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Prior to reading Real Life Romance, I had never heard of Rhonda Stoppe so I decided to perform a quick Google search to learn a bit about her. One of the first resources I stumbled across was a podcast interview in which Rhonda was discussing how to raise Godly children.
Hearing about Rhonda’s love for Christ, grew in me a great excitement to read Real Life Romance. I initially thought the book focused on looking at marriage from a Biblical perspective and while it does, indeed, do so, it does so in a manner that is not traditional to Christian books on marriage. In Real Life Romance, Stoppe has recorded the love stories of 25 Christian couples to show the world how marriage should look according to Scripture. Even as Christians, we often take some ideas from the world and attempt to apply them in our marriages and are left disappointed. Only when we follow God’s plan from Scripture, are we able to have marriages that are sweet examples of Christ’s love for His bride, the church (see Ephesians 5).
Stoppe is faithful to communicate the goodness of Christ in each of these love stories and they were so encouraging for my heart because they allowed me to learn about ways other Christian couples have remained faithful to Christ even in the midst of difficult seasons in their marriages.
This book was fun too because some of the couples interviewed are famous – you might recognize Bill and Pam Farrel and Nick and Kanae Vujicic – and there are elements unique to this book including pictures of each couple in their corresponding chapters and videos featuring the couples on Stoppe’s website.
In addition to the real life romances provided in the book, Rhonda also asks compelling and encouraging questions at the end of each chapter. I found myself being sharpened and challenged by many of the questions and I’m thankful for her heart to encourage others to grow in their love for Christ and their spouse.
Some of my favorite questions from the book are:
- Do you know God’s character so well that you will trust Him if you find yourself without work?
- If you’re not married, are you willing to honor Christ in your relationships as you seek His will for your future?
- Would you say your marriage honors God?
- How have you prepared yourself for the war against the flesh?
- How might you adjust your life to take your focus off looking for a husband and learn to find contentment in loving and serving Jesus?
Overall, Real Life Romance is very solid theologically, but there were a few instances in which the author reported that she heard God speak to her and recorded stories in which God spoke to those she interviewed. In the first chapter, while describing a time in which Rhonda was experiencing a break up and was considering pursuing valuable opportunities with her career, she stated, “. . . yet a still, small voice often whispered, This is not who you are. This not what I created you for.” The idea of a still, small voice is taken from 1 Kings 19:11-13 in which God speaks to Elijah. There is no command in Scripture to listen for a still, small voice. In fact, God’s very own word tells us that if we want to hear God, and know what He wants for us and from us, we simply need to read the word (see Deuteronomy 4:2, Deuteronomy 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Hebrews 1:1-2, Revelation 22:18). The concept of God speaking appears in a few other chapters (Chapters 11, 18) so be aware of this as you read and be careful how much weight you give to the concept.
Aside from this caution, I really enjoyed Real Life Romance, so much so that I finished it in three days. Rhonda’s faithfulness to share truths from Scripture with each love story made it so hard to put the book down. I appreciated that these weren’t just ordinary, Christian couples – there was a wide variety who have been through different hardships but all prevailed because their marriages were Christ centered. When it comes to love stories, more of these real life romances are needed to show us what relationships really look like in a world marred by sin. Toward the end of the book, Rhonda wrote, “As a Christian, anything you do in your life should be filtered through this missional statement: To know Christ and make Him know,” (Chapter 25). I couldn’t agree more and highly recommend Real Life Romance.
I received Real Life Romance compliments of LitFuse in exchange for my honest review.
