Review: #Eternity

About the book:
Trying to find true love in a troubled world? With ten sacred principles as essential guides to dating and relationships, you will become truly able and eligible to wisely seek out and nurture lasting love. Perfect for teens, young adults, and newlyweds, this book will teach you to find and keep perfect love for eternity!


About the author:
Terry R. Baker was born in Ontario, Oregon, and completed degrees at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. After teaching LDS seminary classes for three years he joined the Army and served as an LDS Army chaplain. He was deployed to Vietnam and while there became interested in why so many soldiers’ marriages ended in divorce. In hopes of finding answers to this question, he returned from the war and completed a PhD in Family Studies and Marriage and Family Counseling at BYU. He then taught LDS Institute classes in California, Texas and Utah. In 1995 he was assigned by the Church Educational System to re-write the curricula for the dating, courtship and marriage classes taught in institute classes world-wide. He finished this assignment in 2000, returned to teaching at the Institute of Religion adjacent to the University of Utah and retired in 2010. This book presents lessons learned from over 40 years of research, teaching and counseling LDS youth and adults and soldiers about dating, courtship and marriage principles. It also represents many of the curricula ideas that could not be included in the current LDS institute manuals because of space limitations.
Terry met Parry Robinson in 1962 at the University of Utah where he had a scholarship to play football and basketball and Patty was a cheerleader. After a mission to Southern Australia Terry married Patty in 1965. They have eight children and an expanding posterity of 23 grandchildren as of 2014.

From Reidhead Randomness:

So many wonderful and insightful topics are covered in #Eternity.  Based on principles from The Family: A Proclamation to the World, inspirational and contemplative stories and examples are shared.  Most of the chapters begin with a section from the Proclamation.  

The first chapter covered is Faith.  A wonderful story about a surgeon is shared in which he kept being prompted while in surgery to do something against the typical protocol.  He tried resisting multiple times, but finally did as he felt prompted to do.  After the surgery, he found out that the patient had received a blessing that the surgeons hands would be guided.  The story leads into commentary about the many principles at work here.  First, the bishop's faith in giving the blessing.  Second, the woman's faith to be healed.  Third, the surgeon being in tune with the promptings of the spirit. Last, the Lord needed to agree that this was the right thing.  Without faith, things would have turned out different.  (In this same chapter, Alma 32 is shared in a different light....you will have to check it out!)  The 15 applications of faith in finding and keeping true love is covered for the last half of this chapter.  It concludes with some self-evaluation questions.

Practical applications of the prayer principle in finding and keeping true love is covered in the next chapter.  It is filled with great advice, examples and stories to motivate and encourage you.  One great take away from this chapter was that:  when looking for ways to influence your spouse's behavior, you should pray for them instead of using the common methods of nagging, threatening, crying, shouting, etc.  We should rely on God to help changes come.

The next few chapters cover Repentance, Forgiveness, Respect, and Understanding True Love...and how it relates to dating and marriage.  Following that, the Applying True Love Principles part 1 &2 give great advice and help for trials that will come to any marriage or relationship (negativity, Contempt, Defensiveness, Stonewall, etc.).  It is filled with scripture references along side the advice. 

Chapters Compassion, and Work are loaded with wonderful quotes by prophets and apostles!  Talking about the roll of parents and what the jobs entail.  The Wholesome recreational activities chapter talks about a need for balance.  A section for dating and courtship as well as married are followed by the appendix's. 

I think this book would be a great gift for young adults and newlyweds.  It is filled with lots of practical advice and the "Reality Check" that you need when you are dating, engaged, and recently married.

I received this book in order to write my review, however all opinions expressed are my own.