Even though I'm not married and have no immediate plans to be, I thought this might be a good book to read. I was right. At first, the authors, Justin and Trisha, seemed rather shallow and mediocre, and they did struggle in their marriage a lot. However, some of their advice is applicable even to single people, for our relationships with God and others. For instance, the everyday choices we make, whether they are selfish or sacrificial, and putting God first. There were many practical and good tips. No doubt it would be even more helpful for married couples to read. There were questions at the end of each chapter for those who are married to apply to themselves.

Caveat: some of the material in the book may not be to your liking to read about, especially if you're a younger single person, but everything was handed quite carefully.

Here are a few quotes which were helpful to me:

'We went from "I love you so much; how can I serve you?" to "If you loved me, then you would do this for me."'

'In order to move beyond ordinary, we have to be intentional. We have an enemy who is intentionally coming against our marriage relationships. We won't drift into extraordinary; we will have to fight for it.'

'Distorting truth and compromising truth often seems innocent and harmless, but it always comes with a price.'

'When we start expecting our spouses' words, behavior, or choices to fill parts of our hearts that only God can fill, we set ourselves up for ordinary marriages.'

'But much like the Israelites, we can easily stop focusing on the presence of God and focus instead on the presents of God.'

'The crossroads that all of us stand at every day is do I choose ordinary again today, or do I choose extraordinary?'

'Bitterness is like picking up a stone to throw and holding on to it so you'll have ammunition the next time you're wounded. We take our stones, hold them tight, and find comfort in them. But if we dwell in bitterness long enough, resentment is sure to follow.'

'I had tried to escape the crushing of teeth and the breaking of bones and in the process had also forgone the faithfulness and mercies and salvation and compassion of God.'

'When we do not live in the fullness of God's love, we are incapable of loving others fully.'

'Wherever sin lives, intimacy dies. That is true in your relationship with God, and it is true in your marriage. But the good news is that wherever intimacy lives, sin dies.'

'We sometimes confuse discipline with a lack of grace, but discipline is an extension of grace.'