sacred marriage

i have finally gotten around to reading Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. i HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone married or about to be married. anyway, i found a way to read because i needed to read a marriage related book for one of my classes and do a review of it. i'm in the process of writing the view (this school is in LOVE with book reviews!) and i keep coming across some pretty awesome quotes/points that i don't want to forget. so i will share them here:

"this is the reality of the human heart, the inevitability of two sinful people pledging to live together, with all their faults, for the rest of their lives. a wedding calls us to our highest and best-in fact, to almost impossible-ideals. it's the way we want to live. but marriage reminds us of the daily reality of living as sinful human beings in a radically broken world. we aspire to love but far too often descend into hate."

"strong Christian marriages will still be struck by lightning-sexual temptation, communication problems, frustrations, unrealized expectations-but if the marriages are heavily watered with an unwavering commitment to please God above everything else, the conditions won't be ripe for a devastating fire to follow the lightning strike."

"And you ask yourself, 'how can i possibly love someone who is so different from me?' and yet consider, if you can ask this question with integrity, try asking yourself this one: How can you possibly love God? He is spirit, and you are encased in flesh and bones. He is eternal, and you are trapped in time. He is all holy, perfect, sinless, and you-like me-are steeped in sin. It is far less of a leap for a man to love a woman or for a woman to love a man that is for either of us to love God."

basically, i'd like to quote the entire book to you.