Blog Tour- Playing Hurt by Brian Goins Review and Giveaway

Welcome to the blog tour for Playing Hurt by Brian Goins!

First of all, a little information on the book and author:

Welcome to the blog tour for pastor and Family Life speaker Brian Goins' Playing Hurt. Everyone admires people who play hurt, from the superstar athlete to the journeyman player who finishes the game even when hurt, sick, or falling apart. Everyone looks up to these athletes and wants to mimic their "never give up" attitude. Except when it comes to marriage.

“I’ve played nine years in the NFL, won two Super Bowl Championship rings, and had five surgeries—injuries are inevitable in the game. You can’t help your team when you’re on the bench. The same is true in marriage. Brian coaches you on how to get back in the game and start winning again.”

—Ken Walter, NFL punter for the Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, and New England Patriots

Brian Goins speaks a man's language and knows how to move a man's heart."

-Dennis Rainey, President, Family Life

About Playing Hurt:

A marriage book that husbands will actually want to read!

Everyone admires people who play hurt, from the superstar athlete to the journeyman player who finishes the game even when hurt, sick, or falling apart. Everyone looks up to these athletes and wants to mimic their “never give up” attitude. Except when it comes to marriage. Most husbands are willing to take a bullet for their wives in a life-and-death situation; but when his bride fires the bullet--hurls an insult, disrespects him in public, ignores his foreplay in private--he’d rather throw in the towel than play through the pain.

Playing Hurt is a biblical playbook for marriage that speaks in the language most men understand—the language of sports. Using a sports analogy to explain the motivation, means, and methods of playing hurt, author Brian Goins shows men how to overcome the temptation to stay on the bench. Playing Hurt is more about inspiration than instruction. It’s about finding the motivation to stay in the game, despite the pain. It’s about becoming like the One who knew more about nails and thorns than any superstar athlete. Using Ephesians 5 as a biblical basis, this book will call husbands to be the heros they long to be--men who play hurt in order to win at marriage.


About the author:

Brian Goins is the author or editor of numerous study guides, workbooks, and Bible studies that he has developed for Insight for Living (Chuck Swindoll) and Walk Through the Bible. When he’s not traveling across the country as a Family Life Weekend to Remember speaker, he and his family reside in North Carolina.
















My Review:


First things first- this is a Christian book about marriage that is geared toward men. Now that you know what you're getting into, let me tell you what I thought. I was very impressed. Using an extended sports metaphor, Brian Goins does a great job of keeping you engaged and interested in a rather complex topic. Marriage is something that has always been an interesting topic for me because it's one of the few things in this life we cannot do on our own. We are very dependent on someone else's choices to be successful in marriage. This book helps men in particular understand the idea of "playing hurt"- that is, staying in the marriage and working no matter what the circumstances. 


Now if you think that this means that men are told to just shoulder unnecessary burdens or become doormats, you can rest assured that this is not the case. I loved that this book was so clear about laying the responsibility for a successful marriage on both spouses shoulders. However, the book is geared to men, and it mostly tells men what they should be doing to help makes things run smoothly. The book also does a great job of keeping marriage into perspective from a religious standpoint. Knowing that marriage is not just a commitment between two people but also between those people and God gives things a new perspective. 


I was talking about the things in this book with my husband as I was reading. He is not a sports fan at all, but he still understood all the concepts. It was fun to discuss the questions at the ends of the chapters and really get a feel for how differently we saw things. This book is not just good for people looking to better a marriage that isn't quite ideal, but I feel it can also help make a good marriage even better if only by just reminding us of things we should be doing. Everyone could use a reminder like that, and this book will do a great job of keeping men engaged and interested. 


Book provided for review. 

Learn more about the book by snapping a picture of this QR code!

www.playinghurt.org

Help us spread the word and you could win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com:

Kregel Publications is sponsoring a $50 Amazon.com Giveway to help promote the release of Playing Hurt. To enter all you have to do is send a tweet (using @litfuse) about Playing Hurt or share about it on Facebook!

If you tweet we'll capture your entry when you use @litfuse. If you share it on Facebook or your blog, just email us and let us know (info@litfusegroup.com). Easy. (All Litfuse bloggers who post a review are automatically entered and do NOT need to email us.)

Not sure what to tweet/post? Here's an idea.

TWEET THIS: Playing Hurt by Brian Goins-coaches men to win the 1 game that truly matters–marriage! http://ow.ly/6arVa RT 4 a chance at $50! @litfuse 

FACEBOOK THIS: Everyone admires people who play hurt, from the superstar athlete to the journeyman player who finishes the game even when hurt, sick, or falling apart. Everyone looks up to these athletes and wants to mimic their "never give up" attitude. Except when it comes to marriage. Learn more: Playing Hurt by Brian Goins http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13375058 

To see the rest of the stops on the tour, check out the tour page here!

Thanks for stopping by!