Marry Wisely, Marry Well: A Blueprint for Personal Preparation Paperback – September 1, 2016

Anyone who desires to have a healthy marriage should buy this book. Some of the valuable teachings in this book included: how to know if you are choosing the right person according to God's will, an excellent checklist to help someone determine who they are looking for in a marriage, knowing what type of men and women to stay away from, how marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church, how your marriage can glorify God, Biblical principles to help evaluate relationships, and an excellent section about wisdom. The section on wisdom is very helpful in how it teaches what it means to follow Christ and how this significant truth can help someone wisely choose their spouse. This teaching and many others in the book were based on excellent truths from God’s Word. You learn about how to find wisdom in God’s Word, especially relating to marriage. The author also provided God’s clear and concise biblical design for marriage and contrasted it with a wrong design. Additionally, many different methods for choosing a spouse are evaluated, some of which included cohabitation, traditional dating, arranged marriage, courtship, and online dating. With this book, you do not want to stop reading it before the Appendixes. Here the author provides some very helpful information to reinforce some of the teachings throughout the book. In addition to other exercise in the book, these Appendixes provide practical steps to help someone examine significant areas relating to marriage. This book covers a wide audience because it has a lot of helpful information for a single person who wants to be married one day and for the many who are already married. If anyone is looking for a strong Biblically based book on a healthy marriage and how to prepare for it, then this is definitely one you want to read. This is one of those books that are hard to put down, because the information is so helpful and easy to understand. I plan on buying a handful of these for Birthday presents and Christmas gifts.

To say the least, this book was amazing. I have spent the last 3 weeks reading and answering the questions from this book and have just absolutely loved it. I encourage you to read this book if you’re single, dating, or married because no matter where you are in life there’s something to get out of this book. This book is completely based on scripture because the author, Baker, explains that scripture gives us a wiser, more secure approach to finding the right someone. This book really made me see what I desire and what I need to work on to be able to be the godly woman I’m called to be. I personally have a boyfriend, and I was able to look through the questions and even talk about them with my boyfriend. I loved the quote that Baker says, “Instead of breaking your heart I am hoping this person will strengthen it” (149). I encourage anyone to read this book who has felt like they will never find the one or maybe they aren’t good enough. This book is honest about dating and marriage and doesn’t beat around the bush. You can feel the fatherly love coming from this book with the best intentions for you as a follower of Christ. This book allowed me to reflect so many times and make sure my priorities were straight with the Lord. If you are constantly looking for the “right one" then you have to read this book. You learn about how to have godly wisdom and how to live your single days if that’s you. This book overall has a five star rating from me because it lays out dating and marriage so well. All the questions I have ever had about dating and marriage were answered in this book. I will keep this book and read it again with my future husband because it is so impactful.

A great book for those getting married, already married or those considering marriage! Very well written and thought-provoking book that focuses on a marriage that glorifies God. Dr. Baker goes through the process of understanding the biblical perspective on how God designed marriage and how to prepare yourself for godly relationships. His personal experience and insight will help develop strong relationships in marriage, pointing readers to place God as the foundation. This book will challenge you to learn that marriage is for God’s glory and not for our own individual happiness. Dr. Baker helps the reader self-reflect after each chapter with prompting questions to consider and to ask potential spouse. I have already shared this book with a single friend of mine in hopes that it would be as encouraging for them as it was for me in my marriage of 23 years. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to grow your marriage in Christ likeness.

I read this book for Dr. Baker's Marriage and Family class at The Master's University Online.I grew up in the kind of household where we read books like "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," "Before Prince Charming Comes," and my personal [least] favorite, "Joyfully at Home." I was expecting to find this book to be much like those. Full of "be happy where you are, and God will reward you" lines that are frustrating in their message and hopeless in practice. Instead, I found this book to be a very helpful manual for preparing for marriage. Dr. Baker, instead of focusing on what WE can do in our own power, made the focus of the book on the LORD and getting our hearts right with HIM. When your heart is right with the Lord, the rest will fall into place. There is no guarantee that we are all called to marriage (finally, an honest book), but does it hurt to make sure your heart has the right attitude while living your life?