Your Future ‘Other Half’ by Rebecca VanDoodewaard

I’d like to thank Christian Focus Publications for providing me with a copy of Your Future ‘Other Half’: It Matters Whom You Marry in return for my honest review.

The church I attend has been around for a long time. It was originally started as a tent revival meeting out here in the West and it just kept going. We have a real building and paved roads now. At this church I attend there are a number of couples who celebrate wedding anniversaries on Facebook for unions that have been around longer than me–sometimes these marriages are older than me by a couple of decades. Of course, these are all loving, God-honoring marriages. But, it kind of makes you think.

Sixty years is a long time to spend with someone you were ill-advised to marry.

Which, I think, is why Rebecca VanDoodewaard wrote Your Future ‘Other Half’: It Matters Whom You Marry (Christian Focus Publications, 2014).

I really like what she had to say on page 17: “Whom you marry matters not only because it will affect your health, make you sad or happy, create fear or security, but also because it will hinder or enable you to live a life of Christian service.”

Amen to that. Just, amen. There is no way I could write Bible Road Trip if my husband wasn’t a strong, God-fearing man who shares my vision of biblical literacy. It wouldn’t happen. It’s not just that he lets me write the curriculum. No, he helps me remember why I stay up to all hours of the night. He reminds me there are precious people waiting for the next week of study. It’s because my husband is a wonderful, generous, kind man that I am able to homeschool my nieces alongside our children. I am a selfish, small person and he reminds me to serve God with all I have. He even endures whatever lands on the table on those nights I burn dinner because I’m making a graphic for a book review. I’m not saying that happened tonight, but it may have. My son also may have mentioned he’s going to marry someone who can boil water. Actually, that probably happened.

But you know already know that it matters whom you marry. Does your daughter?

Sometimes it really helps to have someone else make a Scriptural, well-written argument on your behalf. This book is that argument.

Rebecca VanDoodewaard offers a biblical look at the ways a husband will affect his wife, and then she flips that on its head to examine the ways a wife will affect her husband. I like the fact that she wrote this book directly to the unmarried young woman, using the pronoun “you” to communicate with the reader. Choosing a spouse is a very personal choice, and this is a very personal book. While sex is addressed in the book, there’s nothing graphic. I think Your Future ‘Other Half’ (with 112 pages of primary text) would be perfect for middle school and high school girls.

There are eight chapters in the book: How to use this book, Marriage will impact you spiritually, Marriage will impact you emotionally, Marriage will impact you mentally, Marriage will impact you mentally, Marriage will impact you physically, Marriage will impact you relationally, What about love?, and What about you?. There is also an introduction, a conclusion, an appendix and study questions.

Mrs. VanDoodewaard (who blogs at TheChristianPundit.org) discusses each topic in a common sense manner with biblical references, anecdotes, and liberal quotes from Christians throughout history. There are 26 books listed in the bibliography–this is not a book based on personal opinion alone, which is something I’ve long admired about Rebecca VanDoodewaard’s work.

I highly recommend Your Future ‘Other Half’ to Christian families with girls. Because whom you marry does matter. It matters a lot.

As a side note, I sincerely hope Mr. William VanDoodewaard (husband to Mrs. Doodewaard, fellow blogger at The Christian Pundit, and associate professor of Church History at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan) will consider writing a companion book for young men. Because I’d love to give a copy to each of my three unmarried boys.

The giveaway for this book has ended. Be sure to subscribe to Thinking Kids so you never miss another book giveaway!

You can purchase Your Future ‘Other Half’: It Matters Whom You Marry at:

Amazon: Your Future ‘Other Half’: It matters whom you marry
Christian Book: Your Future ‘Other Half’

Other books for older students reviewed on Thinking Kids:

• God’s Story: A Student’s Guide to Church History by Brian Cosby
• Water the Earth: A Student’s Guide to Missions by Aaron Little
• Rebels Rescued: A Student’s Guide to Reformed Theology by Brian Cosby
• Bitesize Theology: An ABC of Christian Faith by Peter Jeffrey
• Zachary Macaulay (Bitesize Biographies) by Faith Cook
• Questions God Asks by Israel Wayne
• Grace Works! (And Ways We Think It Doesn’t) by Douglas Bond

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