Product Description

Ron Deal provides seven effective, achievable steps toward building a healthy marriage and a workable and peaceful stepfamily. Exploding the myth of achieving a "blended family" he helps parents recognize the unique personality and place of each family member, honor the families of origin while establishing new traditions, and much more. Developed from Deal’s nationwide seminars on the topic, this material is equally useful for individuals, families, small groups, pastors, and counselors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13527 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780764201592
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Inside Flap
"The best book available for stepfamilies that I’ve seen." —Dennis Rainey, Executive Director, FamilyLife.

About the Author
RON L. DEAL is founder and president of Successful Stepfamilies, an organization that empowers Christian stepfamilies and equips churches for ministry to this growing population; and the creator/presenter of the Building a Successful Stepfamily conference. Ron also serves as family life minister for the Southwest Church of Christ and is a licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselor with the Better Life Counseling Center, Inc. He frequently appears on national TV and radio programs, including Focus on the Family and FamilyLife Today, and serves as Stepfamily Educational Consultant to Focus on the Family. Ron and his wife, Nan, are founding members of the National Advisory Board for the Association of Marriage and Family Ministries. The Deal family lives in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Customer Reviews

Encouraging and Practical Book
Ron Deal gives very practical advice on how to make step situations work in the face of divided loyalties, marital problems, parenting differences, toxic ex-spouses, etc. With the divorce rate at 74% for second marriages with children, there's obviously unique dynamics in a step family that couples must face along with all the other normal challenges of life and marriage. My family was helped by the explanations on how to gradually move the step parent into authority at various levels, and how to develop realistic expectations for the amount of time it will take for family members to accept each other and ultimately bond as a family.
For people who are considering a second marriage, please don't get discouraged by his "warnings" and occasional negativity. I wish that someone had told me the struggles that I might face before I remarried, and that someone had been straight with me about how hard it really is to blend two families. Thank God that we read the book before we threw in the towel. His recommendations really work, and our family has a lot less tension and pressure since reading The Smart Step Family.

Great help for your stepfamily. Wonderful group study book.
I lead a stepfamily Christian study group. We are using The Smart Stepfamily as a study guide for the group. Everyone is getting a lot out of the book. Mr. Deal really seems to understand the true needs of the stepfamily.

If you take Mr. Deal's advice seriously, you and your stepfamily will be changed for the better. His 7 steps are amazing. All 7 steps are very Biblical and all are essential. They are presented clearly and logically.

I highly recommend the associated overview DVD "7 Steps to Stepfamily Success" which is presented in lecture format by Ron Deal. It quickly discusses each of the 7 steps in the book.

If you are in a stepfamily and are Christian, you need this book!

Good Christian Based Help for Step-Families
I recently previewed a series of books as a potential texts to use with step families in crisis. The least informative of these books was "Happily Remarried" by David and Lisa Frisbie. Although the book was inherently readable and certainly got a few good points across--it was completely inadequate to deal with the complexities many step families face.

If your step family is dealing with serious issues I recommend "Smart Step Family" by Ron Deal or "Step Coupling" by Susan Wisdom and Jennifer Green. You will find either of these books to be far more comprehensive and useful, although each one has its own strengths. The "Smart Step Family" is a book written from a strong Christian perspective and as such provides significant spiritual and biblical background for people of faith. "Step Coupling" approaches the step family more from a secular counseling context and therefore does not delve much into the moral or ethical aspects of the various issues facing step families. Indeed, when discussing a foundational issue like honesty or dishonesty, the "Step Coupling" book explicitly states that neither value is right or wrong. This was almost a deal-breaker for me. I suspect that even most non-religious people would struggle with the idea that all behavior is value neutral. Nevertheless, the book largely arrives at the same conclusions as its Christian counterpart--albeit from a different perspective.

All in all, I think that any step family going through internal or external struggles would be well served to read both books. Both bring unique and significant insights into the challenges that step families face. The "Step Coupling" book is somewhat more earthy and easy to read, being filled with concrete examples from actual step families. The "Smart Step Family" book feels a little more detached, but still does a very good job of communicating the key issues that step families need to address, while acknowledging the spiritual needs of those involved and how to address them. In this sense, it is perhaps the deeper of the two. Either book will do a good job in helping the step family better understand itself and move toward a more fulfilling future together.