The Marriage You Want is due to release this week! Life has been so busy that I’ve been rather sluggish in getting through my advanced copy. I finally finished it yesterday and immediately knew that I wanted to help spread the word about it as fast and far and wide as possible.
This book has incredible potential to help a diverse assortment of couples — from those preparing to embark on the adventure of marriage to those ready to get to the root of issues that have plagued them for years. It casts a beautiful vision for partnership and presents a practical, encouraging, healthy, evidence-based, Christ-centred approach to building true intimacy.
So much of the marriage enrichment material (and, dare I say, even discipleship material in general) marketed to the Church over the years has put the cart before the horse, focussing on outward actions instead of drilling down to the heart from which those actions flow. For example, the Gregoires make the point that it’s the ingredients that make for great sex that we should be prioritizing, not the frequency of intercourse.
You shouldn’t prioritize sex in your marriage. That’s pretty wild coming from someone who has dedicated her life to writing books about sex, isn’t it? Well, we’ve crunched the numbers, and here’s a much better idea: Prioritize the ingredients that make for great sex, not the frequency of intercourse…instead of working on frills like frequency, work on the foundations.
Building without a firm foundation is frustrating and futile, both in life and in marriage. Fruit is not something we glue to the external limbs of our lives; fruit is the natural product of intimacy, both in our relationship with Jesus and with our spouse.
I also love how the book looks at marriage over the long-term. It doesn’t just give a snapshot of one particular season or stage. This is crucial since many things change over the lifespan of a marriage, including our own perceptions as we age and mature from our honeymoon days to our sunset years.
There is no one-size-fits-all advice when it comes to the practicalities of growing and managing a family and doing life together. This book will equip you with the principles to put into practice (in your own unique way) to create a thriving relationship at any stage of marriage.
The research is solid. The conclusions drawn from it are Christ-honouring. This is the marriage book we’ve all been wanting…and one that the Church desperately needs!
Find The Marriage You Want on Amazon here.
If you’re on Goodreads and would like to connect there, you can find me here.