🎉Cyber Week Sale: Get 30% Off Everything!
Biblical encouragements that strengthen marriages in times of trial.
This devotional helps married couples to navigate the storms of life together. Working through the book of Job, Sarah Walton (author of "Hope when it Hurts") and her husband Jeff reflect on their own experiences in a marriage that has faced chronic illness, baggage from the past, a child with neurological challenges, and financial difficulties—and show how to cling to Christ and each other.
This is not a “how to” guide on having the best marriage, but, rather, a walk alongside you and your spouse, sharing the realities of suffering and the effects it can have on a marriage. It is an encouragement to lift your eyes above your trials, off your spouse, and onto our all-sufficient Savior.
Introduction
1. Our Hope in Life and Marriage
2. When Trials Come
3. How to Cling to Hope in Loss
4. Holding All Things Loosely
5. Loving Your Spouse Through Chronic Illness
6. Learning to Lead (A Word for Husbands)
7. Learning to Follow (A Word for Wives)
8. Only God Can Change a Heart: When Your Spouse Fails You
9. When People Bring Judgment Instead of Comfort
10. Waiting Well When God Seems Silent
11. The Strange Gift of Lamenting
12. Walking the Valley of Despair Hand in Hand
13. When Your Pasts Threaten Your Present
14. Who Am I Now? Identity Crisis and Your Marriage
15. When You Feel Alone in the Storm
16. Suffering and Intimacy (Part One)
17. Suffering and Intimacy (Part Two)
18. Longing for Kids, Struggling With Kids: When Family Isn't What You Dreamed Of
19. Why Our Family?
20. Prayers for Prodigal Children
21. Rediscovering (or Keeping) the Joy
22. God's Answers to Our "Whys"
23. From Hearing to Seeing: The Fruit of Humility
24. The Glue that Keeps You Together: Forgiveness
25. The Best Is Yet to Come
| Contributors | Jeff Walton, Sarah Walton |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781784985240 |
| Format | eBook |
| First published | May 2020 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
Offers sound scriptural wisdom for persevering through the hard things that come to every marriage at some point in the real world. Jeff and Sarah winsomely encourage couples to set a course for long-term joy in spite of sorrow, longterm contentment in spite of disappointment, and longterm hope in anticipation of ultimate restoration.
A beautiful, courageous, and wise book. Whether you’ve had an easy marriage or a difficult one, please read this book! You won’t find easy answers, but something better—the inspiring story of a married couple determined to honor God and love each other through all of life’s hardships.
Sarah and Jeff are writing while life is still hard, and they talk about your storms. The only problem is this: you will not be able to give this book to your friends because you and your spouse will keep going back to the prayers at the end of each chapter. If couples pray those prayers together, they will be transformed.
This devotional helps married couples to navigate the storms of life together. Working through the book of Job, Sarah Walton (author of "Hope when it Hurts") and her husband Jeff reflect on their own experiences in a marriage that has faced chronic illness, the after-effects of abuse, a child with neurological challenges, and financial difficulties–and show how to cling to Christ and each other.... continue reading
This book is includes wonderful insight to real life intricacies in marriage. Since the authors have experienced some profound trials in their marriage they are better able to convey what it means to seek the LORD when life is full of difficult storms.
Has your marriage endured any rough storms yet? Mine has, and I wish I had had this book to keep me afloat when my first inclination was to question, blame, and distance myself from my spouse. Scripture holds the antidote to our fear and doubts, and in the most unsettling moments we often need someone who has walked out intense suffering in light of the Gospel to help us navigate the unique spiritual & emotional pitfalls that arise in trial. This is especially true as it relates to our most vulnerable and sacred relationship: marriage. The Waltons give a refreshingly honest and deeply encouraging walk through many facets of trial to help other couples continue to see God’s hope and help in even the most devastating circumstances.
I love that the chapters are short, rich, and end with reflection questions/scripted prayer/a spot to journal. This is made even sweeter if couples can read and reflect together, as the authors suggest!
If you haven’t faced major trials yet....it’s only a matter of time (Jesus told us this to help us prepare & encourage us!)—and I highly recommend this book to prepare you for them. If you have weathered storms, (successfully or not) you understand the challenges of focusing on Christ when everything feels like it is falling apart and the help that a book like this could be. This is a great one to have ready on your shelf and to share with a friend!!
So very grateful for this book. Real help for real marriages in the trials we all face at one time or another. So appreciative of Sarah and Jeff for sharing their story and all they have learned in the midst of the storms!!! Will keep coming back to this one.
Marriage books tend to fall into the same trap as parenting books––touting formulas for proven ways husbands and wives can overcome conflict and achieve marital bliss. This prescriptive approach often oversimplifies both the problems that confront couples and the solutions for navigating deep trials, leading us to set false expectations and thus bank on false hope.
Together through the Storms takes a different, refreshing approach. Jeff and Sarah Walton share the real and ongoing challenges they’ve faced as a couple and highlight how God addresses these difficulties through his Word. Using the book of Job as a guide, Jeff and Sarah show husbands and wives how to shift our perspectives on suffering and how we view one another––not as enemies who need to change, not as perfect partners who complete us, but as flawed companions who are being shaped by a Sculptor to reveal more of the image of Christ in us.
Jeff and Sarah preach this truth as a couple still pressed under the weight of chronic illness, parenting struggles, and residual grief over past experiences. Reading their reflections brought back memories when our marriage hit a series of devastations, including years of infertility and longing for children. Their words speak with compassion toward those tender spots that we encounter as couples, and spur us to depend all the more on God’s grace, both during long-lasting trials and in the day-by-day battle to love one another unconditionally.
Whatever storm is threatening your marriage, however irritated or disappointed or furious you are with your spouse, you can open this book and find concrete hope. Jeff and Sarah don’t offer a 5-step plan to conquer marital struggles. They give you something far better––a compass directing you and your spouse to Christ.
Sarah and Jeff (and family) have taken a huge risk by inviting others to see deeply what they have, and are experiencing from pain, fear, frustration, loneliness, and yet without losing all their hopes and dreams. I was so moved by their honest transparency that it has challenged me to measure how I typically respond to trials. The light of Christ shines so brightly through their message that the Lord has clearly given them to share. And without question their faith has grown strong as individuals and as a couple. After reading the book I was led to order 10 copies that I am targeting to couples I know who will be blessed and encouraged by their story. What better time for this unique story to be told than in the current crisis our world is now experiencing.
I’ve come to love the book of Job and this book is an encouraging look at the book of Job in the context of suffering and how it affects a marriage. I highly recommend if you are in a season of suffering!
Whether you are going through a storm in your life,have in the past or or preparing for your marriage,this book is a completely open and honest look at how marriage is in this broken world full of sinners and how to look to Christ for the way a marriage should be. As it is written by a couple it has a refreshing honesty and captures the way that spouses view trials differently and react differently and it encourages open communication as well as personal prayer and reflection.
This book is a must read for any marriage that has faced or is facing any type of difficulty. Finances, health, children, and careers all have the potential to create conflict in marriage. This book guides you through those difficult times and shows you biblically how to love your spouse through them. Now more than ever in our troubling world circumstances, this book is a lifeline for marriages.
Together Through the Storms is an excellent marriage book for couples facing trials in their lives and in their marriage. Jeff and Sarah Walton write as a couple who have been through the fire and have come out stronger. They have faced great suffering in their marriage, and they have great encouragement to offer.
In these pages, Jeff and Sarah consistently point the reader toward Christ. Together Through the Storms is filled with Scripture and godly counsel. Each chapter ends with questions for thought/discussion, a prayer, and a journaling page. This would make a wonderful book to read and discuss with your spouse through whatever season your find yourselves in.
Whether you are preparing for future storms, navigating current storms, or processing a season of suffering that you have come through, this book will be a helpful resource for you. Together Through the Storms is a book I will recommend over and over again!
This book provides biblical truths on how to come through the storms (trials and sufferings) in your life as it relates to marriage. It presents Job’s life of suffering and how to gracefully persevere through trials ~ always trusting God and His promises. It is encouraging, hopeful and challenging, always pointing to Christ and His Word to find strength. A wonderful feature of the book is that each chapter ends with a reflection and prayer section with additional scripture reading for further meditation and discussion. This book is wonderful for those experiencing trials now, and also for all couples to prepare them for the “storms” of life that will come. I will definitely be reading this book again and gifting to many!
