Book: Your Marriage, God's Mission

Well, it’s book time again. Actually, in our house, it’s always book time. Here on the blog, I try not to overload you with them. Today’s book was provided as part of a blog tour for Kregel Publishers. They sent the book. I write the review. It’s that simple.

Today, we’re going to look at Your Marriage, God’s Mission by Clint and Penny A. Bragg. It’s 226-page book intended for use as a weekly devotional/study book for married couples. Available in paperback or Kindle e-book.

Overall, the aim here is to help married couples connect with God about their relationship and from there, connect better with each other. Sounds simple enough, right? But if you’ve been married longer than 48 hours, you may have encountered some of the challenges inherent in making that a reality. The Braggs want to help with that.

Clint Bragg served in the Army, and his experiences with military training shaped the structure of the book. First, the Braggs work through an introduction that is intended to see where you are, much like a first-day test at school or military induction. From there, the broad areas of the book cover “Basics,” “Planning,” “Hazards,” and “Checkpoints.” The idea is to move from broad concepts, assuming you are starting from scratch, and then progress forward.

Each section is broken into chapters to address subpoenas, and then within each chapter, you have discussion questions and a guided prayer. It’s a good structure, augmented by video clip testimonies. I understand the desire to communicate that you’re not alone in the daily work, but I really like my books to have all the information in them. Still, the book is more than excellent without the video clips. Which means that, in a few years when the web shifts over again, you’ll still get a good challenge even though the QR codes are dead.

I found the devotionals challenging and the questions more personal than I’m willing to blog about because those answers are for my wife and I. As such, I do highly recommend this book. Ann and I are going to take a much slower look at it across the next 19 weeks and truly consider the implications.

I would also say that, with some guidance, this might become something I work with in pre-marital education for young couples. I have some tools that are good for evaluation, but this will go well with them to help couples start right.