QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. What do Amy Warren and Trina Scott call their idea for creating arranged marriages between Amy’s three sons and Trina’s three daughters? When did they first come up with the plan?
  2. How is Haley Warren different from her two older sisters, Caroline and Jenna?
  3. How does Matthew’s birth order position as firstborn play into his personality, and how does it affect his relationship with his single mother and his brothers, Dylan and Logan?
  4. What happened in Matthew Warren’s adolescence that made it difficult for him to put his trust in people? How was that history repeated in his young adult life?
  5. Haley believes that Matthew trusts her to care for his daughter and in a more personal way later but then discovers she’s wrong. How important is trust as a foundation in a relationship?
  6. Why do Amy and Trina believe Caroline Scott would be a good match for Matthew Warren? How important in a potential match is it for the couple to have many things in common?
  7. Haley Scott and Matthew Warren are opposites in many ways. Do opposites really attract, and do people with such radical differences make good matches?
  8. Just like in his life, Matthew’s faith is all about obligation. Do we as Christians sometimes get caught up in the details of church and forget to simply praise God?
  9. How is Haley’s faith different from Matthew’s? How does she help him to remember what it’s like to experience true faith?
  10. In what ways is Haley not a great child-care provider? Are there ways she is also great at her job?
  11. Many parents think they would choose better partners for their children than their own children would. Are arranged marriages, or at least arranged introductions, still a possibility in the twenty-first century?
  12. When Haley was just fourteen, she made an important announcement to Matthew, then nineteen. What did she say and how has it affected their continuing friendship over the last nine years?
  13. At one point, Matthew mentions that for church employees, Easter is a working day, often a time when he worked overtime. Do we as Christians sometimes lose sight of the importance in what should be the most significant holiday of the year for believers?
  14. Amy Warren and Trina Scott have been best friends through the birth of their children, through Amy’s divorce and the loss of Trina’s husband. Do you have any steadfast friendships like that, and how important are long-term friendships in a woman’s life?
  15. In the story, Reverend Boggs gives a sermon on the sacrifice Abraham was willing to make for God. What sacrifices are we willing to make to build a stronger relationship with God?