Cherish by Gary Thomas

The definition of cherish is to "protect and care for (someone) lovingly, to hold something dear".  When applied to marriage, this goes beyond merely committing to your spouse - it means making him/her feel special.

I've been married for almost 17 years and recognize the importance of renewing my mind when it comes to how I view my husband and our marriage.  I can't say there was any huge revelation that I took away from this book, but it did help me to focus on the truth and align my perspective with God's word.  I pray this will help me to cherish my husband more.

For couples who like to read together, each chapter ends with a summary of the main points and a series of discussion questions.  Gary Thomas points out that while he shares advice that works for most couples, each person is an individual.  Therefore, to get the most out of this book, you should discuss it with your spouse to see how he/she would feel most cherished.

While there are several things I underlined, I always like to share my biggest take-away in my reviews.  This one appeared in a chapter about being patient with your spouses's sins.  Gary writes, "A holy person isn't known by what he or she does or doesn't watch, by avoiding a few forbidden words, or by attending a frequent number of religious meetings, but by how he or she treats fellow sinners.  Our experiential holiness is defined in large part by our ability to gracefully bear the lack of holiness in others.  You know you are a spiritually strong person when you can live joyfully and gracefully around spiritually weak people."  I had to stop and digest that...We ALL sin and therefore all have spouses that sin.  It's how we respond that shows our true maturity.  He goes on to write, "There's another way to look at this: if God's attitude toward you in your sin mirrored exactly your attitude toward your spouse in his or her sin, where would you be with God?...Stop comparing your spiritual maturity with your spouse's; instead, start comparing your spiritual maturity with Ephesians 4:1-3.  If you do that, you will change the climate of your marriage."

This is only one of the many ways we can learn to cherish our spouses.  I challenge you to read this book and learn about the others.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.

                                                                               Ephesians 4:1-3