Smart Stepfamily, The: Seven Steps to a Healthy Family

Ron Deal provides seven effective, achievable steps toward building a healthy marriage and a workable and peaceful stepfamily. Exploding the myth of achieving a “blended family” he helps parents recognize the unique personality and place of each family member, honor the families of origin while establishing new traditions, and much more. Developed from Deal’s nationwide seminars on the topic, this material is equally useful for individuals, families, small groups, pastors, and counselors.

Features

• ISBN13: 9780764201592
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

User Reviews

This book is well-written and is an easy, enjoyable read. However, if you are honoring God in your marriage and respect is already demonstrated in your house and everyone's roles are clear, this book will not help you much. It seems to be more of a wake-up call to those who might have entered a second (or subsequent) marriage based on shallowness. If you are thoughtful and living as God intends and acting as the fully-realized adults in the family, you would already be coming up with the ideas that are in this book, in my opinion. -- Pretty basic stuff

This book is a must for all step-parents. It is insightful, well written and helps with all the doubts, concerns and questions we all have. -- Great help

This is a must read for all engaged couples who have been married before, and/or are bringing children into the new marriage. It is a practical eye-opener that helps the couple prepare with appropriate expectations. All couples hope and assume that their next marriage will be successful, but many times expectations are too high and unrealistic, and this can sabatoge the new marriage. The book is also great for couples already married into a step-family situation, showing them how to set appropriate goals. The book lays it on the line how difficult the challenges are for a step family, but also encourages the reader to look for the strength and blessings God is providing for them daily. -- a must read

Very good book!! Would recommend it for anyone at any stage in a step family!! -- Great book!

I recently previewed a series of books as a potential texts to use with step families in crisis. The least informative of these books was "Happily Remarried" by David and Lisa Frisbie. Although the book was inherently readable and certainly got a few good points across--it was completely inadequate to deal with the complexities many step families face.

If your step family is dealing with serious issues I recommend "Smart Step Family" by Ron Deal or "Step Coupling" by Susan Wisdom and Jennifer Green. You will find either of these books to be far more comprehensive and useful, although each one has its own strengths. The "Smart Step Family" is a book written from a strong Christian perspective and as such provides significant spiritual and biblical background for people of faith. "Step Coupling" approaches the step family more from a secular counseling context and therefore does not delve much into the moral or ethical aspects of the various issues facing step families. Indeed, when discussing a foundational issue like honesty or dishonesty, the "Step Coupling" book explicitly states that neither value is right or wrong. This was almost a deal-breaker for me. I suspect that even most non-religious people would struggle with the idea that all behavior is value neutral. Nevertheless, the book largely arrives at the same conclusions as its Christian counterpart--albeit from a different perspective.

All in all, I think that any step family going through internal or external struggles would be well served to read both books. Both bring unique and significant insights into the challenges that step families face. The "Step Coupling" book is somewhat more earthy and easy to read, being filled with concrete examples from actual step families. The "Smart Step Family" book feels a little more detached, but still does a very good job of communicating the key issues that step families need to address, while acknowledging the spiritual needs of those involved and how to address them. In this sense, it is perhaps the deeper of the two. Either book will do a good job in helping the step family better understand itself and move toward a more fulfilling future together. -- Good Christian Based Help for Step-Families

Tags:blended-family,family-member,individuals-families,ron-deal,seven-steps,small-groups

Related posts

• When the Time Comes: Families with Aging Parents Share Their (0)
• Stepcoupling: Creating and Sustaining a Strong Marriage in (0)