and move on, or does she try to fight for her marriage? The former choice seems to contradict God’s plan for how to love, such as “love never gives up,” “love is patient,” and “love is kind.”

Taking God at His word and assuming the love chapter was really meant to be followed literally word by word, she not only finds herself falling in love with her spouse again, but also falling in love with Jesus, which changes everything.

First Corinthians 13 presents an audacious, illogical, and irrational context of how to love, meant to be applied to every marital context not just the fairytale marriage. If God’s instructions seem illogical and audacious, you might just expect the same kind of results in return!

This book is not air-brushed. It was written in the midst of the author’s deepest trauma, and she purposefully did not edit out her mistakes and failures during that season. This book will resonate with women who do not feel like the picture-perfect Christian woman with the fairytale life and marriage.

A Fierce Love is the story of a train wreck and reaching out to God not in the calm but in the chaos and finding hope for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310347538
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	505,727
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Shauna Shanks is a wife, mother, and entrepreneur. She started Smallfolk, a health food café, out of her passion for health and fitness. She graduated from Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas, with a focus on world missions. Shauna and her husband, Micah, who is a police officer, have been married for more than a decade, and they live with their three boys on an Ohio farm. www.shaunashanks.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 11

Chapter 1 The Naked Man 15

Chapter 2 The Start of Death 19

Chapter 3 God Speaking 27

Chapter 4 Crushing 31

Chapter 5 The Love Filter 37

Chapter 6 Suffer the Children 45

Chapter 7 One-Way Glass 49

Chapter 8 Blatant Indifference 55

Chapter 9 Breadcrumbs 63

Chapter 10 Aaron and Hur 75

Chapter 11 Exodus 81

Chapter 12 The Power of Words 93

Chapter 13 "It's Over" 99

Chapter 14 New Mercies 107

Chapter 15 Lavish Love 111

Chapter 16 This is War 119

Chapter 17 Up and Running 127

Chapter 18 Basking 135

Chapter 19 Micah 143

Chapter 20 Bluffer 151

Chapter 21 The Pursuit 159

Chapter 22 Forgiveness 163

Chapter 23 The Golden State 169

Chapter 24 Spiritual Warfare 177

Chapter 25 A Heart of Flesh 191

Chapter 26 Intimacy 197

Chapter 27 Lord of the Ring 203

Chapter 28 Emotions 207

Chapter 29 Good Common Sense 213

Chapter 30 Immeasurably More 227

Notes 233

Editorial Reviews

05/22/2017
Shanks, owner of health food café Smallfolk in Dallas, Tex., courageously tells the story of how her 10-year marriage unraveled before coming back together in the end. Shanks, a Christian who admits to drifting away from her faith, draws parallels between her journey to reinvigorated faith and the death and rebirth of her marriage. She recounts the seemingly endless days and sleepless nights that followed her husband telling her that their marriage was a mistake and he wanted out. When Shanks found and read her husband’s diary, she felt a sliver of hope, as the words indubitably showed a passionate love for her. Afraid her husband would be upset that she read the diary without his permission, Shanks was relieved that her admission and apology opened up new avenues of communication. She reveals that 1 Corinthians 13 formed the basis for her “Love Filter,” a mental reminder not to react emotionally to her husband’s occasional fits of anger, but to speak with calm, deliberate purpose as she fought for their marriage. Shanks offers readers practical recommendations and loads of adapted biblical teachings for overcoming one’s evil impulses with good intentions. Shanks’s story will bring hope to readers in the darkest times of married life, pointing directly to God’s redemptive plan for remaking what has been broken. (June)

Publishers Weekly

This is so much more than the story of a faithful wife wooing her way-ward husband back to their marriage. It is the story of a faithful God wooing his wayward people back to his side. If you’ve ever wandered or been wounded by someone who has, you will find great comfort and encouragement in all the words Shauna shares. No matter what the imposing mountain in front of you looks like—marriage, money, sickness, or shame—you will learn from her example how God reveals himself through life’s impossible situations.

Amy Lively

Shauna’s courageous fight for God’s will to prevail in her marriage is beautiful beyond words. A Fierce Love is an amazing reminder that, with his strength, we can still choose to show love . . . even with a broken heart.

New York Times bestselling author; Lysa Ter Keur st

When author Shauna Shanks got the worst news a wife could get—that her husband wanted a divorce—she pleaded with God, “Please just give me one thing I can focus on! Just one word.” He gave her two: Endure. Hope. I urge you to read this remarkable story of one wife who decided to lean completely on the Lord and to not give up, but to fight for her marriage. You will not be disappointed.

Chris tine Caine

Shauna Shanks takes us on a journey of what it’s like to be faced with an impossible situation, and to either do what makes sense in the eyes of the world and those around us, or have the audacious faith that God calls on us to have. A Fierce Love is a must read for everyone who has ever had their faith put to the test in a big way.

Chad Veach

Wow. Sometimes relationship miracles are the most amazing miracles of all. This is one of those miracle stories we need to know about. At its core, this is a story about a person’s relationship with God as it is tested and navigated through one of the most severe crucibles of life. There were times in Shauna’s story where I could hardly believe she was getting skewered and crushed by these emotional attacks again and again. And yet in the midst of those situations, she shares her vivid examples of God opening her eyes and directing her to dig in and use the principles of the Word of God and overcome by faith, even when it seems she is hanging on by a thread emotionally. I really love the battle-tested and practical examples she shares. For this reason, this book is a road map of sorts, but one that shows not just the way through to a miracle, but also the pit- falls of despair when one strays off the path—and how to course-correct by God’s mercy and grace. We need to know stories like this exist—especially in this hour, when so many hearts are used to giving up and growing hard and cold. This kind of story restores hope in the power of God’s love to overcome obstacles and shows love is worth fighting for, even when the situation seems to drag on without any reason for hope. God never leaves your side, and his Word and his Spirit will both work in and with you to strengthen you to see these amazing miracles happen.

Timothy Jorgensen

Shauna’s courageous fight for God’s will to prevail in her marriage is beautiful beyond words. A Fierce Love is an amazing reminder that, with his strength, we can still choose to show love . . . even with a broken heart.

New York Times bestselling author; Lysa TerKeur st

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