When Randall House asked me to review one of their newest marriage books, Visionary Marriage by Rob & Amy Rienow, I was pretty excited. I love books, especially ones that help your marriage. So let’s get started with this review, shall we?
Visionary Marriage: Capture a God-sized vision for your marriage
Book Stats:
It’s written from a Christian perspective, 155 pages, and includes discussion questions and prayer examples at the end of each chapter.
Who, in particular, would love this book?
- Christian couples of any age or stage of marriage.
- Christian couples where one or both spouses are new believers.
- Christian couples who want a Godly marriage, but have no clue what that means other than to not get divorced.
- Christian couples who want a guide to a mission statement.
- Sunday school or small group Bible studies.
The Review:
Visionary Marriage fills a big hole in the Christian marriage book world. We are inundated with books about how to guard our husband’s eyes from pornography or how to pray for each other or how to be a Proverbs 31 woman, but I’m not sure that any book does as good of a job as Visionary Marriage explaining the purpose of it all. Because the truth is when we don’t understand the purpose of marriage, specifically God’s purpose for marriage, it makes all of the actions that marriage requires near impossible. Think about it like this, if you decide to quit eating your favorite dessert for a year you will last a lot longer when you know what the purpose (losing weight, getting healthy, cutting your dessert budget) of this (horrible) exercise is.
Rob and Amy do a wonderful job explaining not just how to submit, love, transform, pray, and go on mission as a married couple, but they explain why it’s important and why God cares. So many of us have lost sight of God’s purpose for marriage or have succumbed to the world’s purpose for marriage (to be happy or fulfilled) that this book is a great way to get back on track.
Just a “warning”, Rob and Amy take the Scripture very seriously. So when the Bible tells women to submit or that God designed marriage to be two becoming one they don’t manipulate the Word to fit what they want it to say or what you want to hear. Everything they share is based on the premise that you believe God’s word is true (which is why I think it’s a book that Christians will gain the most from, however, a non-Christian couple could read it and get a better picture of what God wants for marriage than what we see from many Christian marriages around us).
This is a great book for any Christian couple to read. If you’re thinking about marriage it’s a fantastic way to see what you’re really promising on your wedding day. If you’re newlyweds you will benefit from knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing from the beginning. If your marriage is failing this gives you a reason bigger than yourself to make it work. If you’ve been doing this marriage thing for a while you’ll be re-energized by getting refocused on your marriage’s purpose and power in this world.
Where to Buy:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
D6 Family
