Helpful Fiction Book Relating to Marriage, Life Struggles & Remembering 9-11

This is a very captivating book written together by two authors, Karen Kingsbury who is the author of over twenty books (1.3 million books in print) and by author Gary Smalley, who is a well-known relationship expert and author (including the well-known books,The Blessing and The Language of Love.

This book, Remember, is the second in the Redemption Series. It follows a family with adult children, and their real-life experiences.

Ashley Baxter is a single mom that works in a nursing home with Alzheimer's patients and discovers ways of acknowledging their past to help bring them to the present. Her unconventional ways leads to losing her job. She has a "past" that includes her child, and the love of her life, Landon, who does not know how to reach her.

This Landon, deals with rejection from Ashley, in immersing himself in rescue efforts at Ground Zero after the 9-11 attacks.

Kari Baxter is also a single mom, because of the death of her husband. Her husband had been unfaithful, but reconciliation was taking place when he was killed. A childhood love comes back into her life, and she has to deal with past issues and working on moving forward.

Luke Baxter is the youngest of the family, and begins rejecting God, and the morals his parents have taught him. You will read about the heartbreak this stirs in the family.

This book also covers several other family members, but these are the main characters and their theme.

Without giving the story away, the main thing I liked about this book is that it is REAL. This is life as it is faced. For those that are Christians it is shown, life is still hard, and mistakes and consequences take place daily in our lives. The title of this book is "Remember" and the underlying theme is how to deal with past memories and bring them into your life now and working with these especially in a marriage relationship. Being that one of the authors in this book is a relationship expert, he inserts his counsel through the Pastor in this story, who is giving advice. This I found so good for couple's going through struggles and trying to regain their relationships. These are a brief synopsis of the six ways that are given to incorporate the ability to remember into your relationships for today.

1. Remember the important things in life. He suggests having "remember days" with your loved ones and reflect on the essentials of life. Make a list and consider it carefully. Find out how much time we spend on things that don't matter and the things that don't make this list that seem important in life.

2. Remember your shared faith. Remember the days when you prayed together and Christ was the center of your lives, and the common bond was your first love - God.

3. Remember how your relationship started. Look at pictures, reflect, go down memory lane.

4. Remember what you first liked about that person. Write down character traits, personality quirks and attributes that helped build your relationship with that person. Find these qualities again in this person.

5. Remember the good times you shared together. Again, pictures and happy times will go a long way toward replacing the sometimes troubled thoughts of that same relationship today.

6. Remember lessons from your past. Also remember how God has delivered you from past troubles, and that He will be faithful to deliver you through whatever relationship troubles you might be going through now.

This is a fiction book, but this book Remember, shows the importance of working in our relationships through the use of our memories in all aspects of our lives. It is not just with our marriages, but also in the special bonds we have with our children, parents, brothers and sisters and close friends. This book may offend those that do not have Christian beliefs, but worth considering as well all need encouragement with relationships and may give you a new viewpoint to look from.