Love Is: How Messy Stories Can Meet in the Heart of God

Description

Retitled, repackaged, and including new content, Love Is delivers a compelling message that urges Christians to reject the distorted views of love that have damaged our hearts, minds, and souls and to embrace God's biblical definition of what love truly is. So many young people enter adulthood with expectations of blissful dating followed by a romantic marriage but then discover they've been duped. Because they learned about love and sexuality from faulty sources-social media, their friends, Disney fairy tales, pornography, or even their own rocky past-they have no idea what healthy, lifelong love is supposed to be like. The results are often disastrous, with this generation becoming one of the most relationally sick, sexually addicted, and divorce ridden in history. Looking to God's design while drawing lessons from their own successes and failures, the Bethkes explode the fictions and falsehoods that have led to broken relationships. One by one, they peel back lies that include: the belief that every person has only one soul mate, that marriage will complete you, and that pornography and hook-ups are harmless. Drawing from Jeff's "prodigal son" personal history and from Alyssa's "True Love Waits" experience, the Bethkes blend personal storytelling with biblical teaching to offer readers an inspiring, realistic vision of love, dating, marriage, and sex. Including a new chapter filling readers in on the Bethke's married relationship today, this updated edition offers a solidly biblical view of romantic love.

Jefferson Bethke is the New York Times bestselling author of Jesus > Religion and It's Not What You Think. He and his wife Alyssa host the highly successful online challenge 31 Creative Ways to Love and Encourage Him & Her, make YouTube videos watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers each month, and host a podcast about relationships and faith that can be found on iTunes. They live in Maui with their daughter, Kinsley, and son, Kannon. Alyssa Bethke talks about love, sex, dating, and marriage alongside her husband Jefferson Bethke on YouTube videos and iTunes podcasts that are watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers each month. Together, she and Jefferson also cohost the highly successful online challenge 31 Creative Ways to Love and Encourage Him & Her. She loves being a mom to their daughter, Kinsley, and son, Kannon, and enjoying the beaches and beautiful sights of Maui as a family.