Making love last: divorce-proofing your young marriage

Description

With thirty years of experience as a licensed marriage and family therapist, Laura Taggart understands the unique struggles of newly married couples who find marriage much more difficult than they imagined. Failed expectations, unanticipated conflict, and disagreements about money, sex, children, and more have many young couples assuming they made a mistake, married the wrong person, or just weren't ready. As a result, one-third of all married couples divorce before their ten-year anniversary. In this practical and hopeful book, Taggart offers the wisdom and help she would share as a counselor with a couple beginning their marriage. She helps couples examine their true expectations for marriage, provides six action steps for improving the way couples relate, and gives couples a new picture of what it means to enjoy marriage for a lifetime. Each chapter includes discussion questions for couples or small groups as well as additional questions for personal reflection.;Intro; Title Page; Copyright Page; Endorsements; Dedication; Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part 1: Reimagining Marriageâ#x80;#x94;Changing the Way You Think; 1. Why Marriage Is Hard Work; 2. More Than You Imagined; 3. Why Marriage Is Worth It; Part 2: Revitalizing Marriageâ#x80;#x94;Changing the Way You Relate; 4. Search Yourself; 5. Embrace Differences; 6. Tackle Conflict; 7. Let Go; 8. Lean In; 9. Initiate Intimacy; Part 3: Re-visioning Marriageâ#x80;#x94;Changing the Way You Love; 10. The Power of a Promise; 11. Marriage as a Catalyst for Change; 12. Better Together; Appendix A: Feeling Words.