Work at Home Success By Jill Hart
Mom Laughs By Cheryl Moeller
Simplifying Motherhood By Trish Berg
Ask A Twin Mommy By Cheryl Lage
Mothering By Heart By Cheri Fuller
Jelly Mom By Lisa Barker
Family Check-up By Sheila Wray Gregoire
Parent to Parent By Jodie Lynn
Moments for Mom By Elisabeth Corcoran
Making the Most of Marriage By Paula Friedrichsen
Creating An Intimate Marriage by Jim Burns
Reviewed by Amy B
Some marriages are in better shape than others. If we are honest, though, we know that every marriage has room for improvement. There is no perfect marriage between us mere humans.
We must work at marriage, and protect it from the other priorities in our lives that tend to creep to the forefront, such as children, work, extended family, and our activities at church. While all those are important, we have to keep our priorities in line:
God
Marriage
Children and family
Vocation and other issues
Throughout the book, Jim refers creating A.W.E. (affection, warmth and encouragement) in marriages. He goes into detail and gives examples to help you incorporate it into your marriage. Also discussed are romance and intimacy, communication, friendship and fun, forgiveness and spiritual intimacy.
The "Passion Plan" and 10 top ways to transform your marriage are shared, and in my opinion, they both could make a very noticeable difference in the degree of intimacy in any marriage. The "Passion Plan" really piqued the interest of my husband, while for me, it really hit home about us needing to add more fun to our marriage.
Scripture is quoted throughout the book and my most favourite of all is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT).
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
The bottom line is it takes two to make a marriage a success, failure, or something in between. While we cannot control what our spouses do, we are in control of our own actions, thoughts and how we communicate. No one is completely faultless in a failing marriage and we need to focus on improving ourselves instead of placing blame on our spouse.
You can find out more here
© Amy, 2004-
Amy is a SAHM of two. She volunteers with her church youth program and at her childrens' schools. She lives in Ohio with her husband, two beautiful children (ages 4 and 9), and a couple slobbery 'fur babies'.