Mark is not a gifted writer.  He is a gifted speaker and teacher, but his writing doesn’t flow.  I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be writing books, but at the very least he needs to hire a couple of great editors and submit to their decisions.

Half of the book is about sex.  If you’re familiar with Mark’s teaching, none of it will be surprising.  If you aren’t, then you probably don’t want to read this book aloud in a coffee shop.  I appreciate that Mark is willing to tackle the subject, because the predominant voices regarding sex in our culture are not Biblically based.  He deals with sex in a frank way and for the most part it’s well thought through.  There are a few areas of concern which I feel like Denny Burk did a good job at addressing.

3 things that I felt were most beneficial from the book.

1) Marriage as Friendship.  This is one thing I’m thankful that Mark championed.  Our culture by and large has lost sight of how important companionship is in marriage.  I enjoyed the research Mark did into Martin Luther and John Wesley’s marriages – it was insightful.  However, I would encourage people to check out Tim Keller’s sermon series on marriage for a more in-depth look at the importance and strategy of making your spouse your best friend.

2) Reverse Engineering Marriage.  The last chapter of the book is a homework assignment for husbands and wives to envision what type of marriage and family they desire and then make intentional plans for how they will realize it.  Carey and I have been doing this for years.  It has been immensely valuable for us to stay focused on what is most important for our relationship and family.

3) Confession.  The aspect I found unique about Real Marriage was the element of personal confession shared by Mark and Grace and I’m grateful that they were willing to be transparent about their sin and their struggles.  There is a tendency for all of us to shy away from confessing our sins publicly and yet it is only in repentance that we find God’s mercy.  It is only when we understand the depth of God’s grace that we are free to share our failures because we realize that in doing so we are making much of God and setting aside our “need” to impress others.

Overall, there are a couple of nuggets of wisdom to be found in Real Marriage, but I wouldn’t recommend the book unless I knew someone needed help in one of those particular areas.  While it’s an entertaining and informative read, there are other resources I would recommend to couples first.

I used to worry about trying to schedule a time with each of them regularly – which was a little overwhelming since there are four of them.  I would regularly forget or have too many other things crowding my schedule to make it happen.

About 6 months ago I decided to scratch all of my attempts at organizing this.  Instead I just let my kids know that anytime they wanted to spend time by themselves with me,  I would love to do that.  I encouraged them to ask me whenever they were ready for a date with Dad.

It has worked out beautifully.  I no longer worry about equality of time or frequency.  They let me know when they need time and then we hang out.

Kevin Durant

Russell Westbrook

Serge Ibaka

Thabo Sefolosha

Chesapeake Energy Arena

I’m not well-versed in the history of philosophy, so on one hand this was kind of an intro to philosophy for me.  In that sense it was informative.  On the other hand, the book seemed a bit heavy-handed.  The main character was quick to dismiss various philosophical positions as being untrue while I was still trying to get a basic understanding of what each was claiming.

The other challenging aspect of the book for me, which required rereading lots of sentences was the author’s use of the Socratic method.  I don’t have a lot of Socratic conversations in my daily life, so it wasn’t easy to follow.

Overall I found the book helpful.  My main critique is that the author didn’t give a fair hearing to several of the competing philosophies.  I don’t disagree with his conclusions, I just wish he had taken more time to draw them out.

I used some birthday money to celebrate with a new pair of shoes today.  I feel like a new man.  The King who was kind enough to share his birthday with me also enjoyed a good pair of shoes.  He had one pair in particular that he was especially fond of.  It’s probably an unhealthy attachment, but it makes for good music.

The thing Emma was most excited about was the bag of Kettle Corn we got her!  You would have thought we’d given her a pony.  Madi’s was even more astounding.  Carey kept telling me prior to Christmas that all Madi wanted was duct tape.  We bought several rolls of duct tape for her and not much else.  As she was opening her present I got a little worried that maybe we should have bought something else.  But the moment she saw it she jumped up, hugged us both and said that was exactly what she wanted.

Duct tape and Kettle corn – put the magic back into your holiday season.

Harry has written some great Christmas songs – something that’s not easy to do.  Songs like the title track, Santa Claus, and I Pray on Christmas are ones I look forward to as much as his great arrangements of the classics.

If you like big band, Sinatra, or sweet jazz – this is a must have for your Christmas collection.

The Carter family has been living on outside financial support now for 2 and a half years.  God graciously blessed us with family and friends who care about us and are committed to church planting.

We’ve seen God at work in some pretty incredible ways lately and in large part that is due to the fact that I can focus all my energies on building relationships, teaching and making disciples.

If you are a Carter/Crosstown supporter, thank you for your generosity.  May God richly bless you.