For Better or for Best: A Valuable Guide to Knowing, Understanding, and Loving Your Husband

This book is ok. Not great. Not awful. There are some really useful ideas, and there are some really outdated ideas. If you are good with picking and choosing the pieces you like, its worth the read.

My fiance and I recently completed pre-marital counseling with our Pastor and were somewhat disappointed with the standard materials given to us as they were more suited for individuals who hadn't known each for a really long time....we discovered these books and I picked up this copy and he picked up "If Only He Knew" the companion book to "For Better or For Best." Now my fiance is not a reader by nature, but the book kept him enthralled as to the insights it offered on how to be a good husband and understand your wife. In reading the chapters in this book, I have found them to be amazingly dead-on and incredibly helpful...the "Salt" technique is hilarious but very useful. Much as we like to think our own experiences and issues are unique, in reading this book I have found comfort in knowing that many of the relational issues between men and women are fairly universal and can be easily resolved by mutual understanding and a focus on Christ's example of serving. If you are in a serious relationship and are contemplating marriage, I strongly recommend these books....they have been not only fun to read but have stimulated my fiance and I to incorporate many of the suggestions in the book to improve communication; I was the type of person who figured that I knew all the issues and what i was supposed to do, that it was just a matter of application...but after reading these books, I can happily say I was wrong and learned much more. I can't say that about many books I have read on the same topic...the books are extremely practical and lifechanging.

I reccomend this set of books to all my friends and family who are planning marriage, or who are married already and having some difficulties. It is an EXCELLENT book on comunication, learning how to express your feelings and needs without hurting your mate's feelings in the process. I think even high school students could benefit from these books in learning how to comunicate effectively in relationships. Many of the principals of comunication used in the example of a marriage relationship can be extended to other familial and friendship relationships as well. My husband and I read these books just months after our wedding, and we have been married for 11 years now. We've had our arguments, disagreements, and hurt feelings, but the comunication skills we learned early on helped us to get through the rough times without tearing each other apart. Because we know underneath it all we still love each other. If you are looking for a counselor in a box, this very well might be the miracle you've been searching for.

I began reading this book because I wanted to know more about what my husband thinks and feels, and what I need to do to make our relationship more fullfilling. I haven't been able to put the book down since I applied the first suggestion on what I can do in daily situations to improve our communication and his understanding. He is a different man when I appply simple ways to handle certain situations. I have learned more about his thinking and in return he is fullfilling my needs emotionally, spritually and physcially. You do not need to be Christian to apply these basic principals that actually make sense. This book is a must read for new realtionships as well as vetern marriages.

I read "For Better or for Best" in January of 1995 when I was on the verge of a second divorce. I did not want a divorce but my husband was pulling further and further away from me. After I read this book (in 24 hours flat), my life began to change. My relationship with my husband did a 180 degree turn. This book is a must read for any woman who truly wants to know and love her husband and be truly known and loved by him.

Gary Smalley understands married men so well and I think this book is a classic on how men respond in relationships. Women can either be bitter at their husbands or work to make things better and this book gives so much practical insights to make things better. I recommend his web site to where their are great articles at garysmalley.com! Most women need this book!