Schacht - Messy beautiful love : hope and redemption for real-life marriages

Praise for Messy Beautiful Love

In an age when wives often pride themselves on being right, Darlene shows the power of doing right. The timeless truth in this book will help any marriage.

ARLENE PELLICANE author of 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Wife

I love Darlenes writing! This book both challenges and motivates me to exchange Gods ideas and ideals for my own. Her hope-filled story of a marriage changed by the grace of God reminds us that no marriage is ever beyond Gods redeeming grace.

COURTNEY JOSEPH author of Women Living Well and the blog WomenLivingWell.org

Life is messy. Relationships are messy. And marriage is a beautiful messy blend of both! Yet with Christ as our Messiah, those messes can become a mosaic of grace, hope, wonder, and redemption!

RENEE SWOPE best-selling author of A Confident Heart, Proverbs 31 Ministries radio cohost, and blogger at ReneeSwope.com

Most of us will agree that marriage can be messy at times. Even the strongest, most intentional ones. Darlene doesnt dwell on the disarray we often selfishly create. Instead, she poignantly spurs us on to embrace hope in the ups and downs. She reminds us that when we shift our focus from ourselves to Jesus and His perfect work on the cross, our marriages can indeed be beautiful.

ASHLEIGH SLATER author of Team Us: Marriage Together

Marriage is... messy, beautiful love! The greatest message in this book is the amazing grace that can be experienced between a husband and wife, true love among the messes. Darlenes marriage is inspiring and fills people with hope because it is a powerful testimony of Gods amazing grace.

JENNIFER SMITH author of Wife After God and UnveiledWife.com

Its easy to be pulled in by the chorus (friends, media) of voices that say, Marriage is hard and it will never get better, but Darlene challenges you to live beyond those messages and embrace a new mantra, Marriage may be hard, but it can also be extraordinary. She challenges you to rise to Gods plan for your marriage, not sink into the mediocrity of the worlds expectations. Highly recommended.

KATHI LIPP speaker, and author of The Husband Project and The Cure for the Perfect Life

Darlene writes with authenticity leading us to discover a life-changing truth: a beautiful marriage is not only possible, its inevitable when a wife is transformed by the wisdom of God. Thank you, Darlene, for a powerful and honest look at a God-centered marriage.

LYNN DONOVAN author of Winning Him Without Words and Not Alone: Trusting God to Help You Raise Godly Kids in a Spiritually Mismatched Home

Obedience to Gods plan for each of our lives in marriage can get us through any bump we may encounter along the road of love and faith. I couldnt help but ask myself how many marriages might be saved if this book and its message were sincerely read and taken to heart?

NAOMI STRIEMER Christian Contemporary singer, speaker, and best-selling author

Marriage is messy. Appliances get broken. Sometimes promises do too. Clutter happensboth in our homes and our hearts. Soon our happily-ever-after turns into a what was I thinking? Darlenes honest and insightful lookat both our role and at Godswill empower you and your spouse to carefully craft a marriage that truly glorifies Him.

KAREN EHMAN Proverbs 31 Ministries; author of seven books including Let. It. Go. How to Stop Running the Show and Start Walking in Faith and Everyday Confetti

Darlene writes in such a powerful and yet gentle way that I couldnt help but be movedand challengedas she so effectively captures both the beauty and messiness of real love. Whether youre newly married or have been married for many years, you will find Messy Beautiful Love an inspiring and compelling book to read again and again.

LISA JACOBSON author of 100 Ways to Love Your Husband

God took Darlenes mess and made it beautiful. Now shes calling other women to follow not her but Jesus as He helps us find peace, joy, and contentmenteven in our own messes.

SHEILA WRAY GREGOIRE author of The Good Girls Guide to Great Sex and blogger at tolovehonorandvacuum.com

Messy Beautiful Love touches on real marital topics, which are meaningful and quite common, but are unfortunately often discarded. Darlene gives excellent biblical wisdom on how God can get the glory out of the seemingly impossible marriage.

JANELLE M. NEHRENZ author of Comfy in the Kitchen

Darlene weaves a story of mercy, putting others before ourselves, laying down the need to be right, and, above all, loving even when we dont feel like it. Its the gospel, really, wrapped up in a story about redeemed marriage. Its how God loves us, and how He can help us love our spouses.

BROOKE MCGLOTHLIN cofounder of the MOB Society (for mothers of boys) and author of Praying for Boys: Asking God for the Things They Need Most

2014 by Darlene Schacht

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the English Standard Version. 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

ISBN 978-1-4002-0621-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schacht, Darlene.

Messy beautiful love : hope and redemption for real-life marriages / Darlene Schacht.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0620-9

1. MarriageReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BV835.S33 2014

248.8'44dc23

2014004901

14 15 16 17 18 19 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Michael, you have shown me the beauty of true and lasting love.

Contents

MARRIAGE.

Theres no relationship like it on earth. In the good times, it makes our hearts dance with joy, and in the bad times, it can take us to the pit of despair.

Loving our husbands through the hard times, through the valleys, and when they are most unlovable, reveals the gospel in our lives. It shows we are true followers of Christ as we love unconditionally and lay our lives down for another.

Many go into marriage thinking about what they can take out of the relationship. They are me focused, and when the marriage fails to give me an immediate return, they treat the marriage like its expendable.