going all the way

My copy of Craig Groeschel's latest book arrived in our mailbox yesterday. Subtitle: "Preparing for a marriage that goes the distance." Audience: People years from marriage, thinking about marriage, engaged, or married and unhappy about it. I'm none of those things, but I know a lot of teenagers so I thought it might be a good resource to have up my sleeve.

I read the first 70 pages last night in one sitting. It's gripping.

Okay, gripping is a bad word, but it's really good. The advice is good and peppered with hysterical tales of Craig's Jr. High dating experiences. Of course all Jr. High dating experiences are pretty ridiculous, but Craig narrates his well.

What I dig so far:

Good, realistic advice. He recommends not even kissing until marriage, but allows that a lot of readers probably just won't stick to that. He stays out of the debate about whether or not Christians should date, and just offers some solid, practical advice for relationship that the reader can use while dating or courting or whatever. He's encouraging and graceful.

Transparency. He writes candidly about his relationship with his wife from its beginning. He encourages couples to wait until marriage to kiss, but admits that he and his wife didn't hit that mark (he also shares how that affected their relationship for the worse).

Language. Craig is not shy about talking about sex. Early into chapter one he recalls, "For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of having a great marriage. What could be better than sharing each day with your best friend, then at night getting naked together?" Caught you off-guard too, huh?

Humor. I laughed out loud at least a half-dozen times last night reading about his terrible dating experiences and awful pick-up lines. This material has little to do with my life, but the anticipation of another off-the-wall story kept me turning pages.

Jesus. Its Biblical. Chapter one is all about finding "the one." He writes about how everyone is on that search, but really, the "one" who needs to be found is Jesus. If there were only one other person in your life, it would have to be Jesus. He talks about putting relationships in order and for the duration of the book refers to the elusive future spouse as "the Two" instead of "the One."

I like it. I'll keep you posted.