Grounds for Marriage, Book and Study Guide

Book excerpt: Your marriage is in crisis, and you've read countless books on how to make it work, but to no avail. You haven't seen sustainable change in your relationship, and you're ready to give up hope that counseling will be effective. You're weary of striving, and you may have even considered having an affair, doing violence to yourself or to your partner, or indulging in an addiction. Perhaps you already have. You cannot stomach another false promise or simplistic solution to the complex problems in your marriage, and you wonder, is there any other way? Grounds for Marriage speaks into the wreckage of broken covenants with a fresh perspective on relationship, refusing to apply flimsy bandages to fractured relationships and insisting that the core brokenness be addressed and genuinely repaired. This material helps couples and their counselors to honestly evaluate troubled marriages, providing a much-needed compassionate, sensible, hopeful, sound, and sometimes unexpected understanding of the scriptures and of relationship. Synchronizing personal story, anecdotes from her work as a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a review of literature in psychology and theology, Jade G. Stone helps couples in crisis to: --study the scriptures to determine what they say constitutes a marriage covenant --recognize how both partners contribute to failure in their marriage --heal from old wounds so they can be in covenantal relationship with God and with a covenant companion With no-nonsense directness and high-definition clarity, Stone helps you envision how human covenantal commitments must function in order to mirror intimacy with God. She presents the criteria of wholehearted covenant as a measuring stick for relational intimacy (grounds for marriage), without which you cannot determine what comprises broken intimacy (grounds for divorce). From a covenantal/relational perspective, you can maintain scriptural integrity, understanding, and wisdom as you evaluate a marriage in crisis. Grounds for Marriage includes a study guide to help readers personalize the concepts presented.