marriage problems, sexual intimacy, sexual intimacy struggles
25 Marriage Resources My Readers Personally Recommend
Jul
I asked and you spoke up!
Below are 25 marriage resources that many of you personally recommended.
All of these are not specifically on sex, but obviously the more you strengthen your marriage, the more likely it is that sexual intimacy will improve as well.
If possible, I linked directly to the author’s or ministry’s website. If you want to recommend a resource you don’t see listed here, please add it to the comment section.
As I always say… no one resource has all the answers, and you may disagree with some things in a resource. Simply glean what is applicable for your marriage.
Let’s be about encouraging one another toward the kind of marriage and intimacy that God envisions for us. We don’t have to journey marriage alone — there are resources available to help us in the journey!
1. Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs (This by and far got the most mentions! There is a book, study materials, conferences, etc.)
2. Family Life Weekend to Remember and other Family Life resources.
4. The Generous Husband and The Generous Wife blogs.
5. Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey.
6. For Men Only and For Women Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn
8. HomeWord with Jim Burns (radio broadcasts and other resources)
9. ReNEWed — 30 Day Devotional for Husbands by Marriage Keepers (Many resources)
10. Intimacy Ignited by Joseph and Linda Dillow and Peter and Lorraine Pintus
12. Love and War by John and Stasi Eldredge
13. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
14. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
15. The Peasant Princess by Mark Driscoll
16. Holy Sex by Greg Popcak
17. Theology of the Body and Good News About Sex and Marriage by Christopher West
18. Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage by Mark Gungor (Also Flag Page Personality Profile) (Mark is hilarious… two other couples and my husband and I went through his DVD series).
20. Smart Stepfamilies by Ron Deal (I met Ron while at the AMFM conference in Dallas! Great man passionate about helping families!)
21. Romancing Your Wife and Romancing Your Husband by Deb and Daniel Smith
22. Sacred Sex by Tim Alan Gardner
23. Shannon Ethridge Resources
24. When Two Become One: Enhancing Sexual Intimacy in Marriage by Christopher and Rachel McCluskey
25. Pure Intimacy for Married Couples
26. Engaged Marriage by Dustin Riechmann (Fabulous!)
27. His Needs Her Needs by Willard Harley
28. One Extraordinary Marriage website by Tony and Alisa DiLorenzo (Fabulous!)
29. Celebration of Sex by Douglas Rosenau (I met Doug at the AMFM conference and it was so great talking to someone who was a pioneer in speaking openly about sex in Christian circles! Dr. Rosenau’s book was the first one I read on sex in marriage).
30. Red Hot Monogamy by Bill and Pam Ferrell
31. Sheet Music by Kevin Leman
32. Fit Marriage exercise website by Dustin Riechmann and Tony DiLorenzo
33. Having open, honest and safe married couples with whom you can be real about your marriage struggles. (I was so glad that one my readers mentioned this — the value of having other married couples who will journey with you and who understand that marriage is hard).
34. Foundational restoration (again, this was something a reader mentioned that I think is so important… the significance of getting back to godly foundations when restoring a marriage).
(Okay… I admit… as you can see, I couldn’t hold it to 25!)
This is a list of just some of the resources out there people! Of course, I would obviously add the Bible to the list as well, since God’s Word is rich with all the qualities necessary for a marriage that reflects His grace and heart.
It’s ridiculously encouraging that there are so many resources available. Don’t you agree?! If so, please tweet this, share it and go wild getting the word out.
If you know of more resources that you would PERSONALLY recommend, please throw them into the comment section.
Copyright 2011, Julie Sibert. Intimacy in Marriage Blog.
Perhaps I am one of the few Catholic Christians here, but I notice that there are no Catholic resources mentioned here. I can specifically suggest:
* Holy Sex by Greg Popcak
* Theology of the Body by Christopher West
* Good News About Sex and Marriage by Christopher West
These are excellent resources that can be enjoyed by those who aren’t Catholic as well as those who are. Thank you.
(((THANKS Heather… I have added these to the post! Sorry I missed them earlier! Thanks for mentioning them!! Awesome! Julie )))
Thanks Heather!!! I think you mentioned these in a facebook post and I inadvertently left them out!! I am so glad you added them here! THANKS! I’ve added them to the list in the post! Yeah!!
Thanks so much for the generous mentions of both Engaged Marriage and Fit Marriage, Julie (and community)!
Heather – I totally agree with your suggestions! I think you already know this, but we do have a lot of resources on Engaged Marriage aimed at Catholics, including Natural Family Planning and lots on sexuality. While it’s not an explicitly Catholic site, my own views naturally make their way into the topics and writing. 🙂
Thanks Julie & Dustin!
It’s me again… 🙂
I wanted to add:
* http://addingzest.net
* http://hotholyhumorous.blogspot.com
* http://unequalmarriage.typepad.com
Can you tell this a subject I’ve explored recently??? Thanks!
Thanks Heather!! Excellent! I’m going to check out addingzest.net and unequalmarriage. I wasn’t aware of those.
I agree wholeheartedly about http://www.hotholyhumorous.blogspot.com. Gotta love her!
Hey Julie! This list is amazing! Love it! Would it be to silly of me to add http://www.onefleshmarriage.com ? 🙂
Also a personal favorite of ours is Journey to Surrender, http://www.surrenderedmarriage.org
And of course, your awesome blog/ministry! Thanks for doing what you do and for being who you are! Blessings! Kate
Another great marriage site is: Marriage Missions International (http://www.marriagemissions.com/) and Stu Gray’s, Stupendous Marriage (http://www.stupendousmarriage.com/)
thanks for taking the time to post this excellent list!
Debi
theromanticvineyard.com
Though geared to couples who are dating or engaged, there are still a lot of helpful ideas that married people can do as well at our blog: http://preengaged.com
We also recommend Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson and The Fruit of Her Hands by Nancy Wilson!
Thanks Julie for the list! My favorite marriage resource is OFM or OneFleshMarriage.com I know reading their blog and the insite the couple has shared on the site has helped my husband and I implement postive changes in our marriage.
First off, REALLY like Sacred Marriage and all Family Live material (Art of Marriage event in particular!)
I also highly recommend “Marriage Matters” by Winston Smith
Great list Julie!! I just wrote a post pointing my readers to this valuable resource. Thanks so much for doing this.
I’d also like to add Sheila Gregoire’s “To Love, Honor and Vacuum.” I love her stuff! Although she doesn’t focus exclusively on marriage or sexual intimacy, I know she’s working on a book on sex for women.
(http://tolovehonorandvacuum.blogspot.com)
As several others have suggested, One Flesh Marriage is fabulous too! (http://www.onefleshmarriage.com) I love their husband/wife combo approach.
We got alot out of HOW WE LOVE by Milan and Kay Yerkovich. It worked great as a small group study.
In the UK, the Family Life Division of Agape UK runs an excellent one-day seminar called ‘Day to Treasure’ which covers much of the material in ‘Weekend to Remember’ but with fewer workshops.
There is also a 9-session bible study course ‘Together-investing in your marriage’ written by Mark and Christine Daniel of Agape UK’s Family Life Division and published by Crusade for World Revival (CWR).
I write merely as a satisfied customer and have no formal connection with either Agape UK or CWR.
I was surprised it didn’t make the list too but The Act of Marriage is a great book about sex in a Christian marriage. All the churches I’ve been apart of recommend this to its engaged couples.You could say it’s very “hands on” in its approach, haha!
I have found christiannymphos.org to be a very helpful site regarding increased intimacy in marriage.
It’s wonderful to see that more and more helpful marriage and intimacy websites are becoming available!
We’ve found that Jimmy & Karen Evans of http://www.marriagetoday.com have excellent quality resources. They have many years of experience and teach with a solid Biblical foundation!
We use Alpha’s “Preparation for Marriage” dvd series with the engaged couples we are working with. http://relationshipcentral.org/
We’re also partial to our own site: http://www.the-intimate-couple.com 😉
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mark gungor!
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I was personally blessed by Paul David Tripp’s, “What Did You Expect?”
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I discovered your blog the before Christmas (as well as a few other similar blogs). First let me say that I was raised, educated and a practicing Catholic. As you probably know, we Catholics see and teach sexuality a bit differently than the Protestant faith. Your take is inspiring and encouraging and I feel like I am on the outside looking inward at the way you interrpet and write about sex.
I have read Greg Povak’s book and he describes and compares sex to the Mass wherein it satisfies all of the senses and sometimes its what we call High Mass where sex could be some long drawn out extra special affair or just a weekly short Mass or a regular, Ordinary Time Mass. This small space really limits me from describing more but it was very inspirational and beautiful in the way he approached this topic.
I guess the reason I decided to comment on this particular post (as I have been reading many of your installments) is that seeing that you have included a few Catholic resources here was refreshing. Seeing that I am not your only Catholic reader (and I really thought I was) is a testament to your gift of reaching out to married couples who are all searching and traveling the same journey, albeit, maybe on another road.
One other thing I want to add about Greg Popcak’s book is that he does give the readers a detailed biology lesson (totally separate from his information on NFP) regarding the changes in a woman as her cycle progresses throughout each month and the effect is has on her sex drive, her mood swings and even how the physicality of intercourse changes as her body changes and hormones rise and fall.
He also has some great ideas of how to foster intimacy during those 5 or so days each month that sex would be off limits (for some couples, anyway).
I think this portion of his book is relative to any couple who struggles with intimacy and differences in frequency of sex. Just in case you might be interested. 🙂
Hello,
There is a great dvd out that is entitled Fireproofmymarriage. All you have to do is go to Fireproofmymarriage.com and click on the link that is entitled for couples. This dvd was very inspirational and inspiring.
The Fred Stoeker books:
Every Man’s Marriage
Every Woman’s Marriage
Hero
and more…
are invaluable resources
I’m hoping you can add my website to your resources. I will be more than happy to reciprocate.
Thanks,
Mark Crigler
Website: DanceAndMarriage.com
short title:
Building strong marriages, with the Bible as a guidebook and Ballroom Dancing as a metaphor.
desription: Danceandmarriage.com is dedicated to one of the greatest causes of all. It helps to build strong families, relationships, and marriages with the Bible as a guidebook and Ballroom Dancing as a metaphor. With blog posts such as “Setting the Distance…in Dance and Marriage” ,”Protecting Your Partner”, and “Teaching Teens About Dance and Marriage” they encourage, inform, and discuss the greatest of relationships, marriage. They provide blog posts, and book references. Plus there are many other resources to help you on this marvelous journey. And there is also Ballroom Dancing. It’s the greatest of all sports metaphors to illustrate the ideas of marriage and relationships. And it’s something that provides great recreation and enjoyment.