*This post contains affiliate links.
To compile a list of books on marriage to read throughout the year, I had no further to go than the staff of Mentoring Moments. Our writers are sharing their honest recommendations today to encourage and challenge you, as these books have influenced their own marriages. It is a wise habit to read at least one or two books yearly related to marriage, even together as a couple.
If you would like to add a few to your reading list, here are our favorites along with the book’s description:
Bible
Nothing will ever replace the guidance provided in the Word of God. As Elizabeth George says, “let us be women of one book, the Bible.”
This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence
by John Piper
“Reflecting on forty years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for all the best reasons.”
His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair-Proof Marriage
by Willard Harley
“In His Needs, Her Needs, Willard Harley identifies the ten most vital needs of men and women and shows husbands and wives how to satisfy those needs in their spouses. He provides guidance for becoming irresistible to your spouse and for loving more creatively and sensitively, thereby eliminating the problems that often lead to extramarital affairs.”
The Power of a Praying® Wife Deluxe Edition
by Stormie Omartian
“Real-life illustrations, inspiring Scriptures, encouraging quotes, and sample prayers to help every wife pray for her husband’s spiritual walk, emotions, roles as father and leader, security in work and finances, health, faith and future.”
When Love Dies: How To Save A Hopeless Marriage
by Judy Bodmer
“When Love Dies is a refreshing, honest look at one woman’s journey to the edge of divorce, her commitment to stay even though she didn’t feel like it, and eventual rediscovery of the love that she thought died.”
Because I Said Forever: Embracing Hope in an Imperfect Marriage
by Deb Kalmbach
“This is not a how-to-save-your-marriage book but more a guidebook for wives on how to save their ability to love, to honor their commitment to their husbands, and to maintain their faith in God…”
When Couples Pray Together: Creating Intimacy and Spiritual Wholeness
by David & Jan Stoop
The Stoops want husbands and wives to pray together, and they have written a book full of practical advice, sympathetic encouragement and true-to-life results in the lives of real couples.
Hedges: Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It
by Jerry Jenkins
“Plant preventative hedges around your marriage. These hedges are practical ways to avoid compromising situations and giving temptation a foothold in your life. Jenkins’ real-life stories of how temptation can slip in undetected and, in a dizzying whirl of deception and betrayal, cause a marriage to crumble are a wake-up call for all married couples.”
Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs
by Emerson Eggerichs
Psychological studies affirm it, and the Bible has been saying it for ages. Cracking the communication code between husband and wife involves understanding one thing: that unconditional respect is as powerful for him as unconditional love is for her. It’s the secret to marriage that every couple seeks, and yet few couples ever find.
Stained Glass Marriage: Hope for Shattered Homes
by Dale & Jena Forehand
This is a great book for couples going through a difficult marriage. Dale and Jena actually divorced then put their marriage back together God’s way.
Covenant Marriage: Building Communication and Intimacy
by Gary Chapman
Dr. Chapman shows how communication and intimacy are two of the most important aspects in developing a successful Covenant Marriage. At the heart of it all are the principles that lasting answers to marital growth are found in the Bible, your relationship with God enhances your marriage relationship, communication is the primary vehicle by which two persons become one in the marriage relationship, and the idea of biblical oneness involves not only sex, but intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and social oneness.
For Better or for Best
by Dr. Gary Smalley and Nora Smalley
Using case histories and biblical illustrations, he solves with empathy, humor, and wisdom every practical and emotional problem a woman can face in her marriage.
More marriage titles by Dr. Smalley: The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
,
If Only He Knew: What No Woman Can Resist
The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective
by Martha Peace
Here is a Scripturally-based blueprint for the woman who truly desires to be the wife God intended her to be. This book is based on Proverbs 31:10: “An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.”
Friends and Lovers: Cultivating Companionship and Intimacy in Marriage
by Joel Beeke
Marriage aims at the glory of God through intimate companionship. God meant husband and wife to walk together, talk together, work together, and sleep together. As the Puritans said, God did not make the woman out of man’s head to control him, or out of his feet for him to trample on her, but out of his side to be embraced near his heart. Here is a book of practical encouragement for two key aspects of marriage: companionship and sex.
The Respect Dare: 40 Days to a Deeper Connection with God and Your Husband
by Nina Roesner
Two thousand years ago, Paul gave women the key to a successful marriage, and it can be summed up in two words: unconditional respect. It’s not popular. It doesn’t sound fair. It can be hard to imagine.
Do you have a favorite book on marriage? Share it in the comments!
* This post is from Mentoring Moments’ 2013 archives.
About Kellie Renfroe
Kellie and her husband Greg have been married 32 years and have four children ranging in age from 17 to 28. She co-founded Mentoring Moments for Christian Women in 2005. Kellie is a homeschooling mom who enjoys reading, studying the Bible, writing, photography, and learning how to cook.
- Web |
- More Posts(342)
