As you can see from the button on the right- I recently became a reviewer for Thomas Nelson books! Here's my first adult book review!Rick & Bubba's Guide to the Almost Nearly Perfect Marriage is a humorous take on marriage and its pitfalls and joys. The authors have been married for a combined 33 years of marriage and they can give some pretty good marriage advice! They tinge their advice with biblical references, but it isn't heavy-handed. The book is meant to be comedic, so those looking for heavy bibical quoting won't get it here.
This book would be a WONDERFUL gift for engaged couples in pre-marriage guidance counselling (something I think ALL couples should be REQUIRED to go though, no matter what their religious preference- you want the marriage license? two weeks counseling REQUIRED- I think it would stop ALOT of problems BEFORE people got married, but that's just me....)
The book is a quick and easy read, covering topics that ALL married couples go through- getting 'lost', annoying habits, why 'his' stuff always goes first at garage sales (particularly funny), lost keys, teamwork, last-minute gift buying, kids, hospital stays, date nights, survival and most importantly GRACE. I really liked the chapter on grace- that we need to forgive each other/lower expectations, because we did NOT marry Mr/Mrs PERFECT. Seriously, if we did, would we have anything to complain about? Preciously!
The other good chapter was "Ball and Chain?" which states that marriage is really freedom, and being SINGLE is being tied down! The chapter gives a good explanation that freedom comes from TRUST in your spouse and your love for each other- you don't have to be calling and checking in on each other every 30 minutes like people who are dating do. If you're going to be late, a courtesy call is all that's required if you're married, not update calls every 5 minutes as to your eta home! Newlyweds may cringe at memories of themselves doing this, but hopefully their trust is now in place and it's ok to forget you used to bug your spouse incessantly!
I am like other reviewers who said that it took me a few days to get through the book, as the humor sort of takes on the same line and gets stale if you read too many chapters at a time. I took the break to relfect on my marriage, then came back to the book. I definitely believe that spouses should both read the book- it will make you rethink some things!
The bonus cd included ("the Best of Rick & Bubba") was funny and a good intro to the authors if you have never heard their radio show!
I would recommend this book as a good 'summer' read for married couples and a MUST for all newlyweds to be!
Thanks for sharing your review. I haven't seen many books about marriage that have a Christian worldview without being heavy. This sounds pretty good.
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Great review - I was debating on whether to sign up for this one through Thomas Nelson book review bloggers.
ReplyDeleteI just responded to you on A Frugal Friend about the Wiggly Play Center. My little one is 23 months and she had so much fun with the small toddler room and one area she could go in with Daddy and slide down. There were cars driven all over the place by kiddos too (Little tikes). That being said, she was too little for the bounce houses and other climbing houses/slides the other kids were on. If your little one is closer to 3, I'm sure it would be perfect....as for me, we'll wait a few more months before we go back. Just so we can take advantage of it all.
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