Book Review : The Love & Respect Experience : A Husband-Friendly Devotional that Wives Truly Love

A generally good book for spouses willing to work on and improve their marriage.

Emerson Eggerichs best-selling and life changing book “Love & Respect” has been followed by the book “The Language of Love and Respect: Cracking the Communication Code with Your Mate” and now a Love & Respect devotional tailored to be enjoyable for both husbands and wives.  This lovely imitation-leather bound book is a great addition and can be beneficial in keeping the concepts learned from the book and / or seminars alive and worked out in marriage.  

Wives are generally more interested in reading a devotional book with their spouse, as they are more likely to desire the emotional connection that comes from doing so.  Dr. Eggerichs purposed to tailor this book more towards men with the thought that the wives would follow along.  He cautions the wives in their expectations after first encouraging husbands.  This is followed by suggestions for using the devotional book on your own terms.  Rather than 365 devotions to complete every day for a year, he recommends going through at your own pace and provides a variety of suggestions such as; reading it together or separately and taking notes, using Insights for discussion starters, and so on.  My husband and I decided to take one chapter and read it repeatedly for a few nights until we were ready to move on.  This gave us the opportunity to let the concepts stick a little better and perhaps think of new ways to act it out.

I have read, and thoroughly enjoyed, the “Love & Respect” book.  My husband and I also attended the DVD seminar through our church.  Both were great and I would go through them again as a refresher.  As a result, I found the devotional something handy for the purposes of continuing to practice the concepts taught.  Had I not read the book or gone to the seminar, I might have found the information to touch lightly on subjects that really need further coverage.  The intent is surely more to encourage spouses to follow the principles and to see the blessings of them in a marriage.  It should be noted that while the book discusses biblical principles and each chapter begins with a scripture passage as a theme, it is not a book that delves deeply into scripture by any means.

Primarily, I believe this book is helpful for someone who is willing to look at the part they have to play in a marriage and consider changes of their own.  If both spouses are willing to work at their marriage, the concepts presented here are foundational and potentially life changing. If your marriage is already rocky, I do think that reading the book and working through the devotional book, on your own, could be of great benefit  as well because we all have something we could improve on and areas in our life that need Christ to a deeper degree.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers 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 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”