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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Crystal's Book Review


What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage
Paul David Tripp
Product Details
  1. Hardcover: 287 pages
  2. Publisher: Crossway
  3. Language: English
  4. Date of reading: 9/28/2011
Point: This book is “a detailed description of the daily work of love that must be done with commitment and joy when a flawed person is married to a flawed person and they are living together in a fallen world.” (Page 282)
Path: Throughout his book, Tripp presents six different commitments that spouses must make in order to have a God-honoring marriage. He brings in these aspects: confession and forgiveness, changing our daily agendas, building bonds of trust, building relationship of love, dealing with differences with appreciation and grace, and working to protect our marriage.
Agreement: I thought that this book was a very solidly founded on biblical principles for marriage. Marriage books frequently focus solely on romance, but Tripp brings out the fact that everything in life (including marriage) is based on worship. Who am I worshipping, myself or God? He is by no means against romance, but he says that romance is the fruit and not the root of a good marriage.
Disagreement: I did not find principles in this book that I would classify as unbiblical, but I do think that it would have been helpful to have more verses accompanying the principles that were listed. I also thought that the book was at times a bit wordy in that many of the same stories/illustrations seemed to appear in various chapters.
Personal App: What a convicting book! I have been deeply challenged to love my husband in a way that is self-sacrificing and also not to get lazy in my marriage. I have realized just how much I have been living in my “kingdom of self” and not living in a way that is truly pleasing to God and furthering His work.
Stars: 4 out of 5
It would be worth another read and I would recommend it.

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Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8)