Marriage ROCKS offers a model for leaders, educators, and couples’ small groups to challenge couples at all levels of relational intimacy to understand how marriage is God’s tool for developing the human capacity to experience the fullness of God’s love – a journey which illumines the ultimate purpose of marriage.
God designed marriage as the bedrock of human society. Contemporary research confirms that healthy marriage benefits spouses, children, church, and community well-being. However, contemporary marriages continue to be plagued by self-centeredness, lack of intimacy, and divorce. Families are being decimated spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and financially by failing and strained marital relationships. Even couples in stable marriages feel dissatisfied that their marriages have not become what they feel God has purposed them to be. Couples are searching for hope that their marriages can satisfy their needs for emotional and spiritual wholeness – a search which must ultimately end with God.
Marriage ROCKS offers this hope by empowering marriage educators and couples to discover the untapped potential of the relationship. Whether you are a leader looking for an overtly biblical marriage resource, an engaged couple looking for handles in preparing for marriage, a recently married couples in the throes of conflict, or seasoned couples desiring small tweaks to an otherwise fulfilling relationship, Marriage ROCKS challenges you through five biblical vignettes to transform your marriage to the standing stone that God purposed it to be.
Excerpt
"If you are reading this book it is because you desire the best for your marriage. You can rest assured that God desires the best for your marriage as well.... In fact, God plans to use your marriage as a bridge to a more rewarding relationship with him and with everyone within your sphere of influence."
Professional Reviews
Dr. Lorraine Blackman, Associate Professor, Indiana University, School of Social work
Marriage ROCKS brings a much needed, relaxed, hopeful, encouraging, and transformative teaching style addressing central issues impacting African Americans. Christian women and men in dating, engaged, or marital relationships will find sensitive, open guidance through the mystery of the concepts of partnership and covenant taking them into the joy that God has in store for each of them, their marriages, and their communities.
Edward P. Wimberly, PhD, Jarena Lee Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, Georgia
"Harold L. Arnold Jr., PhD, has written a book for African American couples rooted thoroughly in a faith orientation, and it draws on a biblical and theological tradition of gender mutuality and equality that is embraced by many African American couples...Those who use this book as a resource for marital enrichment will never regret their choice."
Nancy Boyd-Franklin, PhD, author of Black Families in Therapy: Understanding the African American Experience
"This wonderful book serves a need in the African American community for help in strengthening and healing our marriages and relationships. The author provides honest examples that will be a blessing to those who are considering marriage and those who are already on the journey. The message is clear - whether your marriage is strong already or deeply troubled, God can make it better and can help to deepen your spiritual and emotional intimacy."
Hundreds of excerpts from the archives of the Narcissistic Abuse Study List regarding Pathological Narcissism, relationships with abusive narcissists, and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
“Being a couple yet free is our next challenge on the evolutionary ladder. This book successfully helps us unravel the myths that block that achievement. It does it with warmth, with readability, and with balance. It recreates everyday problems and
