Best-selling author and longtime FamilyLife Today cohost Bob Lepine helps you work through the challenges that emerge in every marriage, causing couples to become isolated and alienated.
All marriages face seasons of distress and frustration—times when, thanks to a variety of factors, you don’t feel as close as you once were. Lepine helps you make the adjustments necessary to build the kind of marriage God intends for you to have and encourages you back on the path to oneness.
Build a Stronger Marriage maps out this path to oneness by first helping you and your spouse uncover how your motivations and expectations about marriage, childhood hardship, or family of origin issues, guilt, shame, or unaddressed relational wounds can impact a marriage relationship. You will be able to trade blame, dissatisfaction, and disappointment for a stronger, richer, and more rewarding relationship.
AUTHOR
Bob Lepine is the longtime cohost of FamilyLife Today®. He serves as the teaching pastor at Redeemer Community Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is the author of Love Like You Mean It: The Heart of a Marriage That Honors God, The Christian Husband, and Build a Stronger Marriage. Bob and his wife, Mary Ann have five children and ten grandchildren.
"Bigger than a minibook, smaller than regular, just the right size to give biblical answers to common counseling questions. This book, along with others in the series, is an affordable, much-needed resource for the church community—strugglers, pastors, counselors, and other helpers."
Barbara Miller Juliani, VP New Growth Press
"What couple doesn’t yearn to make their marriage stronger and happier? I’ve been married to Ken Tada for over forty years, and I say a hearty ‘yes’! It’s why I love Bob Lepine’s new book, Build a Stronger Marriage. I know Bob well, and he’s not only got the heart, but the experience and biblical know-how to guide couples toward a richer, more meaningful life together. I give this book a double thumbs-up!”
Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center.
“Do you need a marriage makeover? Drawing on decades of insight as a teaching pastor and author, FamilyLife Today® cohost Bob Lepine shows you—practically and biblically—which items of your interpersonal ‘wardrobe’ to eliminate and what new pieces to put on for a refreshed, renovated relationship.”
Jim Daly, President, Focus on the Family
“There is no one better to write about marriage than Bob. After interviewing thousands of theologians, pastors, and authors about marriage and family for over twenty-five years, Bob has gained a wealth of wisdom. More importantly, he lives it at home with his wife, Mary Ann. His wisdom will transform your marriage and your legacy. We trust no one more than Bob to articulate God’s truth for marriage. Enjoy this book and share it with others.”
Dave and Ann Wilson, Hosts of FamilyLife Today®
“As practical as it is powerful, Build a Stronger Marriage lays bare the root causes of marital dysfunction and deftly applies the restoration power of the gospel for couples who want to chart a new course in their relationship. The suggested activities are as helpful as the chapters are wise, holding out the promise of a new level of intimacy and health in your marriage.”
Gary Thomas, Author of Sacred Marriage
"Bob’s friendship and wise counsel have been a rich gift to us and our marriage. Now you get to glean this wisdom for yourself. You’ll love the way Bob connects practical insights with the timeless truth of Scripture. And the suggested activities at the end of each chapter are worth the price of the book. We enthusiastically recommend this resource."
Robert and Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Authors; founders of Wolgemuth & Associates (Robert) and Revive Our Hearts (Nancy)
“Bob Lepine's book, Build a Stronger Marriage, helps couples move from unintentionally drifting apart to intentionally pulling together. Great marriages don't just happen automatically; they are built purposefully. Bob gives readers the tools to detect marital weak spots and establish new patterns that bring couples closer together than ever before. A great resource for any couple who is committed to having, not just a good marriage, but a great one!”
Sharon Jaynes, Author of Lovestruck and Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe
“I didn’t think there was a need for another marriage book, but then I read Bob Lepine’s latest work and was pleasantly surprised. Bob has concisely and compassionately written a book that will help marriages at any stage of life. Don’t let the brevity fool you—there is much here for couples to learn from, savor, and be equipped for.”
Jonathan D. Holmes, Executive Director, Fieldstone Counseling
“Whether you want to repair a broken marriage or make a healthy marriage stronger, Build a Stronger Marriage is the tool you need. It is also a fantastic resource for counselors to pass on to the couples they counsel. I plan to keep a few copies on my shelf to use in my pastoral counseling. The chapters are short and easy to read but contain truths deep enough to make a lasting impact.”
Marty Machowski, Family Pastor; author of The Ology, Long Story Short, Brave and Bold, and other gospel-rich resources for church and home
“Here are ten descriptors to say why I think Build a Stronger Marriage should be required reading for any couple who wants a lasting marriage: well-written, clear-eyed, grace-saturated, short and potent chapters, winsomely written, pastorally wise, practically applied, refreshingly honest, precise and relevant, delightfully hopeful.”
Dave Harvey, President of Great Commission Collective; author of When Sinners Say I Do, Letting Go, and I Still Do
“Once again, Bob Lepine knocks it out of the park in Build A Stronger Marriage. Bob's experience and wise counsel offer specific ways to navigate the common storms of marriage. He asks thought-provoking questions, shares real-life examples to help even the most fragile marriages, and points to the Scriptures for confirmation. Thanks, Bob! Our world needs your insight and encouragement!”
Alex and Stephen Kendrick, Kendrick Brothers Productions
“For years, Bob Lepine has been teaching us about marriage through our radios, and I am so thankful that now we get the opportunity to learn from his writing. Build a Stronger Marriage is a helpful resource from a trusted expert on this most important topic. I plan on giving this book to the mentor couples in our church and using it as our primary marriage ministry resource. I hope your church does the same!”
Dean Inserra, Pastor, City Church, Tallahassee, Florida
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Brad Hambrick
Michael Gembola
Edward T. Welch
Rush Witt
Build a Stronger Marriage – the Path to Oneness is author Bob Lepine’s guide for any marriage. As part of New Growth Press’s ‘Ask the Counselor’ Series, Build a Stronger Marriage is a comprehensive and structured guide that feels like professional counseling sessions. Lepine systematically examines the status of the marriage, beginning with an exploration of the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of the current state, then progressing to the hopeful future of healing and restoration. In addition to Lepine’s professionalism, his Christian focus promotes keeping God at the center of the marriage. Build a Stronger Marriage challenges readers to take a hard look in the mirror if they want change in their marriage. Lepine questions, “What if the issue is not your spouse but your scars?” He calls both partners to task for making improvements but also helps each individual realize the magnitude that their individual contributions can have, positively or negatively, on their marriage. Lepine works through the necessary topics of anger and forgiveness. He takes particular care to explain what forgiveness is and what it isn’t – especially in the case of unrepentant or abusive relationships. There’s no quick fix for most marriages. Build a Stronger Marriage provides thought-provoking questions to help readers work through their specific issues. These “Practical Steps for Real Change” offer readers a path to an improved marriage. Who would benefit from this book: The focus of Build a Stronger Marriage is marriages that are struggling. But don’t all marriages struggle in one way or another? As good as my own marriage is, it can always use improvement! As I said to my husband when I was describing my takeaways from this book, “If our marriage is a 9, why not shoot for 10?” With that in mind, anyone interested in improving their marriage, no matter the starting point, would benefit from this book. How this book affected me: As good as I consider my marriage, we’re the same as everyone else. We have repetitive issues that boil to the surface every once in a while. We’re not on the same page all the time. We disappoint each other and count on being forgiven – often. We’re humans. One tidbit I realized from this book is that scars from my brother’s death when we were children impacts my marriage. There were many other tidbits that are good reminders of how to treat each other, no matter the circumstances. This book inspired me to take a closer look in the mirror and commit to improving my marriage even more.
Aimed at couples in struggling marriages, this book is gospel-focussed giving hope and guidance. He begins with the wrong expectations many bring to marriage, as well as the main areas of the past that influence a marriage: family of origin issues, childhood trauma, issues of shame and guilt related to sex, and unaddressed relational wounds. The reader is then brought back to their restoration in Christ, and the encouragement that our past does not define our future. Lepine proposes that the essentials in marriage are: putting anger to death, determining when to overlook things and when to confront, and the crucial role of repentance, confession, and forgiveness. Encouraging us to put off sin, and put on the fruits of the spirit, he posits four best practices of marriage - generous forgiveness, extravagant love, enthusiastic encouragement, and common convictions. The chapters are punchily short, but with enough content to consider, challenge, and engage with, as well as illustrations and examples to make his points clearer. Each ends with “Practical steps for real change” where the real work is done personally. The focus is on you (not your spouse) because the only person you can change is you. Obviously, couples that do this together with a desire for change will reap the most benefit.
