Title Tuesday: The Respect Dare

Welcome to  Title Tuesday, my favorite day of the week! This day is dedicated to book suggestions and reviews. I write this portion of my blog because I am a big believer in the motivational speaker Charlie Jones' quote which says, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I try to meet as many new people as possible and to read everything I can. This is my way of sharing that information with you. If you are interested in understanding my rating system for books you can read my Book Review Explanation here and What I Believe here. If you want to check out what I am currently reading or what I want to read next, friend me on Goodreads! With all that being said, lets jump in!

Every once in a while I review a book that I have been putting off for any number of reasons. Today I am going to share with you just such a book... The Respect Dare by Nina Roesner. 

Let me start by saying that I think this books is very good and incredibly challenging which is why I put it off for so long. I have had this book sitting on my "to review" shelf for almost two years. The reason for my hesitancy with this book is because like many Christian women, I shy away from the word respect. I waited to read this book until I was ready to give it a real try and complete all the dares with the goal of showing my husband the love RESPECT that he needs. 

WAIT. WHAT? 

This is the part where women tend to nod off or just flat out ignore what the Bible teaches. But the fact of the matter is that husbands need respect. Period, end of story. We as wives have the incredibly ability and opportunity to help them with that just as they are called to love us. So, if you have a fundamental problem with the idea that wives should respect their husbands, you should probably stop reading here. 

Ok, now that we have covered that, lets get back to my journey through The Respect Dare by Nina Roesner. I have just completed the respect dare and I have to say that it was a real learning experience for me. My husband and I have often had the respect argument of "But what does it LOOK like to respect you". I needed more than just a list of don'ts to be able to do a good job. I needed to know what I could do positively to impact his heart with the respect that he needs. 

Nina Roesner does a great job of doing just that. She breaks each topic down in a way that is clear and concise. The chapters and topics are varied cover everything from introspection, to frying pans, to sex. 
Each chapter contains a scripture reference, a little vignette that explains the dare, a bottom line that is the actual dare, and a list of questions. I strongly recommend keeping a notebook for working through this book. It is helpful to write out the answers to the questions. As for how this book impacted my marriage? I didn't realize how many things that I said and did on a daily basis communicated disrespect to my husband. I didn't realize the ways in which my means of communication or getting things done left him out of the equation all together. This book gave me practical and real life steps I could take to better my h=understanding of his need for respect and also the best ways to do it. 

Overall, I give the book an A+ and I want to tell every wife I know about it. I will caution that I do NOT think that this is one of those marriage books that should be used by couples before marriage. I think this book is just too in-depth for that and it could cause unnecessary heartache if the couple does not remain together. However, I will recommend The Respect Dare by Nina Roesner to all newly married couples, couples that have been married for some time, and couples that just need a jump start in their marriage. It could be a tool to improve your own marriage as well as a tool to help other struggling in their marriages. This was a great book and an easy read, 100% worth your time.