There are no perfect marriages or perfect spouses. We know that having a good marriage requires effort and hard work. Yet we often don’t know how to continue to love when we are angry, hurt, scared, or just plain irritated. Nor are we sure what that kind of love is supposed to look like. Should we be patient? Forgive and forget? Do something else entirely?
In “How to Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong“, you’ll find the answers to these questions and more as Leslie Vernick reveals how God uses the imperfections, differences, and sins of your spouse to help you become more like Christ.
Through this book, you will…
- discover how to respond wisely when wronged.
- see yourself and your marriage through the lens of God’s eternal purposes.
- learn how to love and to keep your promises when you don’t feel like it—or when your spouse isn’t keeping his or hers.
- understand how to act when love must be tough.
I found this book, How to Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong, when a friend honestly and gently pointed out “I think you are both very defensive.” Both? Me? My friend wasn’t taking my side. Instead he was shedding light on a real problem he saw in both my husband and I that was really damaging our marriage.
How to Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong provides a perspective shift unlike any other marriage book I have read. Leslie Vernick has a way of holding up a mirror when the fingers are pointed and allowing the reader to look inward at what he or she can control when their spouse may not be acting righteously. (For me, this meant facing my anger head on even when I felt justified in my reactions.) She doesn’t stop there, though, as that would leave her reader feeling hopeless and riddled with guilt. Through scripture and truth, Leslie Vernick leads the reader to change through recognizing the need to act right, adjusting his or her reactions, guarding oneself when in the process, and stepping into love as God intended it. The process is freeing.
While Leslie Vernick doesn’t write specifically to those in spiritually mismatched marriages, I found this book to be foundational for learning to love my husband amid our spiritual differences. If you are living in a spiritually mismatched marriage and find yourself often pointing fingers at the other person’s actions, maybe even blaming their lack of faith in God for their behaviors, yet wanting to learn how your marriage can be better, I recommend picking up a copy of this book.
A warning: this book is meant to mold your heart, not your spouse’s, so come with ears to hear the truth and a heart willing to change.
About the Author
Leslie Vernick, ACSW, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker who has her own private counseling practice and more than twenty-five years of experience counseling Christian individuals and families from a biblical worldview. She is a popular speaker for women’s groups, couple’s retreats, and professional seminars and is the author of numerous books including “The Emotionally Destructive Releationship: Seeing It, Stopping It, Surviving It.” She and her husband, Howard, live in Pennsylvania, and are the parents of two grown children.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links through the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
