Marriage matters manual (facilitator & student guide)
He snapped at her during breakfast. She brought up a past mistake. He walked out angry. She left without saying good-bye. An ordinary day in an ordinary marriage. But what if things could be different? What if you could transform these ordinary moments of annoyance, conflict, pain, or cold indifference into something new? Winston T. Smith, drawing on his extensive experience as a marriage counselor, offers a simple yet powerful prescription for changing your marriage. He shows how examining the everyday disappointments and irritations in your marriage will help you understand yourself, your spouse, and your need for God's love. Change begins with seeing day-to-day interactions from a different perspective, taking simple steps to love one another more effectively, and then learning how to take those steps over and over again. Interactions that used to devolve into pointless annoyances and fights can become an opportunity for God's activity and love to become increasingly evident and powerful. The principles in this book will take your marriage to extraordinary places and lead you into a deeper relationship with an extraordinary God. Don't settle for an ordinary marriage, learn to live out God's extraordinary love in your most intimate relationship. Using discussion questions, small group exercises, vignettes, Bible study, and relationship-building activities, this interactive ten-week study gives couples the invaluable experience of applying and living the principles from the book Marriage Matters. The leader's notes in the back provide extra content and direction for pastors, counselors, and mentors as they work with couples in small groups and in individual counseling sessions. Publisher: New Growth Press Type: Paperback ISBN: 9781942572732 ______________ Winston T. Smith, MDiv, is the rector of St. Anne's Church, Abington, PA. He formerly served as faculty for the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation and taught Marriage Counseling at Westminster Seminary. He is the author of the book and curriculum Marriage Matters and the minibooks Divorce Recovery, Help for Stepfamilies, Help! My Spouse Committed Adultery, The Problem with Masturbation, Who Does the Dishes?, and Burned Out. ______________ "Marriage Matters is a helpful resource for couples to understand God's purposes for marriage as well as to think through their own expectations and reactions when things go wrong. I especially liked Section 2 where the practical application of biblical truths was fleshed out in specific ways. The chapter 'Person or Object, Honor or Manipulation,' should be mandatory reading for every married person." Leslie Vernick, Counselor; speaker; author of How to Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong and The Emotionally Destructive Relationship