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Highly Happy Marriages



I would like to think I do not need to offer an explanation. I would assume that you, my confidants, would understand the reasons without me even giving them. But, since online scuttlebutt is what it is, I will go ahead and offer an explanation before I go any further.

My marriage is fine. Actually, my marriage rocks. In fact, if my marriage were to race against your marriage, I would bet on my marriage every time. Not that I'm a betting man.

Having said that, let me tell you that I enjoyed reading Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages by Shaunti Feldhahn. That's right, my wife didn't make me read it. She didn't say I needed to get in touch with my feelings. And when I informed the Mrs. that I was reading this, she didn't go in a corner and curl up in the fetal position until I bought her something shiny. And do you know why?

Because my marriage is awesome!

However, awesome can always be made even more so. So I read. Shaunti has taken a topic that could be considered overdone and made this an interesting read that offers instant practicals for your marriage, if you want it to rock like mine.

Each secret is worded in a counter-intuitive way, thus the surprise. She spent oodles of her time conducting interviews and weeding out the couples who were only a little happy. She wanted the insights of the highly happy. Instead of resting on conventional wisdom, she looked at marriages as they were presented to her, in very real ways.

This book is not for those looking for an instant fix, because any problem will take time to solve, at least as long as it took to grow and fester. But with links to statistics and surveys and real-world conversations, she offers a conclusion of what the happy couples are doing.

My favorite part of the book was how Shaunti maintained a Christian worldview, without flaunting it or coming across as high and mighty. She stated the truth simply and allowed the results to speak for themselves. This could even be a good book for engaged couples to go through, so they can approach marriage with both eyes open.

This is a great read for any couple, even if your marriage rocks, like mine. I was given this book by my good friends over at Waterbrook Multnomah. They give me awesome books and ask that I post a review. Which I have now done.
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