I was blown away by the diversity of marriage and sexual counseling that Mark and Grace have encountered. I've been doing premarital counseling for years and haven't even come close to their experiences. It truly demonstrates the secular culture and ministry environment they are dealing with in the Seattle area.
I was most impressed however in the thoroughness of research and honesty concerning contraceptives. This is something I don't often approach with couples, but found myself convicted to share truths behind them. I know for myself even though my wife and I have been around the medical profession for years we hadn't even thought of some of the things highlighted. We've had three miscarriages in our seventeen years of marriage. We have come to believe as a result of the type of birth control we were using it help cause the baby to not be viable in the womb. I've come to realize more and more there is so much we don't understand that we are doing to our bodies simply because people have told us it is okay to do. I wonder what people use to tell each other back in the '30 or '40's concerning smoking? Many of the people who are telling us it is okay to use certain types of birth control are ones we should be able to trust such as doctors, friends, parents, and even pastors. This is an area of marriage where many couples must become better informed.
Because of this opportunity to review this book for Book Sneeze from Thomas Nelson Publishing, I feel like there is one more pastor who has been corrected and better informed. Real marriages are hard work! It is so much easier to just walk out and move onto another relationship. Yet the most satisfying marriages are real ones! They understand it is more than about "me". It is all about "us"! Mark and Grace, I believe, come to that point at the end of this book as they highlight the most important day of your marriage as the last day not the first. As they say, we need to reverse-engineer our lives and marriages. "The big idea is to anticipate life forward and live it backward (208)." This insight will revolutionize so many marriages if it really sinks in. Nobody ever seeks out to get a divorce on their wedding day. Yet for many it still happens. Examining our marriages from the last day till the present will cause you and me to make the adjustments necessary to get the outcome we desire no matter the situations or heartaches which will happen along the way. You are in this marriage together with your spouse. Consequently, you must work at it together!
