Getting Ready for Marriage

My husband and I read many books together before our marriage last year. This book helped us the most. We were able to discuss potential differences and expectations. This book helped us understand each other, our families, and our ideas about marriage better. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their relationship and prepare for the more difficult parts of marriage.

My wife and I teach a premarital class at our local church and use this book as our workbook. So far, each of the couples in the class has really enjoyed finding what makes each other "tick". This book, with its short chapters and questionaires, has helped stimulate in depth disscusions between the future mates about what "baggage" each is bringing to their marriage. The book covers topics from personalities and attitudes,to finances and sex. Each subject is presented from a Chistian perspective, and yet is general enough to be able to cross denominational lines. If you want to really get to know your future mate, read this book. It will open lines of communication that will last a lifetime.

Any pre-marital preparation and counseling is a good idea in my book, but this is something special. While we were engaged and living in different cities, my wife and I went through this workbook individually chapter by chapter and discussed our responses over the phone. So many topics came up that we would never have thought to be major issues for us to deal with! The particular strength of this book over some others is the authors' emphasis on families of origin. We each bring so much baggage and so many expectations into the marriage that comes from our families where we grew up! Many books ignore this, but Sloan and Hardin wisely forced us to look hard beyond puppy love and into real-life commitment. I get the feeling the authors have seen their share of wrecked marriages, have traced the problems, and have used that knowledge in the creation this book. Highly recommended.

My wife and I found this book very valuable. However, the book is mainly directed towards non cross cultural marriages. So If you are a mixed couple like us, Sweden & Portugal, do please remeber to check out som books about cross-cultural communication.God Bless you with your marriage.

My fiancee and I have found this to be an excellent tool for deepening our understanding of each other as we prepare for marriage. We highly recommend it.Written from a Christian perspective of marriage, it is applicable to anyone who wants their marriage to be a lifetime and life-long commitment. The goal of the book is to help couples learn the "who" and "why" of each other. It does this by promoting communication about each individual's family background as well as what each individual is looking forward to in a marriage.This is an excellent tool. It doesn't "preach" but helps you learn for yourself.