The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual is about succeeding happily in a marriage relationship by discussing, living up to the promises outlined, maintaining an open and shared journal of individual issues, concerns, successes and failures between couples. The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual accepts the premises that a marital relationship for many is a relationship that does not have to be between a man and a woman but it can be a same-sex partnership as well.

The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual is just what it says, a manual of promises --promises that are made by the newlywed to each other. Promises, a vow, that in this marriage something negative, an action, deed or statement will not happen under any circumstance. The promises are written to forewarn couples of the possible hurt and humiliation responses to actions and decisions made selfishly by one or the other partner without thought of the consequence of the latter. These tyrannical or withdrawn responses to the hurt and humiliation responses have no other recourse but to affect the marital relationship negatively. And, even though in many cases, we can forgive but never forget especially if it hurts bad enough. The marriage, no doubt, will shift from happy and respectful to hostile, untrusting and distant, and eventual failure of the marriage.

The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual is about communicating effectively and going the extra mile to maintain true happiness, love and respect for each individual in the relationship. Keeping your heart open and spirit uplifted enough to leave the doors open for the love and respect that originally brought the couple together in the first place.

The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual can also be a useful tool of topics to discuss pre-marital concerns with a qualified marital counselor. The author suggests that couples should seek pre-marital counseling regardless of how solid the couple feels their relationship. An action, decision or slight difference of opinion can be catastrophic to a marriage because unless prior discussion has taken place one individual partner does not realize how much value the other partner envisions the subject matter. The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual attempts to cover many of the adversarial subjects, A thru Z, which many couples are confronted in marriage.

Many things can happen in a marriage whether it is one to many years of marriage. We all know that initially, some of us, are not our true selves during courtship. Of course, we tend to put our best foot forward to get what we want. But, then when we get it . . . you know the rest of the story. It is true that we really do not know one another until we have lived together! Some problems, difference of opinion, are bound to surface whenever two people become one. It should be mentioned here that we are not talking about normalcy here. We are talking when needed discussions become heated discussions, argumentative and then lead to physical and emotional abuse for the male or female partner. Discussions become lowdown, dirty, and antagonistic.

The objective of The Newlyweds' Promises To Keep Manual is to provide a set of rules, "promises" to guide couples away from turmoils and eventual disillusion of their marriage. Marriage is an institution that can bring joy, peace, love and respect if we just follow a simple set of promises, A thru Z.

The author, LaVerne A. Smith-Bell, obtained her Bachelor's of Arts Degree in Psychology and her Master's of Science Degree in Guidance and Counseling from Chicago State University, 1979 and 1983, respectively. She has worked as a program supervisor and therapeutic clinician in the mental health field dealing with various aspects of individual and family crisis intervention. She is the mother of four children and grandmother of seven. She has been married for 37 years.