Our love story began when we started dating as teenagers in December 1960. We dated for nearly eight years before we got married as graduate students in August 1968. Fast forward fifty years and we now have a great story to tell about how God moved our relationship and marriage from good to great, built to last a lifetime. It has been a very long and difficult journey, but the rewards of persistence and perseverance are heavenly. This book is about our views on marriage, based on our experience and those of numerous people around us over all these years, from courtship, to building a resilient and Christian-based relationship, raising a family, parenting, managing family-career conflict issues, building and managing family wealth, resolving conflicts, confronting and surmounting numerous challenges, dealing with external interference, and preparing for our last years. Our message to the younger couples behind us is that God can write your love story if you would let Him.

Reflecting on forty years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for all the best reasons. Even in the days when people commonly stayed married "'til death do us part," there has never been a generation whose view of marriage was high enough, says Pastor John Piper. That is all the more true in our casual times. Though personal selfishness and cultural bondage obstruct the wonder of God's purpose, it is found in God's Word, where his design can awaken a glorious vision capable of freeing every person from small, Christ-ignoring, romance-intoxicated views. As Piper explains in reflecting on forty years of matrimony: "Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display." This Momentary Marriage unpacks the biblical vision, its unexpected contours, and its weighty implications for married, single, divorced, and remarried alike.

Compares the transitional cycles of marriage to those of nature, describes the attitudes and emotions of each season, and offers seven strategies that enable couples to enhance and improve their marital relationship.

It’s easy to say we trust Christ for everything, but are we living that truth? We’ve been given clear instruction in a powerful promise for parents. God tells us in Deuteronomy to “teach our children diligently.” This passage and many others give us great insight as to how to do that and enjoy the promised blessing that always accompanies the mandates we are given. Learn the practical view of discipleship parenting, what God expects from parents, and how to put these truths into actionSee how parenting with the vision of teaching them diligently will intentionally bear fruit and affect change in your own life as wellMove beyond giving lip-service to what you believe, and make the conscious choice to rely on the wisdom of God’s holy instruction for your life and parenting. So, why are we as Christian parents still uncertain? Why do we live in fear? Why are we losing our children in record numbers? What can we do about it?

Marriage is good but you need God's favor and blessing to build a great marriage resilient enough to last a lifetime. Nothing good ever comes easy: blessings and burdens are soulmates. The road to well of happy and successful marriage passes through well of conflict, well of argument, well of persecution, well of opposition, well of temptation, well of obstacles. Expect joy and happiness, difficulties, trials and tribulations as you navigate the tortuous journey through all the changing scenes of life. Be determined to surmount all obstacles at all costs, and you will reap lots of fulfillment, rewards and blessings at the end of the tunnel. In order to build and grow a great marriage that will last a life time, couples need God's grace and mutual, unflinching commitment to their marital vows to navigate the long, exciting, tortuous, tumultuous, and mined road to a resilient, happy, lasting marriage: "to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance". Work together with intimacy, passion and commitment, build a Spirit-filled/Spirit-led marriage and the ultimate rewards are heavenly. Your partner is ridden with faults, so are you !! Look a little closer and you will see a large reservoir of assets that can be nurtured, (with your help, understanding and support) to bring out the best in your partner. When God created Eve, He did not set out to create another Adam, (otherwise He would have molded her in clay), rather, He created a partner to compensate for Adam's deficiencies and make up for what he lacked. He wanted to create something different, yet equally a masterpiece. Clearly, Eve was deliberately designed for different tasks which require patience, resilience, multi-tasking capabilities, and many other assets that she would need to cope with the onerous assignment of child-bearing and raising, and managing the home front while still contributing to the household economy. God gave Adam dominion over all His creations including his helper, but if He had thought that Adam could cope effectively, creation of Eve would not have been necessary. A good team is never made up of members with similar competence and instincts, and the last thing you want in marriage is another you. Unfortunately couples spend a lot of useful time and energy trying to re-mold their partners in their own image. Two magnets of the same polarity repel each other and compatibility means compatible opposites. Couples who are duplicates are boring, self-centered, bringing nothing new, exciting or innovative to the relationship. Marriage becomes great when couples can develop a partnership with shared family responsibilities, help to nurture each other's virtues and assets, adjust to and accommodate each other's deficiencies. Selfishness (I, me and myself) has no place in a great marriage. God appointed the husband as the head of the wife. However, headship does not imply authoritarianism (military governance). Leadership by competence and example commands respect and compliance. Headship is not so much authority expressed as a chain of commands as it is an acceptance of a vital chain of responsibilities. Key values in growing a resilient marriage include strong partnership, communication and conflict resolution skills, mutual respect, tolerance, empathy, perseverance, and willingness to meet each other's deepest needs. Marriage is a lifetime project, for better for worse but, often, the worse comes before the better and only perseverance gets you to the better.

A new movement is spreading across America, bringing hope to existing marriages and new guidelines for marriages yet to be; and Dr. Fred Lowery, in this courageous and insightful book, shares with you the principles of the Covenant Marriage Movement. Every marriage faces storms and struggles that can lead to failure. Unexpected changes, personality conflicts, money problems, and misguided expectations can send even the best of marriages into a tailspin. But this insightful, new book provides real answers through chapters such as "The Difference between a Contract and a Covenant," "Learning How to Manage Conflict," and "What to Do When Marriage Is Not What You Expected." Covenant marriages will stand the test of time, change, and personal problems and will shine with brilliance in a world that is besieged by divorce. This book will not only impact your life, but will impact marriages for generations to come. The principles, power, and pattern for a covenant marriages will help you and your spouse stay together in your marriage for life.

Presents a guide to protecting a marriage from divorce, including information relationship experts on how to meet a partner's needs, heal hurt in marriage, and weather storms of life.