Boundaries in Dating

How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Relationships

By: Henry Cloud, John Townsend

Narrated by: Jonathan Petersen

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Boundaries in Dating offers illuminating insights for romance that can help you grow in freedom, honesty, and self-control as you pursue healthy dating limits that can lead to a happy marriage.

Dating can be fun, but it's not easy. Meeting people is just the first step. Once you've met someone, then what? Should you move on, pursue a simple friendship, or more? How do you set smart limits on your physical relationship? How much do you get involved financially? And how do you know if you've found your future spouse?

In Boundaries in Dating, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the New York Times bestseller Boundaries, answer all of these questions and more. Helping you bridge the pitfalls of dating, Drs. Cloud and Townsend share their practical advice for adding healthy boundaries to your dating life.

Boundaries in Dating unfolds a wise, biblical path to developing self-control, freedom, and intimacy. Let Drs. Cloud and Townsend help you get to know yourself, solve problems, and enjoy the journey of dating and finding your life partner.

Full of insightful, real-life examples, this much-needed book will give you the tools you need to:

• Recognize and choose quality over perfection in a dating partner
• Prioritize friendship within your relationship
• Preserve friendships by separating between platonic relationships and romantic interest
• Move past denial to handle real relational problems in a realistic and hopeful way
• Enjoy this season of life

Don't forget to check out the Boundaries collection of books and workbooks dedicated to key areas of your life, including dating, marriage, parenting kids, raising teenagers, and leadership.

©2000 Henry Cloud (P)2009 Zondervan

This is a must read for anyone dating!!!

Loved this book! opened my eyes, heart, mind and spirit. Needed to stop and take notes a lot, so driving and listening was sometimes difficult. I ended up taking a ton of notes to refer back to. Wish I would have had this book in my younger years. I am learning,g why I am still single at 47 years old. But, its never too late to learn!

Required Listening

This is a very good book I'd recommend to anyone who is serious about dating. Even though this book is only 16 years old information here is still relevant and applicable. I thoroughly enjoyed the content and Jonathan Petersen did an excellent job in narrating. I did chuckle every time he pronounced the word, "God" ^^

Very good read

Very focused on the beginning of a relationship and how to avoid problems by the use of healthy boundries and personal change. Also how to fix problems as they are arising.

Very insightful

This book was very informative, I found a lot of clarity in my own situation and past while reading it. I actually wouldn't mind reading it again.

Pretty good

I didn’t like this one as much as “How to get a date worth keeping.” The reader was animated, but sometimes felt a little sarcastic. The stories weren’t as exciting to me. But good information overall.

New Attitude

I loved this book and the reminder and scripture reference throughout. After competing this book, I have new hope, new attitude and patience,about finding the person and relationship I want and deserve. Patience!❤

Should you “Kiss Dating Goodbye”? Nope!

I will recommend this book to all my maturing dating friends (the immature ones would never read it anyway). I didn’t realize until listening that this book is basically a response to part of the confusion caused by Joshua Harris’s “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” - and how Christian’s for many years took his words of killing off dating as gospel and tried to figure out whatever in the world that mythological ‘courting’ thing was. Sure, dating is a mess in the church because everyone has a different definition - but this book helps set some very mature and wise guidance on why we should date, it’s purpose, and how to navigate a number of very sticky situations we find ourselves in our relationships. It follows the logic that our main job from God is to grow in character and realize that we can’t do it ourselves - we need God and Jesus’s sacrifice. And dating is a fantastic way to grow - because good boundaries are some of the highest ‘relational’ fruit in growing Godly character.

A good smack in the face for me

This book answered all my dating questions and more. It answered questions about previous relationships and insecurities. The amount of detail and scenarios given speak clearly to me and I absolutely loved the book start to finish. I have already recommended the book when I was halfway done to several people and I plan to only do so more. Struggling in a relationship? Struggling to find a relationship? Struggling to love yourself and know your worth? Don't know what to look for? This is the book for you.

Great book!

I didn't realize how much I didn't know about dating and healthy relationships. I am very grateful to have read this book!

SELF IMPROVEMENT AND SELF PROTECTION

Author provides excellent information for self improvement in setting boundaries in communication, basic respect, sexual involvement, and other interactions from both sides-self improvement and for self protection. The use of multiple short and specific common real relationship situations are very beneficial in helping apply information provided.

There is very good advise given as to how to manage various degrees of boundary violations, as well as when and how to express one's self to the violators so as to mutually improve relationships, and how to identify when a relationship needs to be terminated or put on hold.

Each chapter has EXCELLENT "take away" summary points at the end. I would highly recommend reading these first for each chapter and then start reading each chapter so that the reader's mindset is better focused on chapter information. These also make very good refresher sections for future reference as better boundaries are implemented and personal skills are developed.

I didn't expect the biblical references that are included to enhance the topics being discussed, and in no way did I feel that they were offensive or distracted from the subject matter.

Since setting boundaries can be an ongoing self improvement, I would highly recommend owning a print copy of this book as the audio version at this time does not allow for "take away" chapter sections to be specifically identified.

Audio narrator is excellent!

Enjoy!