Caring & commitment: Learning to live the love we promise

A guidebook to caring explains how to make and keep the promises that hold together the deep and intimate relationships between friends and within families. Reprint.

Smedes's stated goal in this follow-up to Forgive & Forget ( LJ 8/84) is "to find our way between the craziness of life without commitments and the cruelty of bondage to all past commitments." The accent, though, is on keeping commitmentsto friends, children, spouses, and ourselvesvia a blend of consistency and care, amid risks and rewards involved. Smedes strains stylistically at times (speaking, for instance, about "tents of tentativity"), but on the whole this is well written and, as usual, contains sound guidance that will be helpful to Christians and nonchristians alike. EC
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