Wide Awake

It's 3 AM. You're staring at the ceiling while your spouse sleeps beside you. Your mind races through every unresolved argument, every fear about money, every worry about your children, every disappointment you've been carrying for years. The silence is deafening, and the distance between you and the person lying next to you feels like miles.

You're not alone.

Wide Awake is for every husband and wife who has lain awake wondering if their marriage will survive—and wondering if they even want it to. It's for the spouse who has spent more energy cataloging their partner's faults than examining their own heart. It's for anyone who has asked God for help and heard only silence in return.

At the center of this book is The Mirror Principle, drawn from Matthew 7:3-5. Before you examine your spouse, examine yourself. Before you try to fix your marriage, let God fix you. The clearest view of your relationship comes only after an honest look in the mirror.

This isn't comfortable advice. But it's transformative.

Author David Bishop writes from the trenches of his own marriage, exploring themes that most Christian books avoid: the physical toll of worry that shows up in nail-biting and hair loss, the hypervigilance that makes your spouse feel like an enemy, the inability to receive love without suspicion, and the faith crisis that often sits at the heart of marital struggle.

Wide Awake addresses the real questions couples face: What do you do when you've stopped believing God can fix anything? How do you love someone you don't particularly like? What happens when helping your spouse becomes a wall instead of a bridge? How do you rebuild trust after betrayal? And how do you keep going when every instinct tells you to quit?

Across 96 chapters organized in 11 parts, this book covers the full landscape of marriage:

The Mirror Principle and honest self-examination. The body's response to chronic worry and stress. Financial fears, health anxiety, and worry about your children. Rethinking love as action rather than feeling. Speaking your spouse's love language fluently. The God factor—prayer, forgiveness, and spiritual intimacy. Navigating a faith crisis within your marriage. The gratitude revolution that changes everything. Conflict as construction rather than destruction. Rebuilding emotional, spiritual, and physical intimacy. The long obedience of habits, grace, and perseverance.

Each chapter opens with Scripture, delivers practical biblical wisdom, and closes with a Mirror Question designed for personal reflection or couple discussion.

Wide Awake doesn't promise a perfect marriage. It offers something better: an honest path toward becoming the spouse God has called you to be, regardless of what your partner does. Because the greatest marriages aren't built by two people waiting for each other to change. They're built by two people who each take full responsibility for their own growth.

The sleepless hours don't have to be wasted hours. They can become the very place where God does His deepest work.

If you're ready to stop diagnosing your spouse and start examining yourself, this book is for you.