What is a husband to do when his wife has had enough and she leaves? What does he do when he doesn’t understand why his marriage is falling apart or when he doesn’t know how to make things better?
Well, just ask Regi Campbell. He knows. He’s been there. After 12 years of marriage, his wife decided he couldn’t do life with him anymore and she left him. In that pit, Campbell had to decide what he would do. His decision? Love her in a radical way. (Spoiler alert: she came back and they’ve been married for more than four decades now.)
From this experience is born Campbell’s “What Radical Husbands Do.” A real, honest, no-bull memoir of his rocky marriage and how it was recovered, this book offers husbands 12 steps to winning and keeping their wives’ hearts.
Campbell begins by asking husbands to rate their marriages. Then he dissects each of those situations (all the while reminding husbands that while they may think they’re doing “okay,” their wives may see things very differently.) What follows in the next several chapters is a step by step, applicable plan of how to pursue your wife and love her radically.
Written by a man and for men, Campbell keeps his audience in mind. Only 134 pages broken down in short chapters, “What Radical Husbands Do” skips the flowery language and gets straight to the point. Campbell opens each chapter by giving readers a particular step to follow and then explains it. He then lays out tangible, easy to understand examples of what it would look like to complete that step in winning your wife’s heart. Campbell knows men struggle with understanding what their wives are thinking and feeling. He knows what men say is not heard the same by his wife, and visa versa. That’s why he point blank tells you what she’s thinking and feeling in response to a husband’s words and actions (and female readers have confirmed he’s right on the mark).
Some of his tips may seem unnecessary, uncomfortable or cheesy to a man, but he explains why it matters to a woman. Because he’s an average-joe type of guy (like many of you), he relates to what you’re thinking as you read a lot of this book. And he addresses those thoughts. At times Campbell is beyond blunt, telling men it’s time to put aside pride or ego for the sake of their marriages and families. While this can step on toes or even bend ones “Man Card”, he’s right! Loving our wives in a radical way is not easy, but it’s necessary!
This book is a great read (but more so a plan to put in practice) for men of all ages, backgrounds, and marital-happiness levels. There’s no such thing as loving your wife too much and we all have every single reason in the world to make our marriages better. Furthermore, the command to love our wives is given to men of the Christian faith in Ephesians 5:22-33. It’s not an option – even when it’s hard. “What Radical Husbands Do” gives all men a cheat sheet and playbook to fulfilling this command.