We are sharing one of our favorite marriage books with you and adding our very own Diva spin. 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage proves that happy and successful marriages are possible. Not only are we sharing this book with you but we are also sharing some of our favorite quick and easy date ideas that will help to strengthen your marriage while creating lasting and beautiful memories one experience at a time. I love my husband deeply and I try to meet my husband’s needs, but regardless of how hard I try our marriage just isn’t perfect and it’s never going to be! Just because I’m a Diva that doesn’t mean my marriage is any different then your’s. My marriage experiences it’s valleys and peaks. We have struggles and our imperfections just like all other couples. A big reason I love being a Diva is because I am constantly reminded about how important cherishing my spouse is for our marriage, coming up with ideas to strengthen our marriage, and encouraged to keep at it by the Diva team! I LOVE learning more and more about how to strengthen my marriage. I am a huge reader and many times my husband and I read marriage books together while we are driving, camping, and during family night. My husband isn’t always a fan of this but it’s something that I think is vital to a growing marriage. I don’t have all the answers and neither does he, I welcome all opportunities that come our way to learn and grow together. This last year has been a huge struggle in my marriage. We have gone through some really rocky times. We discovered that we were unable to have babies of our own, long kept secrets that had been tucked away through all of our marriage came out in the open, we had an addiction to aggressively battle to keep our marriage alive, and we were unable to hold down a steady job. What I thought was a healthy, happy, and successful marriage was crumbling right before my eyes. In this time I have learned to rely on my Heavenly Father in more ways then ever before, discovered I am not alone, and felt love and blessings sent my way. I’m not telling you all these things so that you all can throw me a pity party, but to let you know that you can overcome anything that comes your way with a positive outlook, determination, and patience. There is light at the end of the tunnel! With work, prayer, and 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage, you will reach that light!
Needless to say I was so thankful for the invitation to review 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage by Dustin A. Wiggins. This book has been such a blessing and couldn’t have come into my life at a better time. My husband and I needed something that could help us overcome a few hurdles, to heal open wounds, and to rebuild our relationship. Before I start blabbing madly about why I love this book I want to introduce you to the author. Dustin is a fierce advocate for strengthening family relationships. His insights to a happy marriage are published regularly through FamilyShare. He and his sweetheart live in Salt Lake City, where they are raising their two boys. The principles Dustin teaches have helped them keep that enthusiastic newlywed fire burning bright through two moves across the United States, a deployment to Afghanistan, unemployment and many other challenges of life. Dustin’s greatest desire is to help couples find the ultimate happiness that can be achieved within marriage no matter what your circumstances. Dustin is such a nice guy, marriage smart, down to earth, and we were so excited to work with him!
As most of you know when you are struggling through hard stuff in your marriage it’s hard to see past the issues and just enjoy each other, to rekindle the flame, and to trust each other with your heart. I can tell you that in order for your marriage to work you need to do those things and PRAY a lot for guidance and inspiration. You need to let go of anger, resentment, and hurt in order to push through any difficult stage in your marriage. This book will help you do just that, not because Dustin preaches from one page to another about how to get along, on how to overcome your problems, or how to trust each other but because he makes you do it one experience at a time. There’s only one way to get into the cold water and that’s by jumping in, Dustin is pushing you in with 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage. So, I know a few of you are thinking a few concerning questions…What, you don’t like being pushed in?! No worries, it’s a gentle push! You don’t have time to read, no problem with this book. How do you get your husband to participate? It’s quite simple, really! What if you have an amazing marriage, we all can use a little tune up! The book starts off with Level 1 Experiences that are going to gently push you together. The level gradually increases to Level 3 Experiences. You won’t find any rushing in these experiences. These experiences are going to help you reconnect, get back in the dating groove, spend quality time together, and open up. If you come to one that you’re not quite ready to do, lay the book aside and wait for the moment you are. Or even better don’t give yourself excuses, just push yourself in, you are stronger then you think, you can push forward! The reading is very minor in this book. There is one paragraph explaining the experience and a single sentence affirmation per experience of reading for the two of you to do. We all have enough time for that! No time is wasted in reading paragraph after paragraph! The part that will take time is doing the actual experience, which is the best part! Your husband will be willing to participate in this book if he wants to make your marriage better, grow closer to you, and strengthen your marriage. Committing to 180 Experiences together needs to be a mutual effort, this is not a book you can read alone. Encourage him to take this plunge with you, tell him why it’s needed in your marriage, and explain why it is important that the two of you spend quality time together. When you speak from the heart, it is hard to say no. Also, tell him that these experiences were put together by a guy; guys know what other guys like! These experiences are going to be just as much fun for him as they will be for you too! Still feeling iffy about getting your husband on board…Here’s what my hubby, Weston, has to say about these experiences: This is a fun book to get you onto your feet and put your love into action. Dustin is real and knows how to connect with his readers. Sometimes guys just need a little direction with ideas on how to spend quality time with their wives, this book makes planning time together easy. Our first two experiences in the book were finding and naming a star together. It was simple and actually fun to find a star and then come up with a name we would both remember and agree on. In a few experiences we wrote notes and expressed our love to each other. These experiences made me feel the warmth of our love grow in my heart and really feel like we have grown stronger together. A fun, interactive part of this book is that you share your experiences on a social media outlet. Bragging about your spouse in public, sharing your experiences, and posting pictures of the two of you having fun will be a positive experience for the both of you. Have you ever overheard your spouse saying good things about you to his friends or family? Isn’t that one of the best feelings ever? We all hope that our spouse says only the best things about us and this is the perfect chance to do just that! As you share your experiences and capture all your happy moments you will have plenty of moments to reflect on and enjoy now and in the future. So go ahead and brag away, your marriage needs it! In order to keep your marriage amazing, you need to constantly progress together and continue to work on being amazing. It takes dedication, persistence, fun, forgiveness, understanding, honesty, and love to make a marriage awesome! The key to making a marriage lasting is to avoid plateaus and making it a team effort to reach for higher ground. Most of us want to create a marriage that is pretty darn perfect and you can’t do that by staying stagnant. You need to push forward, achieve greatness, become stronger, improve together, and learn to be the best spouse you can be in order to have a darn near perfect marriage. Spending more quality time together, serving each other, and putting your needs second are all experiences that you will focus on in this book and it will help you reach your ultimate goals together! Being a Diva, I couldn’t help but put a Diva twist to this experiences. I was seriously able to grab a Dating Diva post for each and every experience. I am sharing a few of our Diva/180 Experiences with you, feel free to steal these for your experiences too!
#LoveExperience5: Grow, nurture, and deepen your marriage one love note at a time. #LoveExperience23: Play twister with a steamy twist! #LoveExperience32: Enjoying a picnic. #LoveExperience38: Early to bed, early to rise. #LoveExperience50: A written love note. #LoveExperience79: Turn up the heat and get them hot! #LoveExperience89: Watch the sunset and reflect together. (I have to admit I didn’t snag this gorgeous picture, my camera isn’t that amazing. Huge thank you to Candice for sharing such a lovely picture with us!)
#LoveExperience96: Show your love through simple acts of service. #LoveExperience99: Go on a hike together and explore the great outdoors. #LoveExperience102: Say no to meat today! Experiment with veggies. #LoveExperience115: It’s time for a game of Truth and Dare. Add a little excitement to an old time favorite! #LoveExperience122: Breakfast in bed with an added touch of romance and creativity! #LoveExperience124: Create a bucket list of all the things the two of you want to do. #LoveExperience125: Tell your sweetie how much you love them while wishing upon shooting stars.
#LoveExperience157: Give your spouse the perfect full body massage with sensual flair. #LoveExperience158: Is money keeping you from a much needed vacation? Create a darling stay-cation on a budget. #LoveExperience161: Break out of your bubble and become a tourist in your own home town. #LoveExperience169: Hot ideas to keep you busy the whole year through! Increase intimacy and say hello to fireworks! #LoveExperience172: Get to know your neighbors by having a neighborhood party. Taste-testing, bake-offs, and hilarious games will break the ice and make for a fabulous party! There is nothing like an obstacle in life or your marriage to show you what you are really made of. Are you going to impress yourself or let yourself down? The choice is yours. Personally I know you are stronger, fiercer, and more capable of overcoming than you know! Believe in yourself, believe in your marriage, believe in spiritual power, and believe in 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage. Dustin has created magic with this book and I couldn’t be more thankful for the moments Weston and I have had completing all 180 experiences together. Go ahead, take the plunge and experience 180 Experiences That Will Strengthen Your Marriage for yourself!
AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?!? It’s Giveaway Time!!!! Woot-woot!! a Rafflecopter giveaway
