Young and In Love - A Review

I absolutely LOVED this book by Ted Cunningham. The title is Young and In Love: Challenging the Unnecessary Delay of Marriage. The book contains very interesting ideas, however rather radical to most people. A lot of parents would freak out if they thought someone might give their children this kind of advice! Cunningham does an excellent job supporting his ideas with Biblical theology and practical advice. Not only do I love this book, I totally have lived it! One of the many reasons I believe my marriage of almost 20 years is so amazingly wonderful is that I married young. My parents did also and they would agree totally with the ideas behind this book. By marrying young, my husband and I not only grew into our ways of thinking together, but we also faced a lot of difficulties that have made our marriage much stronger.

Our society has this philosophy that in order to be successful we have to follow a standard progression that includes college graduation, financial stability, finding oneself, and then marriage. No wonder such a small percentage of college students make it to their graduation without compromising their purity!

I so agree with Ted Cunningham that one of the greatest hindrances to our young people having successful marriages is a vastly growing adolescent phase that we give them in their teen years and beyond, way beyond in many cases. We give them a time free from responsibility, to explore, and to experiment. The Bible has two phases, childhood and adulthood - no in between. Up until the late 1950's our society did as well. Suddenly we have created a new, idyllic period of life that is not like reality at all - we are setting them up for failure.

Man, I could go on and on about this book, so many ideas that I feel so strongly about. The author makes some excellent points about the way we as parents, the church, and society are downplaying, even discouraging marriage. We need to be honoring marriage, presenting it as good, desirable, and wonderful! I could so get carried away on several soapboxes here - you are just going to have to read it for yourself. I highly recommend this book.

You can see a book trailer - or buy the book for $14.99 HERE

I received Young and In Love from David C. Cook and B&B Media for the purposes of review only.