There are three things you need to know about Mission Ready Marriage.

YOU CAN BUY IT

You may download it for Kindle or order a paperback copy from Amazon by clicking here. Mission Ready Marriage is also available from other online retailers like Barnes and Noble and iBooks. The digital price is $5.99 and the print copy is $13.99.

YOU CAN READ IT

Mission Ready Marriage is a book for anyone, but the primary, target audience is for military spouses and/or someone who may want to take a close, intimate look into the unique aspects of military life. Particularly, the book addresses themes of marriage, faith, and personal growth through common struggles as a dependent in active duty military service.

The official online description says this:

Our nation has been at war for over a decade. This means many active duty military personnel have been in a constant cycle of training, deployments and reintegration. Unfortunately, the stresses and difficulties of being on the job aren’t only affecting soldiers but also their spouses and family members. These prolonged and significant pressures are taking a devastating toll on many military marriages.

As a relatively new active duty military spouse, Claire walks readers through many of the common trials of active duty life. From assignments, relocation, making friends and reinventing yourself at each new duty station, to the painful moments of the deployment and reintegration, Claire shares her personal struggles to make sense of what it means to be a supportive military spouse and do her part to keep her own marriage mission ready.

As a Christian, Claire explores the idea of what it means to live her life in full submission to God, her husband and her country. With humor and deep emotion, she shares how this isn’t her natural, typical response. You might even say she has gone kicking and screaming (and sometimes crying) at every turn.

Claire hopes that her own experiences and reflections will inspire other military spouses to stay the course, keep the faith and find hope for the future. You don’t have to be a military spouse to relate to and understand the ideas presented in this book. Mission Ready Marriage is for anyone who has ever wondered if God had the right person in mind for their current assignment. God has called each of us to honor our husbands in our partnerships and he has given us everything we need for the mission field in which he has placed each of us.

You will find a series of questions for reflection at the end of each chapter asking you to think through some of your own experiences, trials and victories as a military spouse. Optionally, this set-up (13 chapters) is designed to be used as a semester-long study in a women’s Bible study, spouse group or book club. One of the best resources I have found for military spouses is other military spouses sharing their wisdom. The questions at the end of each chapter have been formulated to prompt meaningful discussion and sharing of such ideas.

I’ve written a few blog posts about my heart for this book here and here. I have written Mission Ready Marriage for myself as a ode to and reflection on God’s faithfulness through a few tumultuous years of transitioning from the civilian world into the world of the military. But I have also written Mission Ready Marriage for you. I have written it as a testimony to the difficulties, trials, and hope that comes from a life submitted to Christ and His calling for each of us.

If you’d like to get a bigger taste of the book before purchasing it, feel free to read the Table of Contents, Foreward, Introduction and first chapter, “Life Before the Military: How in the World Did We Get Here?” by selecting the Kindle edition on Amazon. Click on the Look Inside feature to read more.

YOU CAN SHARE ABOUT IT

Writing Mission Ready Marriage has been true heart-work for me to put my experiences into words and those words into a cohesive and coherent message for other military spouses worldwide. I hope to connect with other spouses who need to hear that there’s hope and contentment to be found in the assignment God has called us to.

• I am most grateful for any Facebook sharing, Tweeting, posting, emailing, word of mouth, or passing along of the link to this blog post or the direct Amazon link that you’d be willing to do.
• Honest feedback from anyone who enjoys reviewing what they’ve read on Amazon or Goodreads would be most appreciated.
• I would love to hear from you via email if any part of Mission Ready Marriage resonated or connected with you and your own experiences. I mean that. My inbox is open. One of the themes of my book is the vital importance of connecting with other spouses to help shoulder the burdens of military life. So feel free to send me a note at rctmkwood@gmail.com

*****

I am thrilled to finally offer Mission Ready Marriage to others. It has been a labor of love and an endeavor of obedience to set aside my own fears about exposing my failures and missteps as an Army wife. God’s grace is greater than all of my weakness and deficiencies! As you read Mission Ready Marriage, I pray that you will see the love, faithfulness, and care of a loving Father.