Customer Reviews

Bonds That Make Us Free: Healing Our Relationships, Coming to Ourselves

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I know I won't remember all the moments of my life, but I will remember the moving ones, the true moments. This book was responsible for my change of heart, and it changed my life. That is a moment worth remembering. The book explains why our relationships fail. It helped me understand why I treated people the way I did. Do you ever wonder "Why did I treat her so badly, when I really do love her?" This book will help you answer that question.... Most importantly it gave me a way to change, to have a change of heart. For the first time in a decade, I feel the person I am on the outside is the same as the person I am at my core... This book gave me a map to find myself and I decided to give a copy to everyone one in my life.

Once in a long while, amid the untold millions of merely clever, ingenious, entertaining, new, or unique books the world has written for any of its lesser reasons, you will find one that is piercingly and profoundly true, written only for truth's sake. This is such a book. While simple, it is anything but simplistic. Careful reading combined with honest self-reflection and genuine efforts to be good will not just uncover many important issues, it will uncover THE issue. This book is no new revelation on the nature of man and his morality, but it reasons upon truths the rational will see as self-evident, the religious will recognize from scripture, and the empirically-minded will perceive in the honest assessment own their own experience. Any serious attempt to explain human nature that does not incorporate the truths discussed in this book risks being fundamentally flawed and is assured to be incomplete. I wholeheartedly recommend to you this book.

I struggled through the first 100 pages of this book. Not because it was difficult to read or understand, but it was difficult to look at myself the way the author suggests. Like struggling through a narrow entrance to an underground grotto, the struggle was worth it. Warner's book presents a tough pill to swallow: Most of our problems with relationships can be improved if we will only look to see how we are poisoning the relationship. The major premise is that when we are disappointed in our actions, we often will then modify our perceptions in order to make us feel better.

Get through those first 100 pages with a lot of self-reflection and you will then find tools to improve your relationships. These are not things that you must convince OTHERS to do. These are tools to help you poison less and heal more.

For those who are also seeking knowledge on how to be the peace and joy that the world is in need of. You will be shocked when you realize how much you have to learn. This book is written by a truly inspired man. I feel fortunate to have found it and strongly recommend it to everyone.

In a strange way, it doesn't feel like it is written as a relationship book. It doesn't have bullet pointed advice laid out or steps to follow. However, being someone who writes and gives a lot of relationship advice, I can say one thing about this book... Everyone in relationship tourmoil or just not feeling they are at the right place in their lives NEEDS TO READ THIS. A book filled with wisdom just short of biblical proportions, written in the laypersons terms.

I loved reading this. It really makes you think about your relationships with others. It helps you see people in a different light and be more sensitive to their needs. I highly recommend this book.

Warner has discover a truth known since the beginnig of time. He has done an oustanding job conveying the truth in understanding language. His discovery has been given to us by God in the Bible. It's all there: our condition, our blindness, the need to see that we are the problem, not others. G.K. Chesterton once answered to a group of news editors to the question, What's wrong with the world?, " I am wrong with the world". After realizing that we have a problem, which makes us guilty, the Bible tells us about Jesus who took the guilt upon himself, forgave us and gives us the freedom to forgive others and love them us he has loved us, knowing that we will treat people from within the box. Without a change of heart there is no real love towards others. Warner has hit on an unavoidable reality.

Perhaps the most compelling question Warner asks us to take up in this book is: Am I in the wrong? In a world where war comes before political leaders admit their own faults and where 50% of marriages end in divorce, often because partners can only see the problems with their spouse this question could have powerful effects.

I believe Warner has chosen his title carefully using the word "free," which is so loaded today. Being "free" today has been confused with being able to choose between 10 brands of VCR or do whatever you want with no thought of the consequences. What Warner advocates is a real freedom, freedom from your human self and its weaknesses. Warner's book will not ensure you won't make bad decisions but it will teach you about the courage to admit when you are in wrong and how to change for the better. That is real freedom.

Outside of scripture this is the most important and profound book I've read. Nearly every page adds insight to relationships and self.
I was shocked when I got to the chapter dealing with self-victimization and saw myself described in the pages of the book! I have changed how I relate to my spouse, my feelings towards her and my communication with her.
The chapter on collusion has me thinking and trying more to improve relations and feelings with my son. My point of view has changed with regards to all my children. I have never felt more motivation to improve relationships with all my family as well as others.
After one read, there is much I don't understand intrinsically about all the concepts taught, but my intent is to read, think and act until I do understand. My life has changed direction, I will continue on the path to emotional freedom as described by the author.
I intend to gift a copy of this book to everyone near and dear to me in hopes they will read and have an epiphany of their own.
If you are wondering if you should read this book, stop. Order it, read and prepare for a fundamental change in your outlook on relationships and self.

The first part of "Bonds that Make Us Free" is a little painful to read because of the growth that takes place when the principles taught in this book are understood and applied.

If growth is your goal this book was made for you.

Buy this book!!!