I hope 2010 is a fantastic year for all of us!
God’s design for us never ends, did you know that? Jeremiah 1:5 reminds us of God’s deep commitment to us. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart,” says the Lord.
I know that we often ask why when we’re dealt a hard task or an uncomfortable season in our lives, like deployment or PCSing to a new location. You may even find yourself wishing you could just put life on hold, or at least sleep through it. Keep Reading
A military marriage isn’t easy. Fluctuating schedules, fluctuating priorities; changing goals, changing locations; time together, time apart, time trying to establish what was before.
It’s tough to find a balance some days when you’re married and in the military. And it can be easy sometimes to want to look over the proverbial fence to someone else’s life and wish for theirs.
I spent quite a bit of time this year counseling military wives dealing with troubled marriages. Some were struggling with issues of PTSD; others with infidelity. Still others were just having problems with communication. More than one wife blamed the military for it all. Keep Reading
For many, 2009 has been a hard year financially. Whether you’re active military or Guard/Reserve, with a steady paycheck or not, things cost more today than they did a year ago, and everyone has felt the pinch and the importance of cutting back.
Before Christmas, I struggled over the gift buying we were doing and found myself getting sucked into the “More, More” attitude, especially for our little boy. But then I ran across this verse, Hebrews 13:5 –
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
This is the quietest week of the year. At least it always is for me. The presents have been opened. The family gatherings have come and maybe gone. The new year is just around the corner. This is my time to reflect. This is my time to breathe.
2009 has been a hard year for many of us. The chances are good that if you’re a military wife reading this, you spent at least a little time with your husband away, whether it was for training, a school, or a full-blown deployment. You kept the ship sailing, the troops marching, and everything else from breaking down. You did it and you may be continuing to do it even as I write this but it hasn’t happened without its challenges. Nothing ever does. Keep Reading
As we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth tonight with Christmas Eve festivities and tomorrow on Christmas Day, I want to thank you, my readers, for the time you’ve spent with me this year.
Today’s the last day of the Wives of Faith blog carnival and we’re talking about Christmas wishes. So here is mine for you:
- I wish for you to find joy in the little things and patience in the difficult
- I wish for you happiness and endurance for when you’re not
- I wish for you peace in the knowledge that God will take care of it
- I wish for you love from your spouse, your children, your family and friends
- Above all I wish for you to truly know the love of Christ today, tomorrow and all year long.
Merry Christmas!
I don’t take my husband for granted at Christmas time because I know there’s always the chance he may not get to spend it with us next year.
I don’t take my house for granted this year; with our unemployment situation in its 18th month, I don’t assume we will always have it.
I don’t take my parents or my inlaws for granted this year. All of us are getting older and just hearing about other families who have lost loved ones this month, I’m reminded that we need to value the time we have with one another.
I don’t take the freedoms God has blessed us with in this country for granted. There seem to be too many attempts in recent years to take them away, and those efforts may one day succeed.
I don’t take for granted the opportunity I have to pray to and worship God: in my house, in my church, at the table in a restaurant before a meal. Knowing the persecution others are experiencing on a daily basis in other parts of the world to do these very things makes me grateful that I can and ashamed that I don’t do it more.
To read what other military wives think, visit Wives of Faith.
OK, so I was totally late on this carnival post today, but I was working on quite a bit of other stuff for Wives of Faith so I think I have a good excuse.
I did want to answer this topic though, because it’s so much fun. Most spouses work very hard to come up with great packages for their honeys when they’re overseas. I remember the Birthday-themed packages I sent in August to Cliff when he was in the desert, complete with water guns and battery-powered fans that were hooked up to water bottles, and the picture CDs I worked so hard on compiling, oh, and the DVDs I made of his favorite shows like Lost.
But one thing I’ve heard more than once from a wife is how nice it would be if her husband thought to send a care package HER way sometime. And it has a lot less to do with what’s inside it, then what it means: someone cares about you and thought of you enought to take the time to put together something just for you.
So here’s my list of what I think would be great as a military spouse care package (and the rules say no expense spared, so I am definitely dreamin’ here! 
)
- A gift card for a year of service from Molly Maids (HEAVEN!!)
- A recipe book for Cooking for Two or better yet, a dinner delivery service gift certificate!
- Bubble bath, a bath pillow and aromatherapy lotions and soaps
- A card that lets me know what a good job I’m doing keeping everything going while my husband is away. That kind of encouragement could last the rest of the deployment.
- A comfy set of pajamas complete with fuzzy slippers.
- Chocolate. Enough said!
- A gift card for a day at the spa. Another piece of HEAVEN!
- A movie pack of chick flicks to watch and think about nothing else.
- A magazine subscription to Real Simple or another great woman’s magazine.
- A Flower of the Month gift subscription so I can have a little beauty in my life each month.
What would you put in your military spouse care package? Read what other wives wrote at Wives of Faith.
It’s easy to get caught up in all of the commercial fuss of Christmas these days. When Christmas decorations and merchandising start showing up right next to the Halloween decorations in September, you know things have gone a little too far. The focus becomes on Stuff, instead of Someone. And yet that Someone is what Christmas is truly about.
Christmas means “Christ-birth.” I did a little research and the “mas” is from the Egyptian word “mes” which means “to be born.” Of course, at first when I thought of the word “mas” I thought of it as a Spanish word, which I thought meant “more.” It actually means “but.” I was wrong, but it did get me thinking. There are several verses in the Bible that offer the phrase, “but Christ.”
1. Cor. 15:20 – “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…”
Gal. 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…”
Col. 3:11 – “There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
Hebrews 3:6 – “But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house…”
To me, the “but” implies first rights. It’s a reminder we need to put Christ first, before the presents, before the family time, even before the holiday itself. What would it look like if we celebrated Christmas – Christ’s birth – 365 days a year, and not just during the month of December?
My pastor preached yesterday on Mary’s experience when the angel first appeared to her and told her what was about to happen. What an incredible example of following God’s will despite the fear, the uncertainty, the obstacles she faced.
As military wives, we can relate, can’t we, in a small way? No, we haven’t been tasked with being the mother of God, but we have been tasked to be mom to our own children (for those of us who are parents), we have been tasked as wives, and as God’s children. To me, the First Christmas represents an incredible gift God gave using incredible, but very normal, people to do His will. It’s a reminder to us that God uses those who are willing to say yes. It’s a reminder that He loved us so much He gave us the ultimate gift – He came down among us in a form we could relate to, giving us an example we could aspire to, and creating a path we could follow.
This post feels a little all over the place today, so sorry about that. It’s just some of my thoughts when it comes to the First Christmas. For more thoughts from military wives, visit Wives of Faith.
