Recently, our young married’s group at church wrapped up a seven week study of Francis and Lisa Chan’s marriage book, You and Me Forever.
Our little group has studied through myriad other marriage resources (The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas, The Ten Best Decisions A Couple Can Make by Bill and Pam Farrell, just to name a few), but You and Me Forever has by far had the most impact for me and I think for others in our group as well. Maybe God placed this book in my life at precisely the time we needed it, but this short seven week study challenged my husband and me and inspired us in ways we had been craving. And it definitely prompted an entirely different conversation in our group than other studies have.
If you’re marriage is in danger or if it’s just feeling stagnant, or even if it’s going well! – Read This Book.
Here’s why I loved it:
1. The content of the book focuses on the big picture, on the eternal picture. So many other marriage books I’ve read are inwardly focused (what are my needs, what are your needs, etc…). The Chans remind us that our marriages can become truly great and God honoring when we focus beyond ourselves and focus on how what we are doing now impacts eternity. How can our marriages build God’s kingdom?
There are plenty of marriage books that will teach you how to get along and be happy. This is not one of those books. I am not knocking those. In fact, we have learned some helpful principles from them over the years. The problem with those books is that they can make you feel like having a happy family is the goal of Christianity. They can make primary things like God’s glory and His mission sound secondary. They can nudge you into exchanging ultimate happiness for immediate happiness. To put it bluntly, those books don’t account for the fact that you can have a happy earthly marriage and then be miserable for all eternity. This book is about loving each other forever.
From You and Me Forever
2. It’s free!! The digital download of the book and the accompanying session videos are completely free!
3. The digital download offers unique and helpful features. For example, there are questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. But, when you link your account with your spouse’s, you can view each other’s written OR video responses – pretty cool. Also, any text that you highlight also gets highlighted in your spouse’s book. I especially liked this feature because it helped me get insight into what resonated with my husband and vice-versa. And if that’s not enough, there are a few thought provoking video clips scattered throughout the book. Also (probably my husband’s favorite feature), you can listen to the audio version of the book read by Francis and Lisa.
4. Did I mention it’s free?
5. I appreciated the fact that this book and the accompanying videos were obviously a team effort. Both Francis and Lisa contributed in the writing and discussion. They lived out the unity of mission that they encourage throughout the book. We NEED more examples like theirs.
6. Every chapter is a call to action – a call to invest in God’s kingdom rather than frantically slap together our own minuscule kingdom. It will forever change the way you think by spurring you on to focus on Forever. This in turn sheds a whole new light on our daily activities relating to marriage, parenting, finances, etc… Our marriages are about more than living happily ever after!
7. They’ve made the sweetest music video together 🙂 Check it out here: You and Me Forever
I would urge anyone who wants to take their marriage and relationship with the Lord to the next level to read this book! It will be time incredibly well spent.
Get started Here.
Blessings ~~~
kimrettmann.com 