Happily Ever After: Finding Grace in the Messes of Marriage by John Piper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Being a collection of short devotionals for couples, with various authors, giving a review is a mixed bag. Occasionally you reach in and grab your favorite candy bar. Next time, you reach in and find a Werthers Original from 1993 that’s spent the last several decades under the back seat of Uncle Lester’s car. In other words, some of these are really helpful insightful and useful for helping couples think biblically about marriage (i.e. husbands loving their wives sacrificially, wives submitting to their husbands, etc.). I’m biased towards John Piper’s and Douglas Wilson’s contributions. Other entries were just not a nice flavor, sort of like the aforementioned half-melted caramel. In other words, either not enough depth to make it worth the while, or some advice that leans a little bit too much in the direction of our egalitarian culture at large.
However, for a mature Christian couple the good chapters provide some helpful fodder for conversation and marital “weeding”. The “less good” chapters gave us something to enjoy mutual disgust, sort of like when you both have to choke down an unpleasant meal while at a dinner party…not fun in the moment, fun to reminisce about later. Fortunately, most of the devotionals are well-written, helpful, wise, and just the right length for a busy couple.
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