BOOK REVIEW

Monday, March 07, 2011

LOVE AT LAST SIGHT

30 days to grow and deepen your closest relationships

By Kerry & Chris Shook

Authors of the New York Times Bestseller One Month to Live

OVERVIEW: Everything you've been taught about relationships is wrong. The movies and TV make it look easy. Matchmaking Web sites have it down to a science. Two people connect--love at first sight--and the relationship is magical from then on. But the truth is, strong deep relationships that last a lifetime aren't based on the mysterious chemistry of two personalities. Real love in relationships--friends, married couples, siblings, parents--isn't a magic act. It's a journey. A great relationship grows from an investment of time and effort. Kerry and Chris Shook know that deep relationships aren't built on initial attractions, but on last things--the experience you shared the last time you were with someone...the words you spoke with her last week...the effort you made for him the last time you were together. And Love at Last Sight offers a one-month relationship plan that will improve you most important bonds, including a weekly focus and daily readings that guide you through the process.

AUTHORS: Kerry Shook and his wife, Chris Shook, founded Woodlands Church in The Woodlands, Texas, in 1993. Since then, the church has grown to an attendance of more than 18,000 and is counted among the fastest-growing churches in America. The Shooks have been featured on Fox News, NBC, ABC, and PBS. Kerry and Chris have been married for more than twenty-five years, and are the parents of four children.

MY REVIEW: If your most important relationships are less than what you wish they could be, then this is the book for you. This book will motivate you to take steps to reconnect with the people who really matter. This thirty-day program guides you step-by-step to deeper, more satisfying relationships by developing four forgotten but powerful relational arts for changing, improving, and repairing the relationships you care about most. You will spend one week on each of the following topics: The Art of Being All There, The Art of Acting Intentionally, The Art of Risking Awkwardness and The Art of Letting Go.

My wife and I have known each other since we were teenagers and we have been married for fifty-three years. I have retired after almost fifty years of ministry as a Senior Minister. My closest relationships have come from marriage and ministry. All of my relationships will be strengthened by what I read in this splendid book. I was familiar with most of the things in this book but I needed to have them brought back to memory and strengthened. I found the two quotes at the beginning of every chapter to be of great value. This book is not only valuable--it is readable. I found it difficult to put down. I agree with Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch.tv who said, "Chris and Kerry Shook give sound advice for putting those we love first and practical tips to make our love last."

(I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.)