This is an excellent book to read before you get married, maybe even before you get engaged. It is helpful to read and discuss each chapter with your future spouse and also with a pastor, mentor, or trusted friend. Each of the 14 chapters are written by different experts and they cover all the topics you would expect and more. At the end of each chapter are a few discussion questions and an activity to try.
There are some great tools included in the book, such as the lists of potential expectations and the personality test.
There is a lot of wisdom on these pages. I highly recommend it for all couples before marriage. Greg Smalley Good book and video series to go through as an engaged couple! Greg Smalley Exceptional book! I read this book on my own, and now my husband and I are reading it together. I will gift it to all of my newlywed friends! I love their straight forward advice. Funny thing, I got this book as an engagement gift in 2015 and didn't read it until after we'd been married for 3 years! I almost think it was better that I read this as a newlywed because the advice was more practical for a newlywed couple. My favorite chapters were the ones that discussed how to deal with conflict and how to become one with one another. Conflict between a couple and how to handle conflict from external sources is an essential skill to learn for marriage. Thanks Greg Smalley! Greg Smalley Rating: 3.5 stars
Review:
I've read a lot of marriage/ relationship books over the past year. Sadly, this one is not one of the ones that stands out to me. I picked this up as a single woman, preparing herself for marriage the most I can before dating and marriage. Where other books focus on the model of marriage, and what will make a successful partnership from dating to marriage, this book definitely focusses on people who are already engaged and ready to take that next and helpful steps to ensuring it goes as smoothly as possible.
Don't get me wrong, there are helpful chapters such as how to manage conflict, managing your expectations of marriage, how to divide up household chores and discuss your money profiles, but overall the book left me feeling devoid of those 'wow' moments that change your perspective and view on things.
I think this will be a more helpful book for me when I am engaged and to use it as a conversation starter with my fiancee about our expectations and plans during marriage. Greg Smalley Oh how I wanted to like this book. I really did. Not that there is not some very practical and helpful things within the pages of the book, but any time psychology is brought into a book like this, the book inevitably seems to go off the rails. I dove into this book because my now, son-in-law asked me if I had ever read it, and if so, what I thought about it. He was reading through it as he prepared to marry my daughter and I figured that I should read it too, simply to see what he was being presented in the content of the book. As I note above, there is some very helpful and practical insight that is provided by the variety of authors. Those practical insights can be very helpful for a young engaged couple to read through, as they do cover many critical points that need to be covered in a premarital counseling setting. There are, however, various times throughout the book where the premise of the author's point is based upon psychology and this greatly weakens the book. How I wish someone would write the book and leave the psychobabble out and would use all Scripture accurately. Can this book be helpful for some? I'm confident it can. Could I sell this book or use it in my ministry? I can't. Greg Smalley
Greg Smalley Ñ 4 Summary
Rings. Dress. Cake.
You’re engaged, and the checklist for the day of your dreams is a mile long. In the who, what, where, and how of planning, the why can be forgotten.
Ready to Wed discusses 12 Traits of a thriving marriage and offers a variety of topics to guide and advise those preparing to say, “I do!”
Learn to:
Define a vision statement unique to your marriage.
Positively engage conflict to build a foundation of trust and forgiveness.
“Leave and cleave,” even if you are a child of divorce.
Manage expectations—and your in-laws!
Navigate hot-button issues including, sex and the chore wars.
Cope with change, stress, and crisis—especially in your first year.
Build a community of support and find mentors.
Assess your progress using the Couple Checkup.
Loaded with advice, tips, and instructions, this valuable resource is ideal for soon-to-be-newlyweds and those who support them! Ready to Wed: 12 Ways to Start a Marriage Youll Love
This is one of my favorite relationship books. It is actually geared toward the premarital stage, and I think was written largely as a resource to be used during premarital counseling. However, I read it after marriage and found it a refreshing mix of topics, including conflict, in-laws, expectations, and “the chore wars.”
This book is written by a variety of authors; some chapters are more engaging than others, but I enjoyed reading the different perspectives, all aligned with biblical principles on marriage. Greg Smalley I wish I had realized before getting this book that all of it revolved around Christianity (and, to be frank, more orthodox versions of Christianity), having a Godly marriage, and how you should use the church in your marriage. That's fine and all- but my fiance and I are not religious, so some of the advice in here was not advice I would ever solicit. Therefore, I found myself skimming pages that would then preach to me how I am sinning because I'm living with my partner before marriage, how we need to make prayer a morning/lunch/dinner/nightly process, and how I need to ask God for help when arguing with my spouse.
All that said, I enjoyed some of the book- namely, the activities presented. Each chapter had a minimum of 3 discussion topics for Eric and I (which, since he doesn't like to read, was a great way to engage him in the book topic), a sort of activity to work on the subject proposed, and additional ideas for troubleshooting later on. I've enjoyed these.
Overall, do not recommend- but it was a fine example of premarital workshopping, especially if you want to do so in a very Christian way. Greg Smalley You need to get this book Facebook, I hate when I can't add books to Facebook but can find them on goodreads. Although it came out this year I hope it does soon. Greg Smalley Amazing book. Great way to begin the journey of marriage. Greg Smalley A great relationship book!
My fiancé and I worked our way through this book together as part of our own premarital journey. We both enjoyed the different perspectives on a variety of topics, and the questions at the end of each chapter prompted some good conversations. While I will say that we'd largely discussed a lot of the topics that this book introduced, the ways that the topics were presented often shed a light on some particular thought or belief that we hadn't discussed, and the opportunity to then follow-up really helped deepen our relationship.
I personally found the various lists, checklists, and personality tools helpful as well. Again, some were more insightful than others, but overall, they helped clarify some things that we already knew about one another without having truly discussed those topics.
I'm not a marriage expert by any means--I'm not even married yet!--but this book is, in my opinion, a fantastically thorough, Christian-based, thought-provoking book for couples. Greg Smalley