[.ca] Restoration of Marriage (ISBN 157921214X)

Changed my life:
While I was living on a sailboat North of Seattle, I met Karl Duff, a young, retired Navy Captain, naval architect, Ph.D. engineer, lifelong Boy Scout leader, and lay family counselor. I had read his Restoration of Men: God's Rescue of Women and Children and noticed he lived not too far away and phoned him. Karl was visiting nearby each week by ferry and we had several long visits. We shared an interest in backpacking and had some other common ground and corresponded a little over the next several years. Eventually, I asked Karl if he would agree for me to be accountable to him for my actions as I attempted reconciliation with my estranged wife, especially during the process of corresponding and meeting with her father. To make a long story short, Karl was there for me by telephone both before and after I first spoke to my wife's father, which I needed most because my wife's father had been instrumental in convincing my wife to leave me. What Karl teaches in Restoration of Marriage is absolutely true and, if one is going to reconcile under such circumstances, the material he explains should be considered. The road back with my wife had quite a few potholes and some of her friends and family have never been willing to admit their mistake in counseling abandoning marriage as a solution. My wife admits that it was the worst decision she ever made, which cost her relative financial independence and children. She notices that those who told her to leave me have their homes, retirement investments, and their children. At least we now have each other and we are grateful for that. I found Chapter 4, "Introduction to Marital War," to be especially helpful because, like everyone involved in the breakdown of a marriage, if you ask them, I was faultless. This chapter explains the trap women fall into so easily listening to disinterested third parties playing "Let's you and him fight." I took a great deal of comfort in seeing that I was not the only one to have ever experienced this. To those horrified by the breakdown in Chrisendom, Western Civilization, America, and our families, I submit that it is because we have ignored the biblical principles of marriage and family at our peril. Karl Duff's work is not only an excellent antedote for our ills, it is excellent preventative medicine, which belongs on every pastor and counselor's nightstand rather than their bookshelf. My wife are in our fifth year back together again after a 15-year separation. Neither of us has ever been happier or more satisfied with life. Without this book, helped by a dialog with Dr. Duff, I don't think I could have mapped the course back, much less had the confidence to confront my enemies as if they were friends to whom I could speak plainly. For that, and confronting my own demons, those sins that we all commit and prefer to blame on others as Adam blamed Eve, I thank Karl Duff and commend his work to each of you.