Book Review: The Language of Love & Respect
I got in touch with my inner bookworm over Christmas vacation. Two of the five books I finished will be reviewed here this week. Stay tuned for a review of The Church of Facebook, coming up on Thursday.
I tend to be somewhat of a snob when it comes to marriage books. Many of them overlook the fact that marriage is about the greater picture of the gospel, and instead focus on how to customize your spouse (I call it Your Best Wife Now). That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I read Emerson Eggerichs’ The Language of Love and Respect. Eggerichs walks the reader through Ephesians 5:33, and helps married couples understand that the greatest needs for wives and husbands are love and respect, respectively (pun intended).
Eggerichs gave me tremendous insight into what a gospel-centered marriage should look like. That’s helpful not only to me as a pastor, but to me as a husband as well. Filled with practical tools for communication (in my opinion, a main cause of marriage breakdown), the book will be a handy reference for helping married couples achieve a gospel mindset.
The one drawback to the book is that Eggerichs crams 200 pages of material into 355. At times I felt like I was stuck in one of those reality shows where you get a full preview of the next segment before the commercial, and a full recap of the previous segment after the commercial. Much of the review and preview was unnecessary, and often made me feel like the book was dragging.
That said, The Language of Love and Respect is a good read, and one that needs to be on your shelf. Buy it today.
Previous Reviews:
- A Comedian’s Guide to Theology, Thor Ramsey
- Lasting Impressions: From Visiting to Belonging, Mark Waltz
