Have you ever wondered if you were cut out for life as a military spouse? Maybe, like me, you have struggled to make sense of the unique challenges life as a dependent demands. Maybe, like me, you have felt alone or hopeless when navigating these difficult transitions.

I am here to say that you are not alone and there is hope! Mission Ready Marriage is a memoir and testimony of God’s faithfulness during my early years as a current active duty Army wife. It’s also a tool for meaningful conversations with other military spouses enabling us to open the door to true vulnerability, authenticity, and what it’s really like to live our lives in submission to God, our spouses, and even the military.

Below you’ll find an excerpt from the Foreward in Mission Ready Marriage. And here’s a link to take you to Amazon where the book may be purchased in both print and Kindle formats.

From the Foreward:

Today’s military spouse faces challenges and trials that are
unique. With a landscape of global anti-terrorism, a waning
lack of national patriotism and multiple deployments,
dependents are having to maneuver difficult circumstances.
Despite our near constant connectivity through technology
and social media, many military spouses are feeling more
isolated, alone and hopeless than ever before.

Soldiers aren’t simply coming home from deployments
and settling into life after a war’s end. These days, our
beloved soldiers and spouses are turning right around and
being sent again. And again. And again. These dynamics
affect the way military spouses relate to their marriages and
military life in a way unlike those who have served before us.

With recent media attention on these stresses and
pressures military spouses face, I am reminded of the dire
need for a resource in the hands of dependents. Not only are
military spouses, now, more than ever, in need of resources;
they are most in need of hope! Our nation has been at war
for over a decade. With this comes physical, mental and
emotional demands and exhaustion on our service members,
our marriages and our families.

If you have come to this book looking for guideposts
or formulas for a happy, healthy marriage, you have come to
the wrong place. You won’t find a step by step plan for
making your spouse a better partner, more sensitive to your
needs or how to make him a more effective leader in the
home. You won’t find admonitions to pray together more,
have more date nights or the secrets to better communication
or intimacy. Having a mission ready marriage does require
prayer, connection, intimacy and communication, yes. But
that’s not what this book is about.

There is power in sharing our stories and testimonies of
how difficult trials can bring about good in our lives. This
book is a story. It is my story. I share my own experiences
with navigating a new life in the world of the military. I was
wide-eyed, fearful, clueless and at several turns lacked the
appropriate wisdom and faith to find my way.

I’ve been on a quest to seek a better understanding of this
unique life while looking at it through the lens of my faith. I
discovered that I don’t need platitudes and trivial mottos. As
military spouses, sometimes what we need to read or hear is
that what we are experiencing is normal and that yes, we will
get through it. This is my wish for this book. Hear my stories,
share in my struggles, glean wisdom from my mistakes and
find hope.

While I can’t change my husband, the Army, tiring battle
rhythms, or countless other factors out of my control, I have
learned that the only one I can change is me. The only person
I can fully rely on is God. If I want a dynamic marriage and
partnership that is mission ready, I need to first examine
myself. If I want to thrive as a military spouse, I need to hold
up a mirror to my own actions and reactions.

As I have poured over dozens of books on the shelves of
libraries and bookstores here is what I have been looking for:
I have been looking for honesty. I have been searching
(sometimes frantically) for a current, unsentimental glimpse
into the real struggles of military life today.

We are a generation of military spouses who are long past
the decorum and antiquated customs of being silent
bystanders as dependents. We need more than slogans and
campaigns to keep ourselves, our families, and our marriages
strong. We need tools to help us navigate the course. We need
hope through our faith in Christ; a hope that is bigger and
greater than our nation and ourselves.

If you are a military spouse, I’d love to hear from you. My email can be found under the “about” page by clicking on the “contact” tab. Thank you for supporting Mission Ready Marriage.