Publisher Description: Handle Small Irritations in Your Marriage Before They Turn into Big Problems
Your marriage can grow in intimacy and trust, even as you deal with the everyday irritations and conflicts that all couples experience. Winston T. Smith helps couples see those disagreements as opportunities to face the underlying issues that destroy intimacy and to grow closer as they rely on God to sacrificially love each other.
Through an interactive ten-week course that uses discussion questions, small group exercises, vignettes, Bible study, and relationship building activities, this manual gives couples the invaluable experience of applying and living the principles from the book Marriage Matters: Extraordinary Change through Ordinary Moments through an extended period of time. Each unit gives clear direction on how to understand, love, accept, and wisely speak the truth and ends with homework that gives couples the opportunity to put what they have learned into practice.
The manual covers a broad array of topics including communication, conflict, forgiveness, intimacy, sex, and marriage roles and is suitable for a small group study, a marriage enrichment program, and for a marriage counselor or mentor to use with individual couples.
144 Pages Published August 2011
About the Author: Winston T. Smith, M.Div., is a faculty member and counselor at CCEF (the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation), has extensive experience as a marriage and family counselor, and teaches seminary students how to counsel couples. He is the author of the minibooks, Divorce Recovery: Growing and Healing God’s Way; Help for Stepfamilies: Avoiding the Pitfalls and Learning to Love; It’s All About Me: The Problem with Masturbation; Who Does the Dishes? Decision Making in Marriage; and Burned Out? Trusting God with Your "To-Do" List.
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“It is impossible to capture the genius of this outstanding book in a few short sentences. Winston demonstrates how we can turn our ordinary marital disappointments into opportunities for growth in love, faith, and intimacy. Rich in exegetical insight, exquisite theology (don’t miss the chapters on conflict and division: superb!), and warm pastoral insights all presented in a simple and flowing style, this book can help to make your marriage sing. My only regret is that I did not surrender the marriage course to this wise man much, much sooner.” - John Bettler, Former Executive Director of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation
“Through his own transparency as a husband and his expertise as a counselor, Winston Smith offers very rich, yet very practical insight on how to function relationally from a divine frame of reference. Marriage Matters brings the rich theology of Scripture from the abstract to the real- life, from the cerebral to the experiential, offering couples amazing truth that holds the potential to completely reshape their view of relationship. Very refreshing. Very encouraging!” - Jeremy Lelek, M.A., L.P.C., President, Association of Biblical Counselors
