Kingdom Marriage Covenant: A Blueprint Designed God’s Way is by Patricia and Bobby Garland, a husband and wife writing together. It is independently published.
Two clarifications the old review needed. First, this is a marriage book, not a parenting book. The previous version described it as “rooted in Scripture and real-life fatherhood” and part of your “faith-based parenting journey.” It is about a husband and a wife. Second, do not confuse it with Tony Evans’ well-known Kingdom Marriage, which is a different book by a different author.
The idea in the title
The organizing distinction is covenant versus contract, and it is the right place to start.
A contract is conditional. Both parties perform, and if one stops, the other is released. Most marriages operate on contract terms without anyone admitting it: I will keep doing my part as long as you keep doing yours.
A covenant is not that. It is a binding promise that does not depend on the other person’s performance. The Garlands’ argument is that Scripture treats marriage as the second kind, and that a great deal of ordinary marital misery comes from two people who said covenant words at a wedding and have been running a contract ever since.
That is a genuinely useful frame, and it does not require agreeing with everything else in the book.
What else is in it
The old review listed sections on God’s vision for marriage and on prayers for husbands and wives. Those are plausible given the book’s shape, but I could not independently verify the chapter structure, the page count, or the reflection prompts and family discussion questions it claimed. Check the Amazon preview before buying it for a group.
Worth knowing: the Garlands also publish a companion, Kingdom Marriage Covenant: A Marriage Counseling Manual, aimed at people doing the counseling rather than receiving it. If you are a pastor or mentor rather than a husband working on his own marriage, that is likely the one you want.
Honest notes
This is self-published, so there was no outside editorial or theological review. That is not disqualifying and plenty of worthwhile books arrive this way. It does mean you are relying on the authors alone.
The old review also described a team, including a member who had a bedtime conversation with his child and another who started a family prayer tradition from the book. There was no team and none of that happened. Removed, along with the broken markup the post opened with.
Where CalledToBetter stands
A book offering a blueprint for marriage designed God’s way is making claims about how a marriage should be ordered. Our position is that men and women are equal in worth and dignity before God, and that Scripture describes distinct roles for them, without our defining those roles past what the Bible plainly says. Where the Garlands go further than that, weigh it against the text rather than accepting it because the book is confident.
Who should read it
A husband who suspects he has been running his marriage on contract terms. Couples wanting something short to work through together. The covenant framing is the reason to pick it up.
Skip it if you want a heavily edited book from an established publisher, or if your marriage is in real crisis, which needs a counselor rather than a paperback.
Kingdom Marriage Covenant on Amazon