The Meaning of Marriage: A Couple's Devotional: A Year of Daily Devotions by Timothy J. Keller

The Meaning of Marriage: A Couple's Devotional: A Year of Daily Devotions Reviews

• 
  Blair Stretch

  A deep Christian devotional that will serve any couple who's willing to engage it. This little book had an amazing effect on my marriage over the year of reading together.
• 
  Meggie

  Surprisingly, a daily devotion treatment of Kellers’ excellent marriage book was a disappointment. In similar style to previous daily devotions this includes scripture, meditation and prayer. However, only one week per month included scripture, the remaining weeks were excerpts from the book. It was disappointing not to be led through what scripture has to say about marriage.
  
  We also found many of the topics repetitive and/or not applicable. Singleness was addressed to great length. Comparing the world’s view of marriage to Christianity was discussed frequently. While there were some days that encouraged good discussion on marriage, not nearly enough. At times this felt like more of a book talking about what marriage is, rather than seeking to strengthen a marriage and deepen it in scripture.
• 
  Scott Kedersha

  So good. Biblical, real, smart. One of the best devotionals I've ever been through.
• 
  Carissa-Lynn

  A meaningful, thoughtful, and biblical study. We had some great (and sometimes hard) conversations through these short devotions and really appreciated the insight given.
• 
  AcademicEditor

  I hadn't read a "devotional" before so I was curious to look into it. This book is structured with one page per day, with a scriptural thought, points to reflect on, and things to pray about. Despite some doctrinal differences from my own beliefs, I thought the book was well-written and useful as a starting point for reflection. The authors have an eloquent writing style, and they supply academic-style notes for some of their references. They also quote a variety of interesting authors, and I am a sucker for a good quotation.
  
  Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
• 
  Pat

  Tim Keller is the Yoda of pastors.
  
  The daily office is an Anglican tradition that dates back to 1549 and is more widely known as a devotional. This is the first of Keller's three devotional I've completed and am glad I did. Since it was focused on marriage, I particularly enjoyed his wife's points of view. Some days were more challenging than others but it was nice to begin each day with a biblical focus on the meaning of marriage.
• 
  Cole Brown

  El libro está mal enfocado y mal organizado. Los autores tienen muchas buenas cosas que decir, pero no pueden decidir a quién están escribiendo (solteros, casados, divorciados etc...). También ponen todo el contenido acerca de un tema juntos, lo que hace que uno puede tener 20 días consecutivos leyendo contenido que ni les aplica.
  
  Además, la traducción está muy mal hecha.
• 
  Bethany

  This is a quick daily devotion we could easily read and talk through while we got ready for the day. Some of the days were pretty repetitive. It’s also written for couples who have been married longer than one year, so I look forward to reading through this again in a few years when we have more years of marriage to reflect on.
• 
  Marlise

  This book feels juvenile. It might be good for very you g newlyweds but it’s not very helpful for this 21 years married, 40-something couple. Also, there are no scripture references whatsoever - it seems wrong to call it a devotional. I had to DNF it.
• 
  Jenny Lu

  Insightful and full of examples from real life.
• 
  Ellen Jones

  This is a well written devotional for couples designed to read one page per day. The authors provide notes and references to other resources which I found helpful. I found it to be very useful.
• 
  Jessica Hernandez

  This book blessed me immensely. I read it alone but it was still great. Learned a lot.
• 
  Douglas Reis

  Not as great as the other ones, but very insightful!
• 
  Bill Pence

  This is Tim Keller and Kathy Keller’s third devotional book, with previous books on the Psalms (The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms) and Proverbs (God's Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs), both of which were excellent and I used as a part of my devotional readings.
  The Kellers wrote The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God in 2011. In the “Introduction” of this new devotional, Kathy Keller indicates that it is not necessary to have read the earlier book in order to benefit from the new devotional. She then recaps some of the basic themes of The Meaning of Marriage, such as:
  • The main problem every marriage faces is the self-centeredness in both spouse’s hearts, and
  • The essence of marriage is a covenant, a binding promise.
  Kathy tells us that the purpose of this couple’s devotional is to provide an opportunity for sustained and practical reflection on love and marriage within a Christian perspective. The authors have both expanded on and broke down the themes and lessons into short meditations, looking at each concept in its various aspects and proposing application questions and practices. The devotional pulls out passages from The Meaning of Marriage and provides an opportunity to think out the personal implications of one very specific aspect of Christian marriage each day.
  The devotional format is as follows:
  • On the first week of each month, there is Scripture text regarding love, sex, and marriage, followed by a meditation on an aspect of the biblical teaching
  • After that there is a reflection, which is a set of application questions, followed with a brief example of a prayer about the subject.
  • On each day of the other three weeks of every month they begin with a quote from The Meaning of Marriage instead of a Bible verse, followed by a meditation and a reflection.
  • Lastly, there is a “Thought for prayer” that gives some ideas for how you can pray the topic of the day into your heart and life.
  While The Meaning of Marriage was not written only for married couples, the devotional is designed for married couples, as well as unmarried couples who are engaged or who are considering marriage. The devotional can either be read aloud to each other, or read individually. If it is read individually, each person should write down their thoughts, and regularly meet with their spouse to discuss their insights and findings.
  I look forward to using this book with my wife as a part of our devotional readings.
• 
  Joel Kersey

  I highly recommend this devotional for couples to read together. In 15 minutes a couple can experience real, sanctifying growth and spiritual maturity by reading through this together and having honest discussions with one another using the suggested discussions. The prayers suggested at the end of each devotional are also a beneficial way for couples to grow more together in prayer life with one another and for one another.
• 
  Mary

  It was a recommendation but it was awful. The couple writing this book should not be married.