Marriage is beautiful, and hard, and messy. And the best marriages around us are the ones who have walked through difficulty, sought out counseling, read, studied, and equipped themselves for the challenges of staying married and happy in our current culture.
There are, of course, tons of great Christian books about marriage. Below are a selection of the best.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts
By Gary Chapman
In the #1 New York Times bestseller The 5 Love Languages, you’ll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today. The 5 Love Languages is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work.
Sacred Marriage: God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy, Not Happy
By Gary Thomas
Sacred Marriage uncovers the mystery of God’s overarching purpose. This book may very well alter profoundly the contours of your marriage. It will most certainly change you. Because whether it is delightful or difficult, your marriage can become a doorway to a closer walk with God, and to a spiritual integrity that, like salt, seasons the world around you with the savor of Christ.
The Meaning of Marriage
By Tim Keller
Timothy Keller, with insights from Kathy, his wife of thirty-seven years, shows marriage to be a glorious relationship that is also misunderstood and mysterious. The Meaning of Marriage offers instruction on how to have a successful marriage, and is essential reading for anyone who wants to know God and love more deeply in this life.
From This Day Forward: Five Commitments to Fail-Proof Your Marriage
By Craig & Amy Groeschel
The choices you make each and every day determine not only your relationship with God but also the quality of your marriage. In this book, you will discover five commitments that will absolutely fail-proof your marriage. If you make these decisions, you can and will have the marriage God wants you to experience.
- Seek God
- Fight fair
- Have fun
- Stay pure
- Never give up
Uncommon Marriage: Learning about Lasting Love and Overcoming Life’s Obstacles Together
By Tony & Lauren Dungy
Together, the Dungys have experienced joy and purpose – and loss and tragedy. What’s helped them ride out the highs and lows of their marriage? Sharing the secrets of their successful relationship, they offer practical advice on how to get through tough times, stay connected despite busy schedules, support each other’s dreams, and grow spiritually. Your marriage can be a marriage that truly is uncommon. Get equipped for surviving tough issues and watch it flourish with joy and purpose.
Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs
By Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Dr. Emerson Eggerichs’ book, Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs, is based on the biblical passage from Ephesians 5:33 (But every husband must love his wife as he loves himself, and wives should respect their husbands – GODS WORD® translation). His premise is that communication between a husband and wife is often frustrated because of the vastly different ways in which men and women perceive love. Women are wired to need unconditional love and men need to feel unconditionally respected. Revitalize the love in your marriage!
His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair-Proof Marriage
By Willard F. Harley, Jr.
It’s no surprise; men and women have radically different priorities! In this updated edition of His Needs, Her Needs, Dr. Harley offers new insights into the intimate emotional needs of husbands and wives to help you “affair-proof” your marriage. Learn how to sustain romance, love more creatively and sensitively, deepen your awareness of each other year after year, and overcome marital conflicts.
Kingdom Marriage: Connecting God’s Purpose with Your Pleasure
By Tony Evans
What happens when a kingdom man marries a kingdom woman? Kingdom Marriage: Connecting God’s Purpose with Your Pleasure helps couples grow together as a kingdom couple to fulfill God’s design and purpose for their marriage. Through practical insights and powerful stories, Dr. Tony Evans inspires and instructs so couples will discover the hope, challenge, and guidance God’s Word provides for their journey together.
What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage
By Paul David Tripp
Because marriage always involves two sinners living together in a fallen world, reconciliation must be part of daily life for you and your spouse. Tripp’s six practical commitments – including facing failure, being willing to change, and embodying Christ’s love – will show you how to grow a thriving grace-based marriage in all circumstances and seasons of your relationship.
The Mingling of Souls: God’s Design for Love, Sex, Marriage & Redemption
By Matt Chandler
In today’s world, we’re inundated with songs, movies, and advice that contradict and cheapen God’s design for love and intimacy. Helping married couples and singles navigate these concerns, Chandler offers an eternal, counterintuitive perspective from the Song of Solomon. Discover the process that this biblical role model followed – from attraction and courtship to marriage and arguing.
How We Love: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage
By Milan and Kay Yerkovich
If you’re tired of arguing with your spouse over the same old issues and longing for a marriage with more intimacy, then How We Love can help you to transform your relationship with your partner. Learn how your childhood experiences shaped your future expectations of all relationships, especially marriage, and what you can do to develop a more intimate and passionate relationship.
As Long As We Both Shall Live: Experience the Marriage You’ve Always Wanted
By Gary Smalley & Ted Cunningham
Everyone has expectations, but not everyone acknowledges them. In marriage, unrecognized expectations can be especially dangerous. When couples expect each other to be and act a certain way without communicating their assumptions, disappointment is never too far away. Now, relationship expert Gary Smalley and his pastor and friend Ted Cunningham show couples how to defuse the ticking bomb of unrealistic expectations and arm their marriage with healthy communication and honest intimacy. As Long as We Both Shall Live will help couples acknowledge their unexpressed assumptions, understand one another’s genuine needs, and talk openly about their hopes and desires. Women and men will find the tools they need to build lasting and loving marriages.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
By Dr. John Gottman, PhD.
The bestseller that revolutionized the way experts understand, repair, and strengthen marriages! Based on his own study of couples over many years, Dr. Gottman reveals the habits that can make—or break—a relationship. Learn to resolve conflicts; create new common ground; achieve greater levels of intimacy; and handle issues surrounding sex, money, work, family, and more.
Friends, Partners, and Lovers: What It Takes to Make Your Marriage Work
By Kevin A. Thompson
Great marriages don’t just happen—they’re made intentionally, day by day. Thompson uses engaging stories and biblical principles to help you and your spouse understand how to grow as friends, become more supportive partners in good and bad times, and develop a healthy and satisfying sexual relationship. Vital insights for any married couple!
Fit to Be Tied: Making Marriage Last a Lifetime
By Bill & Lynne Hybels
Using personal examples, the Hybels’ encourage you to make courtship count by evaluating the compatibility of your potential mate, analyzing your differences, and mastering conflict resolution skills. Included also are chapters on child-rearing, family life, and romance to help you stay married for a lifetime.
