I finished my copy of Craig Groeschel's new book, Going all the Way, a few days ago. The subtitle is "preparing for a marriage that goes the distance." Groeschel does a great job of helping young single adults prepare for marriage. In fact, this is a book I would probably want to get in the hands of every college student and many high school juniors and seniors. Groeschel writes with an authentic flavor of exposing his own mistakes, failures, successes, and learnings in the hopes that others will be able to learn from them and create a great marriage.

Here are two big things I picked up:

1. Focus first on developing an authentic relationship with Jesus. This is huge. Since all of who we are in our other relationships flows out of this relationship, I think it's a big deal to work on becoming a committed follower of Jesus before jumping into serious relationships.

2. No matter where you've been or what you've done, start from there and move forward. I'm not sure if he said this exactly in the book, but there was a great mixture of warning and grace throughout the book. If you've messed up sexually, start with God's forgiveness there and move forward. If you've messed up emotionally with others, start with God's forgiveness there and move forward. There's definitely a time and place to deal with past hurts and failures, but God wants us to move past those into healthy habits and relationships.

This is a great book for the pre-pre-marital stage (no, that's not a typo). It's also great if you're already married. I've been married over 6 years and still picked up some great things from this "premarital" book. Groeschel is one of those authors who can mix challenge and humor in a way that causes you to laugh out loud while still examining what's going on in your heart.

Labels: books

This entry was posted by Mike Lovato, on Sunday, November 25, 2007. You can leave your response.