Product Description

Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the perennial best seller The Five Love Languages, provides an easy-to-grasp framework to help couples understand their marriage and seven practical strategies for strengthening or improving their marriage relationship. A valuable resource for couples regardless of how long they've been married, this biblically based book is a reference tool to help couples through every season of marriage.

Summary of features:

• Valuable insight for every couple, regardless of how long they have been married.
• Provides seven practical strategies to help couples understand and strengthen their marriage relationship.
• Includes a Marital Seasons Profile to help couples determine the season of their marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15728 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Chapman, author of the longstanding megaseller The Five Love Languages, uses his years of marriage counseling and leading marriage seminars as the basis for his thesis that marriages repeatedly go through periods that can be characterized by the seasons of the year. He begins by describing winter, times when marriages are marked by "coldness, harshness, and bitterness." Spring is "where most marriages begin," while summer is filled with fun. He compares an autumn marriage to "the falling of the leaves." Chapman offers detailed explanations of the emotions, attitudes and actions of the marriage seasons as well as the pros and cons of each. The book's second section provides seven strategies to enhance or change the marriage seasons, from dealing with past failures and speaking your spouse's love language to "maximizing differences" and becoming a positive influence. Chapman also specifically addresses how to improve a marriage where a spouse has no desire to change. While it's valuable to have this information in one place, this book isn't different from what Chapman has written, said and taught many times before. Clear writing, tested strategies and good stories are here, but new revelations are not. (Sept.)
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About the Author
Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of the best-selling 'The Five Love Languages' (more than 4 million copies sold) and The Four Seasons of Marriage. He is the director of Marriage and Family Life Consultants, Inc.; an internationally known speaker; and the host of A Love Language Minute, a syndicated radio program heard on more than 100 stations across North America. He and his wife, Karolyn, live in North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

EXCELLENT reading for any married or wanna-be married people
I highly recommend this book. It is such an easy read, and chock full of insights that every married couple or wanna-be married couple should read.

Seasons of Love
"My experience both in my own marriage and in counseling couples for more than thirty years, suggests that marriages are perpetually in a state of transition, continually moving from one season to another..." ~ Gary Chapman

While "The Four Seasons of Marriage" can be read in a matter of hours, the lessons learned are quite valuable. You can instantly put the ideas into practice because they are practical and wise. Instead of taking a complex problem and making it overwhelmingly difficult to solve, Gary makes everything more simple.

Once you have determined your season (winter, spring, summer, fall) then you can decide to try to stay in a season (summer is comfortable) or move out of a season (like winter which is harsh) more quickly and into a situation you prefer. All that is needed is a little motivation and a sense of determination.

You can experience spring after twenty years of marriage or winter in the first year. Since each relationship is totally unique some seasons may feel more familiar than others. However, Gary believes that you go through the seasons on a continual basis. I have personally found this to be very true.

After reading numerous books on marriage and relationships I think this is one of the best books on the subject. It really makes sense and is written by an author who has been married for over forty-two years. This book also contains a summary of the five love languages.

I can also recommend: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

~The Rebecca Review

Chapman Has it Together
Chapman is known for his perennial best seller, The Five Love Languages. He now looks at what he calls the four seasons of marriage. We don't progress through these seasons in a steady progression, like the literal four seasons we experience over the course of a year. Instead, he takes characteristics of each season and applies them to where we might be, or where we've been in our journey together as a couple.

Summer is obviously the time of warmth and closeness; winter is the time of trouble, discouraged and even dissatisfied. But the main point Chapman makes is that each season presents us with opportunities for emotional growth and for strengthening our marital relationship.

Chapman provides a "Marital Seasons Profile" with a copy for each spouse to take and interpret. The profile helps tell which season each partner sees their marriage in at this time.

Then building on this, he describes seven strategies a couple can work on to strengthen their marriage, regardless of which season they might be in. He looks at dealing with past failures, working on our attitude, speaking our partners love language, becoming a better listener, helping your spouse succeed, dealing with our differences, and working on developing a positive outlook together.

He has an interesting section at the back of the book where he asks a number of questions that he thinks would be in the mind of the reader, and then answers then for us. He also provides a section that looks at how a couple can use the book, even when only one partner is interested.

Final Note: Telephone and Online Counseling may be a great way to help struggling couples. Learn to Provide Telephone and Online Counseling with this book: The Therapist's Clinical Guide to Online Counseling and Telephone Counseling: The Definitive Training Guide for Clinical Practice