"Winning Him without Words"

“…that they may be won without words by the behavior of their wives.” 1 Peter 3:1

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You know the feeling of waking in the middle of the night in a room that is not your own--perhaps a hotel room, guest room of family or friends, even a waiting room. You become immediately disoriented—even frightened. But, after a few confusing moments, you finally recognize your surroundings and remember the reason you are in this strange place, as well as the purpose for your journey. 

Thirty-two years ago, I began a journey with my husband, and the pastor pronounced us “husband and wife”. I was a ‘professed’ Christian; my husband was not. Only minimally aware of the “unequally yoked” scripture from God’s Word, I imagined “I” could make my husband become what I needed him to be—even a Christian. 

Years later, after living like an unbeliever for over a decade, and finally surrendering fully to the Lord, my eyes were opened to the truth in 2 Cor. 6:14. However, my enlightenment felt like I had just awakened in a strange place, instantly disoriented in my mismatched marriage. “Where am I?” “How did I get here?” 

Though I came to understand the “where” and the “how” of my confusion, I confess, it took far more years than I’d like to admit for me to figure out how to live with this new enlightenment. I confess as well that I made many, many mistakes. I would learn that God didn’t really need my help in my husband’s salvation.   

The questions I should have been asking myself were, “What is the purpose of my journey [marriage]” and “Who am I now to be in this unequally yoked marriage? 

How I wish I’d had “Winning Him without Words” twenty years ago to help me answer these questions. 

Allow me to introduce to you Lynn Donovan and Dineen Miller, the authors of the new book, “Winning Him without Words”. Both are women in spiritually mismatched or “unequally yoked” marriages, who, like me, awakened to the dizzying understanding of this confusing arrangement. Although the reasons for their journey leading to their mismatch are different, both came to recognize the true purpose for their journey, along with “who” they are now to be. 

Together, they compiled years of shared wisdom, understanding, and obedience learned through God’s word applied to their mismatched marriages, as well as confessed blunders, failures, a touch of self-righteousness, and even disobedience. Like me, they also discovered that God didn’t really need their help in the matter of their husband's salvation.

Perhaps you too are the wife of an unbelieving husband. “Winning Him without Words” is the perfect handbook for you. You will laugh at Lynn and Dineen’s humor, most likely admit to many of their mistakes, and rejoice with them in their victories. Their experience has certainly encouraged and inspired me, as it will you.

I encourage you to pick up your copy, and soon you too will be rejoicing and sharing the victories in your own mismatched marriage as God alone works out the details in your husband’s heart. 

For more on Lynn and Dineen’s book, go to www.winninghimwithoutwords.com

I encourage you also to visit their blog page Spiritually Unequal Marriage for more great articles and insight to encourage you in your journey with your husband. 

May God bless you in your mismatched marriage—“a mismatch blessed by heaven”. 

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About Winning Him Without Words:

Winning Him Without Words: 10 Keys to Thriving in Your Spiritually Mismatched Marriage by Lynn Donovan and Dineen Miller. Published by Regal Books, February 2011. 224 pages. $14.99. ISBN: 978-08307-5605

LYNN DONOVAN writes for the online ministry she founded in 2006, Spiritually Unequal Marriage. Lynn is a popular Bible study leader and national speaker who dispels the myths women believe about love and marriage and points them to the freedom that is theirs through a living relationship with Christ. She lives in Temecula, California, with her husband, Mike.

DINEEN MILLER has won several prestigious awards for her fiction, and her devotional writing has been featured in Our Journey and Christian Women Online Magazine. In addition to writing for Spiritually Unequal Marriage, Dineen writes for Laced with Grace and various other fiction online magazines and newsletters. Married for more than 23 years, she shares her life with a great guy who adores disc golf and their two daughters, who never stops surprising her with their own creativity.