Book Review: The Love & Respect Experience

About a year ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to take a marriage class at our church, studying the book Love and Respect, by Emerson Eggerichs. During the course of the class we learned SO much, from both the book and the corresponding DVDs. I can honestly say that class changed our marriage for the better. So when I saw that Emerson's new devotional for couples, The Love & Respect Experience, was one of my options to review for BookSneeze, I jumped at the chance! I was not disappointed. Although my hubby and I have yet to go through this devotional together (I read it through quickly myself first so I could post my review), I am looking forward to doing so in the near future.

The Love & Respect Experience is a 52-chapter devotional, geared toward both husbands and wives. There are several options for using this book--spouses can choose to work through it individually and then share what they are learning with one another, or couples can work their way through it together. Having 52 chapters makes it easy to focus on just one chapter per week, but obviously you can read one per day, or whatever works for you as a couple. Each chapter is short (just two or three pages), but they are packed with Godly counsel and cover many different topics relating to marriage. Each chapter begins with a verse, delves into the topic at hand, and then includes specific prayer points and action ideas at the end.

To be honest, I wondered how much this devotional would be "new" or different from the original Love and Respect book. I was pleasantly surprised! While the chapters obviously focus on the themes of love and respect in marriage, this devotional isn't at just a "replay" of former material. I found much to think on and much to challenge me as I read through these chapters. Since it has been nearly a year since I read Love and Respect, I appreciated the reminder of the principles set forth in that book, which were at the same time presented in a fresh way. I love how Emerson gives wise counsel interspersed with personal testimony and examples, and presents it all in such a practical, easy-to-understand way. I also wanted to mention how nice the quality of this book is. It has an imitation leather cover with the words imprinted on it, and just looks and feels really nice. I was expecting it to be a paperback book, so I was very surprised and impressed with the actual design.

The only little "nit-picky" thing I didn't like that much was the variety of Bible versions used for the verses at the beginning of each chapter. Although I'm not a die-hard KJV-only girl, it would have been less distracting (to me, anyway) if only one or two different versions were used for these verses, not a whole bunch of different ones, including paraphrases, of which I'm not a big fan. Obviously it's not a big deal to look up the verse yourself in your favorite Bible version, though, so as I said, this was just one little thing that I didn't care for that much.

I did really like the prayer points and action ideas--I thought these were a wonderful addition and very helpful. Sometimes it's so easy to read a passage of Scripture or a devotional book, and then forget what you read within a few hours. If you have something specific to pray about and work on for each week, that will really help you to put the principles you're studying into practice.

This devotional would make a wonderful gift for any couple--from newlyweds to those who have been married for many years. If you are a couple looking to grow closer to each other and the Lord, I would highly recommend The Love & Respect Experience! My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through theBookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."