An ‘American Wife’ speaks
Taya Kyle, author and widow of ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle, will be guest speaker at an Arise Ministries’ fundraiser.
A well-known military wife and widow will share her testimony of faith at Arise Ministries’ “Grassroots and Cowboy Boots” fundraiser set for April 4 in Bricktown.
Guest speaker Taya Kyle said she is impressed with Arise Ministries’ mission to help single mothers raising children alone. Proceeds from the event will go toward programs and projects with that purpose.
Kyle, a Texas, mom of two and author of the book “American Wife,” is the widow of Chris Kyle, known from “American Sniper: the Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” a book and movie about his life and U.S. Navy Seal career.
Kyle, 42, recently discussed her book and new career as inspirational speaker in a telephone interview with The Oklahoman:
Q: What made you decide you had a story to share with others in you book “American Wife”?
A: Chris started with ”American Sniper.” There were other people writing a book about him, and he felt they were making him out to be something he wasn’t. He wanted to show that he was just like other people, that he was just as flawed, that type of thing. So after that we realized there was such a blessing in it (writing a book), better than we could have hoped for in healing for people and helping them know they weren’t alone. After he died, Jim DeFelice, the author who wrote “American Sniper” with Chris, agreed that I would just talk, and he would put the words on paper and in doing that, I could accomplish two things.
One was to answer the questions that a lot of people had about their life perspectives and to hopefully bless more people who needed to know that they aren’t alone. The book ended up being divided into four segments: love, war, faith and renewal. We found that men and women all experience those things in their lives at different times. It may not be the traditional battlefield, but we all have a struggle or battle that we are going to fight at different points in our life.
So it’s this revolving door of trying to find love and finding faith in something, having some battles or struggles to fight and then trying to seek that renewal. It’s not a one-time deal on any of them.
The other reason (for writing the book) was that there was so much more to Chris than a military person, and I think there’s so much more to our law enforcement and military. That’s one job that they’ve chosen to do, but there’s more to them as a person. I wanted to share more of that, too.
Q: How have you coped with the loss of your husband and what words of inspiration can you give to other women facing this difficult situation?
A: It’s been one of the most confusing things I’ve ever experienced. I think grief is something you can’t fully predict or understand even when in the midst of it. It’s very humbling in a way to resign yourself to knowing that you cannot just work harder, push through it more. You have to allow time to be time. It’s been a real learning experience for me. I like to push hard and fast and try to figure out how to get through, so that’s been an eyeopening experience.
I can tell you that one of things I’ve learned through struggle, is that faith continues to be more and more important. I continue to understand how the Bible applies to modern-day life in ways that I find fascinating. I think in some ways. I had a lot of faith but I don’t know if I knew the Bible or went to it to see how it applied to life today. If I was to give any advice it would be to find someone who knows how to apply the Bible to everyday life and who can go there with you. There’s a wealth of information there to help anybody, particularly with grief.