Book Review - #Eternity

#Eternity - 
An LDS Guide to dating + marriage for young adults

About the Book:

Author: Terry R. Baker, PhD

Released: 2015

Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.

Genre: Spiritual/Inspirational/Marriage/Dating/LDS

Book Sources:

AMAZON  | WEBSITE | CEDAR FORT

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Description:

Enlightening and entertaining, this book helps you apply now the principles taught in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”

With topics like

• Faith
• Prayer
• Forgiveness
• Respect
• Compassion
• Work
• Wholesome recreational activities

Popular author and speaker Terry R. Baker shows you what true love is and what it’s not. Discover how to find and nurture a relationship you want to keep forever.

Whether you’re a teen, a young adult, or a newlywed, these sacred scriptural precepts keep you on the path to perfection and a loving marriage that lasts eternally.

My thoughts:

Marriage has been heavy on my mind for quite sometime. I've been playing the dating field for a while and I've been blessed to have some incredible experiences to give me a taste of what marriage is and how important it is to treat it with the deepest respect it deserves. 

I absolutely love this book! The way it is organized based off of the Family Proclamation is a huge seller to me. There are so many dating and marriage books in and outside of the church, many are based primarily on experience and opinion. This book comes from divine inspiration because what the author does in this book is entirely unique. On basically every page of this 203 page book you will find a quote from a church leader or a scripture that really gets you thinking about marriage is a new and selfless light. The author does such an incredible job at helping you understand and then apply the principle into your own life so it becomes a part of who you are.

Terry R. Baker has wrote dating, courage, and marriage institute manuals for the church and has taught marriage classes at BYU for 15 years, it was very evident as I was reading this book, feeling the spirit and understanding marriage is a new and divine light. Marriage is essential to the plan Heavenly Father has set, so something ordained by God is something we shouldn't take lightly. 

This book gave me a deeper desire to prepare now for the marriage I would like to have one day. Helping me understand how vitally important it is to be selfless to have the marriage I desire to have. My favorite concept from the book was when he applied perfect love unto a seed. Check out this book to read more about faith and marriage and how they go hand in hand. Learn about how to apply the family proclamation into your life as a young adult through his wisdom and compliment of quotes and scriptures. I know this book has been a blessing to my life. 

My favorites from the book:

- There is a self evaluation quiz in almost every chapter of the book, see for yourself to know what areas you need to work on to prepare for marriage. 

- The amount of scriptures (especially from the Book of Mormon) used to give you a deeper understanding of marriage. I loved seeing how many Book of Mormon scriptures could relate to marriage in so many countless ways.

- Personal stories and examples are talked about in this book to really inspire you. I love learning from others, but having scripture and quotes to back up the experiences. 

- So many lists of examples to apply to each principle covered in the book.

- Ideas and inspiration of how to apply the teachings and principles into your life. 

About the author of this book:

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.


                                                   I received a free copy of this book for review but all opinions and rating are my own.