Lasting Love: How to Avoid Marital Failure

A conventional Christian marital handbook with conventional Christian advice.

These type of books always slightly annoy me because the advice comes off as smug and overly simplistic. As a woman and a wife, I often feel scolded like I'm a lazy child. Like when the author warns women not to neglect their house work in favor of social engagements. I mean, that's good advice, but it's also really patronizing.

The author definitely assumes that the wife is staying home and doing all the house work. He does mention that he can't be dogmatic about this because the Bible doesn't prescribe such things, but he still manages to make you feel guilty about other arrangements. He also encourages women not to be bitter when they're stuck at home with show more the kids all day, slaving away with dishes and diapers and meanwhile their husband is playing 16 holes of golf with a business associate. After all, we are still serving God even though it feels like our lives are pointless. Okay, sure. Caring for children and home is valuable work and does serve God. Many women choose the job of homemaker with joy. But just because she enjoys it doesn't give the husband leave to goof around with his hobbies all the time.

The author makes a point of casting husbands as sacrificial lovers, but it really seems like most of the sacrifice is on the woman's side in his view of marriage. show less

Alistair Begg's book on marriage has been around for about eighteen years and is being re-released by Moody Publishers in 2015. My hopes that it was a new edition were shattered when I ran across a reference to it being the 1990s. The latest works cited in the bibliography are from 1996. Much of the advice Begg provides to couples is still valid; however, it is a shame that the content has not been updated and that he has failed to draw from more recent authors such as Gary Thomas and Timothy Keller. Although the advice is sound, I feel that some of the concepts will not be heeded by today's generation without a slightly different approach to the argument. The book has a study guide written by James S. Bell, Jr. which can be used by show more couples or by groups studying the book. It would probably be quite helpful in many premarital counseling situations. The foreward to the book was written by Howard Hendricks. It seems a new foreward by someone who is at the forefront of today's Christian leaders would have been a good addition to the book. This review is based on an advance readers e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes. show less

Nice little book that one can read fairly quickly. There are a lot of books on the subject out there. I like Alistair Begg and have had the opportunity to see him live and hear him online. Really like his quips. I think the best thing I got from this book, which I think about constantly, is to be successful in marriage, you have to do a few things well and consistently. Another nice thing was a short but nice discussion about the weaker vessel.