Resources

This is the most refreshing book I've read about marriage.  Far from a "how to" book about marriage, this is a romantic/mystic take on what marital love was intended to be, and what it is intended to do in the lives of the beloved.  It reads more like epic love poetry, rather than a didactic book on marriage.  Beautiful.  Emboldening.  Powerful. 

The one thing that any married person most fears is that the one they love will not love them back.  We were designed for connection, for intimacy, for closeness, and when this closeness is threatened, we fight.  In Hold Me Tight, Sue Johnson, a leader in the field of Emotion Focused Therapy, coaches couples to deal gently with one another, knowing that at the heart of both fighters is a great brokenness and fear that they may lose the thing they most long for. 





While this book was written to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, its usefulness reaches well beyond this field.  We use this book in our men's sexual addiction group to deal with the underlying emotional issues that span all addictions:  Betrayal, Shame, Ambivalence (longing for and hating the object of addiction), and Powerlessness.  This book is powerful in caring for the heart that is wounded by sexual abuse, or wounded by the more commonplace, everyday evils that we face.

Great book for moms and dads raising boys.  Kindlon and Thompson argue that our boys are ill-prepared to deal well with the culture of cruelty that exists in our world, and that this often leads boys to shut off their hearts to survive.  If we are to raise boys that will become men who can connect with their wives, deeply love their children, and serve well alongside other men for a lifetime, we must raise them with an eye toward developing their "emotional language," honesty, and courage that will enable them to not only survive the culture of cruelty, but fight against it.