Let's Get Real - Book Review

God has a story in your marriage and in your life, and through your marriage He is crafting you into His image.  You can read more about this theme as well as how to bring authenticity and wholeness to your marriage in Let’s Get Real, by Dale and Jena Forehand. 

This book is divided into an 8-week study that can be read simply as a chapter book or used as a study to do together as a couple or small group.  Each chapter includes encouragement, advice, illustrations, and mini Bible study sessions with a listening guide at the end of the chapter should you choose to watch the DVD designed to supplement the book.   Learn what happened to marriage at the first Fall, how to be a safe mate, how to get off the shame train, dealing with conflict, forgiveness, and showing your love physically. 

I found particularly interesting the Forehand’s explanation of the shame train – the differences between conviction and shame, causes that lead to the stronghold of shame, and how it leads to either performance or destruction as well as other strongholds that keep us personally and relationally imprisoned.  They also adequately address how to experience authentic forgiveness when you are suffering the consequences of a conflict that wasn’t handled in a godly manner.

Aside from the shame-train topic, I didn’t find a lot of new information in this book that I didn’t already know, but perhaps that is a result of 19 years of marriage and my involvement in many marriage books/studies over the years.  This would definitely be a great resource for either newlyweds or those who find marriage difficult due to continual conflicts rooted in differences on how they were raised.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."