Cherish

Cherish
By Gary Thomas
Published at Zondervan

About the book

“Most marriages survive by gritting teeth and holding on. But marriages can and will not only survive but thrive when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another.”

Those are the powerful words of bestselling author Gary Thomas in his newest book—Cherish. And in a world desperate for marriage redemption, it is needed now more than ever.

Thomas shows that although there are a countless number of marriages consisting of two people just going through the motions, there are real ways this pattern can be reversed: when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another in proven, loving, and everyday actions and words.

Through personal stories and real world examples, Thomas proves what husbands and wives can begin doing today to turn their marriage around—even a marriage marred by neglect and disrespect.

So how do you cherish your spouse? Thomas will show you how going out of your way to notice them, appreciate them, honor them, encourage them, and hold them close to your heart will bring hope, light, and life into your marriage.

My Thoughts

A couple of years ago, Gary Thomas can in town to speak about his other marriage book – The Sacred Marriage.   It was a great evening where we enjoyed getting encourage in our marriage.  So when I saw a new title from this writer, I knew it would be great.   And let me tell you I am not disappointed whatsoever.

The book speaks to both the wife and the husband on how to cherish the one with whom they are spending their life with.  What Sacred Marriage did to many marriage was essentially based on a New Testament verse.  This book is based on the Songs of Solomon….  Yes the one that many Christians would not want to read but which is packed with admiration from the two lovers.  

The book will encourage you to make extra effort in cherishing your spouse and to change your marriage in amazing ways.   It will stir your heart to give the best you have for your man or woman.   I would encourage couples to read it together and discuss it as well.   

If you have enjoyed The Sacred Marriage, you will definitively love Cherish.   The book is a must-have for a anyone who desire to bring their relationship to a new level.  

Cherish is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.

 

 

Disclaimer: Thanks to Thomas Nelson for sending me the above mentioned product in pdf format for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

With All Due Respect

With All Due Respect – 40 Days to a More Fulfilling Relationship with Your Teens and Tweens
Written by Nina Roesner and Debbie Hitchcock
Published at Thomas Nelson

About the book

With All Due Respect is a handbook for parents navigating the difficulties of the tween and teen years. Roesner and Hitchcock help parents identify what successful relationships look like and give easy-to-follow lessons in enforcing rules, communicating lovingly, resetting relationships, overcoming fears and exhaustion, and handling rebellion. Each day features a story every mom can relate to, down-to-earth questions to think about, and a prayer to launch an action plan. As a result, the reader gains new skills and perspective, greater strength, and an ability to live out faith daily as never before. With All Due Respect is for all parents seeking not only to connect more deeply with and positively impact their teens and tweens, but also to grow more deeply in faith through the process.

My Thoughts

When I requested this book to review, I was having issues with my tween and I knew that I needed to change.   So I quickly downloaded the Kindle version because I wanted to become a better parent for all my kids when they hit the tween/teen age.   I already have a teenager but somehow dealing with his transition was not as difficult as his siblings following him.  I suppose I might have been less tired for him too but I knew that I lacked the skills of dealing with siblings rivalry since I was a single child.   So I immediately started reading it.

Essentially this book is divided into forty dares to do but instead of focusing on your relationship with your husband, it helps you to establish a better relationship with your kids – boys or girls.   Growing in the tween and teenage years can be confusing for anyone and this book will allow you to slowly develop an amazing relationship with your kids.  

The forty challenges for us parents are the following ones:

• Assess Your Parenting Interactions
• Revisit Your Childhood
• Focus on God’s Vision
• Push the Reset Button
• Be Careful With Your Words
• Communicate Respect Early
• Stop Yourself
• Take Care of the Temple
• Counter the Culture
• Refrain from Casting Blame
• Parent with Perspective
• Leap Outside Your Comfort Zone
• Encourage Rather Than Nag
• Use Humor When Things Got Hot
• Stay Out of God’s Way
• Practice Thankfulness
• Be True to Your Word
• Offer Compassion Instead of Judgment
• Give Your Kids Grace
• Take Time to Listen
• Coach Your Kids On Navigating Conflict
• Parent Ahead
• Talk Your Kids Through Disappointment
• Drop the Comparisons
• Invite Their Friends In
• Separate Your Identity
• Avoid the Blame Game
• Respond With Calm
• Remove the Mask
• Deal With the Person Before the Issue
• Respectfully Consider Your Kids’ Requests
• Teach Your Kids to Self-Process
• Be Sensitive to Other Parents
• Release Yourself from Worry
• Encourage Self-Discipline
• Point Out What Is Right
• Be a Relationship Architect

Each challenge starts with scripture and you get to read a situation between a parent and his tween/teen.  At the end of this reading, you will get the bottom line on how the parent helped the child to deal with the issue.   Then the authors encourage you the parent to develop the skills needed to help with a similar situation.   Once you have finished reading you will get to the What About You? section which contains questions that will allow you to ponder on your own growing up as a teen, how you might have responded differently, how you could develop the skills demonstrated by the parent and so on.  These questions are very helpful to remember your own teenage years and realize where you can do better.  For me some on these questions were like a 2x4 hitting my head.   Finally at the end of the chapter, you will be able to pray on this specific skill with a quick prayer written by the authors.  Often you will realize that you will add more to make it your own personalize prayer.  After all what I experience with my tweens/teens would be different than what someone else experience.

Even though this book suggest to read one chapter a day for forty days, I find it hard to do this with our homeschool and other things to do.   I also find that some chapters were a bit harder to “digest” than others.   So I decided to go through this book at my own pace and develop the relationship I have with my kids in the same process.    The book also suggest to go through it and applying the lessons with only one child at a time but I find I could apply the lessons to more than one so because of this I find that slowing down while reading this book is beneficial for our family.   

If you are starting to have issues with your tweens/teens, this book could help you to build a better relationship with them.   I do recommend this book in order to strengthen your interaction with your teenagers.  But as any other book out there on relationship, be aware that it takes work and honesty from your part to go through it.

With All Due Respect is available at your favourite bookstore, even on amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to Thomas Nelson for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

52 Ways to Wow Your Husband

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

 

Pam Farrel

and the book:

52 Ways to Wow Your Husband: How to Put a Smile on His Face

Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2011)

***Special thanks to Catherine Miller, Marketing Assistant, Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Pam Farrel and her husband, Bill, are cofounders and codirectors of Masterful Living, an organization that provides practical insights for personal relationships. The Farrels are also regular relationship columnists. As coauthors their books include Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti, The 10 Best Decisions Every Parent Can Make, and Red-Hot Monogamy. In addition Pam has written Fantastic After 40! and The 10 Best Decisions a Woman Can Make. The Farrels have been married more than 30 years and have three children and a daughter-in-law.

Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

With her trademark humor and godly wisdom, bestselling author Pam Farrel inspires women to add the wow-factor to their marriages and lives through 52 clever ideas for dates, meals, getaways, and daily expressions of love. A spark of fun and refreshment for newlyweds, married with kids, or empty nesters.

Love Wise Intro from Bill & Pam Farrel on Vimeo.

Product Details:

List Price: $10.99
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736937803
ISBN-13: 978-0736937801

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

WOW 1

The Recharger Box


What a man finds romantic is a woman who will lower his stress! In Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti, I explain that men go to their favorite easy boxes to rest and recharge. God helped us women recognize these easy boxes in that most of them are shaped like boxes—the TV screen, the newspaper, the garage, the Xbox, the computer screen, the football field, the baseball diamond, the basketball court, the refrigerator, and the bed. The bed box (also known as the sex box) is a husband’s favorite box to go to when he is stressed out. This box or square is kind of like the center square on a bingo card, and a man can get to that box from every other square on his waffle.

Wow Assignment

Find out your man’s favorite easy box he goes to for recharging. Here are some ways to discover this vital information:

If given thirty minutes of dead time, what does he do?
If he were given a day off, where would he like to go?
What does he do now when stressed?
What does he watch on TV when relaxing? (Sports? Movies? Adventures? Fix-it shows?)
Kendra Smiley and her husband, John, wrote Do Your Kids a Favor…Love Your Spouse. John was wowed unexpectedly by Kendra with his all-time favorite box:

I’ve been a Green Bay Packers fan for years and transferred that enthusiasm to our three teenage sons. I never imagined I would actually be able to see a game at Lambeau Field because legend has it that the only way to get tickets is to inherit them when someone dies. But legends don’t stop Kendra! She called the ticket office, asking about the purchase of five tickets for the last home game of the season. After the laughter died down (I guess there was some truth to the legend), they referred her to an agency offering “Weekend Packages.” She knew we couldn’t afford all the extras of a package, and somehow she managed to convince the woman at that office to simply sell her five tickets. She gave me a gift that took her time, her effort, and a little bit of her charming persuasion. What a great model for our kids!

My man’s favorite easy box is: ________________________

Wow Wisdom

Pray and thank God for your husband. Often we women push, push, push our spouse to be more productive or work on our “honey-do” list even on his day off. If you keep pushing, he might begin to see you as a mother or a boss, not a wife and lover. A husband who gets pushed to do too many things he doesn’t enjoy will exhaust himself emotionally and grow distant from his wife. Think about how much better your life is when you are connected with your lover!

Instead of resenting your “waffleman” for needing to recharge, thank God he has a box to recharge in so he can maintain the energy to keep up with you! As Paul reminds us, “In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 nasb).

Wow Date

Make him breakfast in bed and serve waffles. Give him a note for one free day off to do whatever he wants—to enjoy his favorite “waffle box(es).” Include a gift card for something that helps him recharge. While you’re there in bed, why not enjoy some “bingo”? Remember, for most men, bingo is the number one recharger box.

My Thoughts

As soon as I saw the title on this blog tour I knew it would be fun to go through.  This book is a great way to do things for your husband and to stir the love in your marriage.

Each Wow can be done once a week for the whole year.   The Wow starts with a little “teaching moment” and follows with an assignment, a wisdom note and the planning of a date.  

If you are looking for ways to spice up your relationship, this little book can probably inspire you.    Some ideas will suggest sex while others are simply showing you how to demonstrate your love by texting, doing something fun together, or simply relaxing doing something he likes to do.

It would be a great book for newlyweds, married with kids or empty nesters.   You can be flexible with it, pick one every month or go through it once a week.  It doesn’t matter!  Just get closer to the one you love on the spiritual, emotional and physical bond between you with an out-of-the-ordinary rendezvous.  I suspect that once you have gone through this book, you will become more creative in the future to express your love for the one who shares your life.

52 Ways to Wow Your Husband is available everywhere even amazon.ca.