Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsHow do we divide household chores? Agree without arguing? Spend less? Neat vs messy? Forgive?
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2022
Dr. Chapman is the author of the best-selling book, "The Five Love Languages"
WHAT READERS CAN LEARN FROM THIS BOOK
1. Feelings of being "in love" cannot sustain a marriage, since the average life-span of these feelings is about two years. What sustains a marriage is spouses learning to communicate love in the forms that are most received by their partner.
2. We will often develop uncanny similarities to our parents, including their drinking habits, communication patterns, energy levels, and appearance.
3. Resolving marital disagreements without arguing. Truly listening to the other spouse in order to give an adequate summary of his or her perspective. Agreeing to disagree. Learning to compromise.
4. The importance of spouses making effective apologies for wrongdoing. Learning to speak your spouse's language of apology is more effective than just saying you are sorry. The five different ways of apologizing are
1) expressing regret
2) accepting responsibility
3) making restitution
4) genuinely expressing the desire to change your behavior
5) requesting forgiveness.
5. Forgiveness is one's decision to offer grace instead of demanding justice.
6. How spouses can agree on doing which household chores.
7. How spouses can most effectively manage their money, and what common major mistakes to avoid, such as purchasing a home they cannot afford, going out to eat too often, buying new cars, and buying too much alcohol.
How to live on 80% of your income, give 10% to charity, and save 10%.
How couples can agree not to buy something over a certain amount without consulting the other.
8. Resolving common sexual difficulties.
Overcoming the myth that husband and wife must reach climax together.
A husband should spend sufficient time caressing his wife.
A husband participating in household chores will often increase desire in his wife for him.
Spouses should only engage in sexual acts they are both comfortable with.
9. How spouses can develop good relationships with their in-laws, by learning to listen empathetically to them, speaking their particular love languages to them, and alternating holidays with them.
10. Spiritual compatibility in marriage has more to do with what each spouse believes in the way God speaks to them and what He has said.
11. How spouses can live with a partner who has very different habits, including
Morning person vs. Night person
Optimist vs. Pessimist
Neat vs. Messy
Talker vs. Non-talker
Passive vs. Aggressive
Logical thinkers vs. Intuitive person
Organizer vs. Spontaneous person.
12. Having a balanced dating relationship by attending to these areas of growth: Intellectual, Emotional, Social, Spiritual, and Physical.
