In all fairness, I skipped the first half of the book and cannot evaluate it. I did not like, however, (at least from appearances in the Table of Contents) that he puts an overwhelming majority of the fault in marriages on husbands. It seems rather ridiculous to blame marriages faults fully--or even primarily--on husbands when both partners are sinful and in need of God's grace. I appreciated Buzzard's concentration on the ground and air attack of marriage. The air attack consists of large-scale wooing of one's wife including trips away for just the two of you. The ground attacks consists of the day to day ways in which a husbands love, protects and cares for his wife. Both, Buzzard rightly asserts, are necessary. More than anything, I had anticipated the 100 Date Ideas as I thought is would provide some great ideas for dates. Instead it was filled with about 30 ideas for actual dates and 70 silly ideas like "make your wife laugh." (Hint: that's not a date but a talent to develop). Or "criticize your wife less." (Again, this is the lack of an action, not a date). In the end, I'm not sure that the book was worth the money considering the parts that I read. This is an extremely helpful book for married men in a culture riddled with divorce and beliefs that marriage is not necessary. We, as men of God, have been given a very high calling: "to date your wife in such a way that showcases Jesus and his power to a world of husbands and wives, men and women, boys and girls, in desperate need of a God who can rescue, reconcile, restore, and redeem their broken lives." Pg. 126This is a daunting task, but the good news is actually that this is more than we can do on our own and we need God's grace daily to love our wives in this way. As someone who spent most of his life believing he was mostly good and deserved things from God and my wife, it strikes deep to hear I have been called to something I cannot possibly do. By the grace of God, this is now good news because it is not just about my responsibility, but my "response-ability - living in response to the power and ability of God." Pg. 66 This book is organized along the lines of the gospel (creation, fall, redemption, consummation). It walks you through what marriage was created to be, why it was created, and paints a Biblical picture of marriage. It then shows the bad in marriage today and points out many pitfalls relevant to modern American marriages. Don't lose hope, God redeems and makes all things new! He hits you with the gospel and the power we have in Christ so that we can be excited about loving our wives. He then gives very practical advise to plan an air war (big vision for what you want in your marriage) and a ground war (day to day needs for your marriage). The book closes by foreshadowing our future glorification and the reminder that we are pointing each other to Christ in order to help each other grow daily into our "future glory selves". I would recommend this book to anyone who knows their marriage is not what it could be, to anyone who will admit that they are a good roommate with their wife and not really a good husband. Take the time to write out answers to the questions posed in the book. Don't rush through it and let it speak truth and convict where it needs to.
What do You think about Date Your Wife (2012)?
You know, I liked this book. There was many things he said that I needed to hear.
—Julie
Gospel-centered. But some parts were a 3, others were a 5. Overall pretty good.
—s3147903
