My Favorite Books on Marriage

This post is for all my book readers out there! (There seems to be a lot of us 🤓)

If you are a wife and haven’t read any books on marriage, I want to encourage you to invest in your marriage by reading up on the topic! I cannot tell you how much I have learned and grown just by reading through christians books about all that God intended marriage to be.

Even as a single woman, I read marriage books that kicked my butt and helped to remove me from that “marriage is a fairy tale bubble”. It gave me a much more realistic view of what marriage would be and since getting married it brings so much truth to mind about what God says about my role as a wife.  Another thing I have learned through these books is that you have the power to improve or even radically change your marriage. It only takes one!

Top 5 Life Changing Books on Marriage

 

Meaning of Marriage

by Timothy Keller

“Until God has the proper place in my life, I will always be complaining that my spouse is not loving me well enough, not respecting me enough, not supporting me enough.”

I absolutely loved this book. It’s in my top 5 favorite books ever! Timothy Keller is a smart guy and his thinking is a little deeper and outside of the box which I really like.
Timothy-Keller-Meaning-of-marriage2

It wasn’t the same old stuff that you always hear about marriage, atleast I hadn’t heard it. He put things into perspective in ways that made me have “aha” moments all the way through and made me feel like … “If everyone knew this people wouldn’t be getting divorced!” He talks about the benefits of marriage, not it a way of how it brings me happiness, but in a way of how it brings me holiness. Which I think is a life, and relationship, changing viewpoint.

There are so many more things I could say, but I think you need to read this for yourself. He mentions that it is good for singles and married alike to read and says “it’s primary goal is to give both married and unmarried people a vision for what marriage is according to the Bible. That will help married people correct mistaken views that might be harming their marriage, and it will help single people stop over-desiring marriage or destructively missing marriage altogether.”


Sacred Influence

by Gary Thomas

“You can’t guarantee how everything will turn out; you definitely can’t control another human being. But you can “deserve” success. You can act in such a way that transformation is most likely.”

If you had told me that I was going to struggle with nagging my husband before I got married I would not have believed you! I was aware of the stereotype of wives and determined not to be “that wife”, but I have found that something happens when you get married that makes this a difficult thing to overcome. It may go back to the verse in Genesis ”  ”

It could be the realization that you will be with this person day and night for the rest of your life and you decide that to make this easiest on yourself, you should get him to be just like you… sounds logical, right?

Early into our marriage, I decided to read this, as I felt this nagging quality creep in and saw that I was starting to become very quick to say things to Josh that I felt would make his my life better. I found I was doing way to much talking and not enough praying.

Gary Thomas writes this book encouraging women to recognize the amazing potential they had to transform their husbands and be these great agents of change in their husbands life, but also to let us know that it was not going to be the way we think it would be. He tells tons of stories sharing how women were able to push there husband to be the man God desired for them to be and for them to have the marriage He desired, but all without “pushing”.

This one was a big eye opener for me and one that I am really glad that I read early on, so I can create good habits for the entirety of our marriage, instead of having to learn this stuff years later after the bad habits are formed and rooted deep.


Power of a Praying Wife

by Stormie Omartien

“Shut up and pray.”

Probably some of the best advice a person could give! This book was another I picked up so that I could fight the “nag gene”.

I really loved all that this book showed me about how much opportunity I have to influence my husband’s life through prayer. (While Sacred Influence focused on actions toward my husband this one focuses on the action of prayer!) This book is not groundbreaking, as we all know we need to be in prayer, but it is an amazing guide as to HOW and for WHAT to pray for our husbands. If you find yourself praying the same things over and over or just wanting to cover him in more detailed and thorough prayer, I would definitely pick this up!

There were some parts when she talks about her husband that made me a little uncomfortable, almost like I was eavesdropping or shouldn’t be hearing it! But I think her intention was to let you know that it doesn’t matter how bad your marriage (or husband) is, there is hope through prayer.

** I liked her 31 topics for prayer so much, I even made a guide that I could print out and keep with my prayer journal! Sign up in the box below to receive them!


You Me & Forever

by Francis & Lisa Chan

“We can’t afford to waste our marriage by merely pursuing our own happiness.”

A big theme for me over the last few years has been learning to understand what it means to cultivate a heavenly perspective. When I think about heaven and what it means for our time on earth, my perspective on life’s circumstances dramatically shifts. So when I saw the description of the book was “Marriage in Light of Eternity”, I knew I would love it.

Francis-Chan-You-and-Me-Forever-QuoteAs I studied the Bible and wrote “Wholeheartedly”, I discovered that marriage although a beautiful thing, was a temporary earthly relationship, so I wondered how we create eternal significance with our marriages on earth. This book helped me reconcile why marriage on earth was a good thing and how to make it a God-honoring and eternity minded institution. I also loved that the pages are soaked in Scripture. Be prepared because it will step on your toes about everything you thought about marriage in the best way possible!


Sheet Music

by Kevin Leman

“One of the most loving and holy things you can do in marriage is to provide a sexually fulfills pursuit of your husband or wife.”

If you have been married for any period of time, you may feel like a book on sex is not really necessary, but I would argue that it is. We have so many years of the world’s ideas sex built up in our minds and even continue receiving messages on the subject from TV, movies, and conversations with friends, that it is important to continually remind ourselves of what God’s intention for sex in marriage is!

This book gives a biblical view of intimacy in marriage, talks about very practical things to encourage a good sex life, and just reminds us how important it is we connect regularly, especially for our husband.


EXTRAS : (I haven’t read these, but they have been recommended to me!) 
You Can Be the Wife of a Happy Husband by Darian Cooper
Sweethearts for Life by Wayne & Carol Mack
Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
What Did You Expect by Paul Tripp

What book has been the most life changing for your marriage? Would you add any books to this list?
P.S. If you like book reviews, check out these posts on my reads from 2016 & 2015 !

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