4 out of 4 stars
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Anyone who has been married longer than 10 minutes will tell you that marriage is work. The book, Marriage Strings: Tuning Your Relationship to Last a Lifetime, sets out practical and attainable steps to make the work of marriage easier and set couples up for a lifetime of commitment. The authors, husband and wife duo Dr. Jones Lukose and Dr. Beatrice Lukose both have years of experience in the areas of relationship-building and counseling and bring their own personal experiences from their successful decades-long marriage.
Marriage Strings is based on the Lukoses’ successful Motivat Marriage Strings Program that was created to help patients inwardly and outwardly. The thesis explains that for the marriage to work well, the individuals inside the marriage must work on themselves in addition to working on the marriage. When spouses truly connect at their inner spiritual core, the marriage will flourish and be solidly anchored and able to survive life changes, difficulties, and disappointments. The book is set up to help readers be on the same page before they are married, obtain a deeper level of intimacy throughout all aspects of the marriage, and repair the broken parts of an unhealthy or struggling marriage.
This book isn’t very long, but still manages to deal with a lot of heavy subject matter. The chapters are quite short and broken up into distinct topics. Topics include values, shared vision, love, change, sex, and communication among others. As I read, I got the impression this book was meant to be read over a longer period of time, with each section being discussed and acted on before moving on to the next section. It could be very overwhelming to try to read this book in a single day. I could easily see a husband and wife reading this book together, chapter by chapter, and taking the time to do the suggested marriage exercises and having important discussions on their values and expectations and points of conflict.
The authors wrote this book through the lens of their Christian faith. Fellow Christians will find much they can relate to. Readers of other faith traditions will likely find sections they too can relate to, although it will become evident that this book was written with Christian marriages in mind. The authors also explain near the beginning of the book that it is meant for heterosexual unions where the husband and wife are fully committed to one another. This book would not be applicable to those in a polyamorous or open marriage.
I would recommend this book to Christians who are married or planning to be married. I rated Marriage Strings: Tuning Your Relationship to last a Lifetime 4 out of 4 stars. The authors are deeply committed to helping marriages thrive through the ups and downs of life and present their ideas in an accessible and relatable manner.
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Marriage Strings: Tuning Your Relationship to Last a Lifetime
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