I have read a lot of marriage/couple books and one thing that I feel people should know is that no one book is going to have all the answers or perfectly fit your couple experience. So if one book has some answers and helps, great, keep reading and take the good and leave the bad.
There are some things that I really appreciated about this Real Marriage DVD kit and study guide by Mark & Grace Driscoll.
1) They were honest. I appreciated their vunerability in their personal lives. Often marriage/couple books leave someone feeling like "If only I had done such and such, I could have a great marriage like _____." That's not how the Driscolls presented their book/DVD. They talked about their struggles and how to overcome them.
2) The study guide was great to do as a group as it has discussion questions and then personal questions to do later on your own time. These questions allowed the person to hear others' thoughts as well as further develop your own. If you were single, they had a section of questions for them to answer as well which I thought was very well thought out.
3) Each section had a portion of scripture at the beginning and then at the end time for prayer. While there could have been more scripture in the study guide I enjoyed having the prayer aspect included.
4) Each week there was an "experience" that you were to do with your spouse. This could be a date time that involved something fun, introspective, deep and hard talking time, or just enjoyment of being together. I thought this was a great thing to have for couples to do. They also had a part for singles to do.
5) Each section had about a 10-minute video of Mark and Grace Driscoll talking (basically to each other) about the topic that was going to be discussed. I found watching them interact added to the study guide. It made me appreciate the struggles they'd had, research they'd done, and thoughts they had put into making the book and study guide. I like the way they interacted as a couple, it was a good role model.
I only had the DVD and study guide, I did not receive the book to review. In the study guide they want you to read the corresponding chapters. Since I didn't have the book, I couldn't do that part, and I think it would greatly enhance the experience to have the book as well as the DVD study guide.
As I mentioned in the beginning, no book/study guide is perfect and I didn't agree 100% with everything they shared but I would still definitely recommend this to other couples.
I received this study guide/DVD kit from BookSneeze for my honest opinion.
