If you are a fan of reading, especially encouraging your kiddos to pick up a book over the summer, enhance their reading skills, or find great new reads for kids (and adults too) joining a summer reading program is a great idea and lots of fun.
Family Christian has a summer reading program that I’m sure is a hit. Kids can read books off of their reading list, fill out a book report form, and earn a Family Christian certificate. You can learn more about the program here.
I have always found that when my kids are more into reading and choosing new books, I want to read more and find some new books. I want to get in on the fun.
So when Family Christian asked some of its bloggers to create some summer reading lists, I jumped on it. I thought “YAY! Everyone’s looking for beach/vacation reads” and I LOVE recommending my favorite resources on marriage. Not only are these GREAT books (I’ve read all of these and re-read many of them) but they also have so much valuable information and things to implement right away. They are also awesome resources to come back to over and over.
Whether you’ve been married 1 year, 10 years, or a few decades, I know there are little nuggets to take away from each of these resources. And you might be surprised at how God uses these books to influence the next part of your journey.**
1. Visionary Marriage – If you think back on why you got married, your answers might include all kinds of things, like being in love, laughing together, or just knowing they were ‘the one’. This book walks us through how God designed marriage and how we can use that to capture a God-sized vision for our marriages. This is my absolute favorite book on marriage, which is totally why I put it first.
2. Love and Respect – The oft-quoted verse from Ephesians 5 instructs wives to respect their husbands and husbands to love their wives. And to be honest I feel like there are sermons and social commentary and tons of people telling men they aren’t doing enough as husbands when in reality, it’s a cycle of loving and respecting each other. This book was the first resource that really hit me over the head with the reality that love for men looks differently than love for women.
3. For Women Only/For Men Only – So speaking of the differences of how men and women experience love and respect, FWO and FMO delivers the WHY of this based on tons and tons of research and statistical analysis. Then, for those of us who don’t like to read text books, she makes it super simple to understand and very easy to read. **Fun Tip Here** If you and your husband are looking for marriage books to read together, this is a GREAT one. And Shaunti even recommends that ladies grab For Women Only and men grab For Men Only and create personalized editions. Then you can trade with your spouse to get an inside look at each other!
4. The Respect Dare – For me, the biggest hurdle to respect was the HOW. So I love The Respect Dare because it’s a 40 dare journey of the how – and it starts with releasing our own expectations and realizing that we can only control our own thoughts and actions – and that those are super impactful in our marriages.
5. Sheet Music – Building the physical intimacy portion of our marriages is both fun and challenging. As we go through seasons with kids and moves and work and life, things can change and I think it’s always a good idea to have a book like this in our arsenal for when we feel stuck.
6. The 5 Love Languages – If you could just pick one way to tell your spouse that you loved them, you’d want to choose the thing they can hear. This also goes right into the love/respect conversation from above and is so important to know about your spouse – and yourself! Also I think it’s helpful to note our sending and receiving love languages so you know where your wires might get crossed.
7. Sacred Marriage – What if marriage wasn’t about making us happy, but about making us holy? What if it was learning about and practicing forgiveness, unconditional love, patience, and more by promising to marry someone, become their closest neighbor, and then be the iron sharpening iron from now until death parts us? Yeah, capturing that God-sized vision (from #1) sounds pretty important now.
8. Night Light for Couples – This is not so much a read as a devotional. I know some people REALLY want to go through marriage resources together, but I know that can be tricky to do together. Devotions are great because they are usually short and sweet and full of wisdom. This is one of my favorites.
I invite you to check out these out, and see how they enhance your summer reading. I would really love to hear some of your favorite marriage reads and what has really helped in your marriages.
**Sometimes when we think of marriage resources we think that for something to “work” we have to do it with our spouse. I really think that we grow and learn at different times on our journey and sometimes it is put in front of us to be the catalyst for change or at least to try something new. I pray that you would give these books a chance and even if you read them on your own, that you would give some of the suggestions a try.**
I was compensated for this post however all of the opinions in it are my own. For more information please see my disclosure page.
J says
Have you seen the “Love & Respect” podcasts? Dr Eggerich & his son (also Dr Eggerich ) do a weekly podcast. They’re pretty good. I’ve enjoyed listening to them while I’m in the car.
Leah says
J- I knew that the Eggeriches had a podcast but I *gasp* haven’t gotten into podcasts yet. I know once I do I will be so excited. Many of these authors have podcasts – I know Dr. Rob Rienow does (Visionary Marriage) and I’ve seen the others either on their own or with others. Podcasts are such a cool tool!
Leah
Eleanor Evans says
I love Shaunti’s style in JFW and JFM and we found the books v helpful to read before our marriage. Having both of us know the concepts in the books has helped us each to explain things to the other in times of otherwise unexplained anger/upset/frustration. Although, I read JFW again last month (18 months into marriage) and was like “how could I have already forgotten so much of this stuff?!”
Leah says
Eleanor, It is so important. And how we are never taught this stuff is beyond me because it’s useful in EV-ER-Y-THING. I saw she has a For Couples Only. I guess I have a new one for the wish list! -Leah