Your marriage could be one of history’s great love stories! As newlyweds, it’s time to ensure that your marriage can meet the challenges it will face right around the corner. Cultivating good habits during these first twelve foundational months of your marriage and knowing what to focus on will set the stage for years to come. Robert and Bobbie and Mark and Susan know that there’s a big difference between preparation and actual experience. This is your guide to actually dealing with all the things that come after “I do.” In this unique flip-over format, the chapter topics are the same but one half is written by men for the husband, and the other half is written from a women’s perspective for the wife. As a couple, you’ll each progress through your part of the book and meet somewhere in the middle. Become an expert on what really makes your spouse happy, and enjoy the benefits of a great partnership. Take an honest look at the family you grew up in: its unwritten codes, how it has shaped you, and the ways it affects your relationship with your mate. Learn how to speak each other’s “language” and appreciate the qualities each of you brings to your marriage. You’ll also get an eye-opening look at communication skills, secrets for a great sex life, budget basics, dealing with in-laws, navigating tough times, and much more. Above all, you’ll cultivate a spiritual unity that draws the two of you closer to each other as you draw closer to God. Start reading, and make this first year together what it was meant to be: the most important year in your life.
Robert Wolgemuth has been in the book publishing business for over forty years. A former president of Thomas Nelson Publishers, he is the founder of Wolgemuth & Associates, a literary agency representing the work of more than two hundred authors.
The author of over twenty books, Robert is known as a relentless champion for the family, relationship building, and biblical truth. His favorite “audience” is one friend, a corner table in a small café, and a steaming cup of coffee (extra cream but no sugar) between them.
A graduate of Taylor University, from which he received an honorary doctorate in May 2005, Robert has two grown daughters, two sons-in-law, five grandchildren, one grandson-in-law, and a great-grandson named Ezra. He and his wife, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, live in Southwest Michigan.
Mark DeVries is pastor of youth and families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has served for the past seventeen years. In addition to authoring several books, including Family-Based Youth Ministry and True Love Waits, he is founder of Youth Ministry Architects (www.ymarchitects.com), a strategic-planning service for churches facing transitions in their youth ministries. He and his wife, Susan, live in Nashville.
Bobbie Wolgemuth was a Bible teacher and the author or co-author of several books, including Mom’s Bible: God’s Wisdom for Mothers and the four-book Gold Medallion bestselling series Hymns for a Kid’s Heart with Joni Eareckson Tada. She is also the coauthor of Couples of the Bible with her husband, Robert.
Susan DeVries has made a career out of being a wife, mother, and supervising editor of every word Mark has ever written. Over the past twenty-three years, Susan has partnered with Mark in providing premarital counseling and leading marriage retreats and classes for couples. Mark and Susan have three children and live in middle Tennessee.
