What's it about?
It's about how to cope when your partner doesn't believe; how to maintain
a healthy marriage without compromising your faith. Marion Stroud covers
a wide range of areas, from growing and changing, life from a male perspective,
bearing fruit in difficult circumstances, how to listen to your partner, and
how to find your place in the church.
What did you like about it?
The author managed to mix honesty (about the sheer hard slog Christians often
face) with positive and practical encouragement. This book is about 'real'
people, not supersaints. I found it easy to identify with many of the case histories
discussed, often thinking 'Yes, that's what it's like for me too!'
What didn't you like?
I'd have welcomed more about how your situation
might affect the children.
What will you still remember a year from now?
'Clare's' account of walking into church alone week after week: 'Sometimes
the sight of all those families sitting together is almost more than I can bear.'
Who would you recommend this book to?
First and foremost to people with non-believing partners. But also to other
Christians who may not always appreciate the difficulties faced by the 'spiritually
single.'
Can you give us a couple of good quotes from the book?
'If we have a marriage partner who doesn't share our faith, it's especially
easy to feel limited and constrained in our 'fruit bearing' by our circumstances.
We need not be. God knows the things that form boundaries in our lives. He isn't
limited by them.'
'It finally dawned on me that life is not made up of 'somedays' but of thousands
of 'todays'. If I wanted to enjoy my life I had to enjoy it and be happy today,
regardless of circumstances and no matter what my husband's spiritual condition…No
more being forlorn in church…and no more thinking of myself as an inferior Christian.
I began to hold my head up high and prove to the world that a woman is no less
of a person because she is alone – not even in church. She is not half of a
pair; she is complete in Christ.'
reviewed by Jane Sigrist
Buy this book now!
