Juli Slattery - Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited: Embracing Your Power in Marriage

Revisited

Finding The Hero in Your Husband

Embracing your Power in Marriage

Dr. Juli Slattery

Foreword by Jackie Hill Perry

To understand and believe in the power we as women have in our marriages is a game-changer. The power to create intimacy, the power to build up, the power to help our husbands become the men that God created them to bewhat a gift! This book will cause you to look at your marriage through a new lens. You will love better, trust better, pray better, and encourage better because of this book. Thank you, Juli, for this gift to marriages around the world!

Jamie Ivey, bestselling author and host of The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey podcast

In truth, I cannot say enough about the beauty, power, and potency of this book. These words found me at the exact moment of need in my own marriage, and I found myself wanting to highlight line after line as simple yet profound truths were so clearly articulated. Juli has done a masterful job of weaving together personal narrative, biblical exposition, practical teaching, and prophetic illumination of Gods heart and divine design of man, woman, and the mystery of marriage. These pages held keys to understanding the whys behind some of my own angsts, and helped me tangibly grasp some of the inner wirings of my husbands complex and powerful design. I am so grateful to have this resource and am grateful for Julis revisitation to this timeless impartation and exhortation. I wholeheartedly encourage every woman to dive into the depths of this work, willfully inviting the Holy Spirit to minister to your heart where and how He intends. I am walking away humbled, encouraged, equipped and impassioned to continue investing intentionally into my marriage for the glory of God!

Mo (Isom) Aiken,New York Times bestselling author of Wreck My Life: Journeying from Broken to Bold, Sex, Jesus and the Conversations the Church Forgot, and Fully Known: An Invitation to True Intimacy with God

Ive been married over forty years, and I have read a lot of books on being a wife. Finding the Hero in Your Husband is a must read! I wish I had this book when I was younger. It would have saved me from making many mistakes that caused a lot of pain. Read it now! You will be glad you did, and your husband will thank you for decades to come.

Ann Wilson, co-host of the Family Life Today radio broadcast and co-author of Vertical Marriage

In this empowering book, Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Juli Slattery is helping us take our eyes off the imperfections of our spouse, ourselves, and our marriage, and put them onto Christ, the only truly perfect Hero. I love how she unpacks common issues we all face as wives by helping us look a little deeper to see whats happening underneath the surface of our hearts and marriage. Finding the Hero in Your Husband helps us to practically identify, navigate and heal from the disappointments, disillusionments, and distortions that may be keeping us stuck so that we can discover the beautiful revelation of Gods heart that He intended us to experience through marriage.

Francie Winslow, wife, mom of six, host of Heaven in Your Home podcast

To my Swoo

You are THAT Hero!

You may not know this, but I wrote a first version of this book in 1999. A lot has changed! I had only been married for five years and was in the trenches of trying to figure out how to make my marriage work. The wrinkles on my face indicate that Im no longer that young woman.

I also wrote the first book when I was very new in ministry. Over the years, my counseling career transitioned into becoming a teacher and eventually a Christian voice on marriage issues, particularly intimacy. These years of personal and professional experience have challenged and seasoned the nuggets of wisdom I had stumbled on so long ago. Im no longer just that girlfriend writing from the perspective of trying to figure things out. I now have the confidence that this stuff actually works!

My personal life has evolved over twenty years, but so has the world in which we are living. In 1999 there were no smart phones, and the Internet was a relatively new invention. Technology has revolutionized how we learn, communicate, and spend our free time. We have also seen dramatic shifts in the ways men and women interact. Women have become increasingly empowered, outpacing men in obtaining advanced degrees and highly respected careers like law and medicine. The #metoo movement has given voice to women who have been exploited, devalued, and abused within both secular and Christian environments.

The Western world has become progressively postmodern and post-Christian in our approach to the meaning of life, morality, and the pursuit of fulfillment. This worldview shift has had huge implications for how we understand and approach marriage. Take sex, for example, its no longer considered primarily for making babies or even to be reserved for marriage. Sex has become a vehicle for personal expression and fulfillment. Even gender is now up for debate. A lot of people will reject the underlying foundation of this book that men and women are fundamentally different.

As I read through the old version of Finding the Hero in Your Husband, I recognized that many of the examples and nuances from back then would not connect with todays Christian woman. But I also realized that the book contained nuggets of wisdom that I had learned as a young wife, and I longed to pass down these truths to my spiritual daughters. What you will find in these pages is a massive rewrite of the principles that have guided me through twenty-seven years of marriage (and counting). Gods Word hasnt changed, but applying it to different cultures and time frames is an ongoing challenge.

I will share with you up front that I believe God created marriage for a purpose. I believe that His Word contains ageless wisdom to guide us through the challenges of modern-day marriages. This means that much of what Ive written in this book may conflict with the larger cultural definitions of love, intimacy, and marriage itself. Dont say I didnt warn you. But remember that the worlds wisdom is considered foolishness to God and vice versa. Being a follower of Jesus Christ means that we see everything, including marriage, through a different lens.

If you and I had met for coffee every week for the past twenty-seven years, this book contains much of what I would love to have shared with you. Ive written about how you as a wife can partner with God in the redemptive process of your marriage.

Do you know that you have a lot of power in your marriage? Your power is a dynamic tool that can be used either to build intimacy or to sabotage it. Most likely, you dont understand the power God has given you, so you dont know how to use it to build intimacy.

Im guessing youve been working hard to improve your relationship with your husband. Women know how to work hard. Yet, effort does not always mean working wisely. There have been many seasons in which Ive worked hard at marriage, but my work did little to impact intimacy. Sometimes, my efforts did damage to my marriage. I made a lot of mistakes because I didnt understand my power. Im guessing that you will be able to personally relate to this struggle in your own marriage.