Aaron and April Jacob, a married LDS Christian couple, co-wrote the Couple’s Devotional, Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind, to assist all mature Christian couples’ prayer, meditation, and spiritual connection time together.
It’s a terrific devotional for LDS Christian Couples (aka Mormon) and is useful for mainstream Christians as well.
As part of my Life Coaching Practice here in Orange County out of the juncture of Newport Beach, Irvine, and Costa Mesa, I often coach clients where one or both members in a couple and marriage relationship. Part of what each and they seek are more tools and resources to support their relationship, it’s being a healthy and life-affirming relationship, with healthy and expressed boundaries, rules, maxims, and guidelines to foster love, intimacy, and feelings of spiritual connection.
Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind, offers another tool to assist those looking for LDS Christian or Mormon Transitioning couples which I can now cite on my list of such Couples Reading Resources.
This devotional is written by a darling LDS Christian couple. Many of the mainstream Christians will immediately be put off by that, but I (Bible believing Born Again, all that, and yes, presently a member of a Liturgical Church and some would say, ergo, a Christian Life Coach) would suggest if as a couple you’re looking to expand your Devotionals collection beyond only those from Focus on the Family, this book is still biblically useful.
The topics are well covered and organized. Bless their hearts, they don’t cite sex in Evangelical Christian code “Intimacy” (yup, that’s how I cover it, too, when I need a G or PG way to reference it). They DO include in Week 36 Knowing Your Spouse. That’s Biblical knowing.
If you’re a mainstream Christian and you already know you can’t read the devotional and the Bible for yourself with sound questions and discussions from a couple who is LDS, just know that now, and move right on by. This devotional would never be for you.
If you’re LDS, great! Perfect choice for you. If you’re a Christian in a denomination where you can read this yourself and check with a Pastor, Priest, or other Bible Study leader to check and vet any questions you might have, this is a good devotional.
The Format:
52 weeks of devotionals. Yes, a full year’s worth of content. Each devotional starts with a TOPIC (exact phraseology is going to vary a bit by denomination, but I figure we can all manage that one by simply opening our Bible ourselves. ). That is followed by a 1-2 sentence from Scripture. And then they write out a short essay talking about the topic. Followed by an invitation to (gasp!) read Scripture together. See what I mean? Every Christian denomination can manage that one without prejudice. I might read KJV or NKV only because I rather like them. You might read NASB, Jerusalem, or NIV. We’ll all manage. And then they close the devotional with 7 or 8 reflective discussion questions. If any single question is in some way biased for the LDS, most mature Christian can reshape the question to make it work for them.
The Resources Section:
Their marriage site looks good for all. The inclusion of a few LSD only items such as the Book of Mormon is quite unnecessary for me and for any of the Mainstream Christians. But I get it that that’s their thing and they naturally would cite it. The Gottman and Love Languages resources are stellar.
If you’re non-LDS and a very young Christian couple, I would already be advising you review your devotional materials with your Church leadership not out of being lock-step in any doctrine, just to vet that it’s wise when so young.
I still think it’s a really good devotional and highly recommend it. I’ve put in my warnings and caveats so you can discern for yourselves if it suits you and your needs.
This would make a great anniversary, Valentine’s Day gift, other special occasion presents for a couple and would be well-suited for a Couples Ministry or Couples Small Group study. Part of the usefulness within those studies is to reflect on and discuss how useful and relevant the questions are for you, you all, your couple, your church, and your community. The authors are also quite young and white. For some that might be a filter that they simply don’t yet have enough personal depth to their studies. Then again, each of them might have their families of origin with long lasting marriages. So their roots might run deeper than the author photo might initially depict.
Definitely recommend.
I received a copy as a gift from the publisher in the hope I would write an unbiased review. I hope you found my review helpful for you in determining if this helpful devotional suits your needs or not.
Cheers and blessings,
April Braswell, CPC