Over the weekend I had a chance to hear from a few different reserve/NG wives thanking me for some of the advice/encouragement I’d given on the different boards/forums I visit.
It feels good knowing that something I said helped someone else. It feels even better knowing that something good came out of the time we spent during this past deployment.
Deployments are tough, as anyone who has gone through one, will tell you. But I firmly believe that God doesn’t bring us through these trials just by accident. There are a few reasons we go through these challenges….
One reason is that if things were perfect all the time, what would remind us that we need God? It’s only by Him being in our lives that we can enjoy the great instead of the good. And it’s only by dealing with the challenges we face as military wives that we are forced to rely not just on ourselves but on Him. That’s when He shines the most, when we can do the very least. That’s when we see Him for who He is – our Protector, our Helper, our Strength, our Defender.
It’s also through those hard times, that once on the other side, hopefully we’ve learned something. We’ve seen a new glimpse of God in a new way we hadn’t before.
My hope is we can share that with others at some point along the way. That we don’t just let those tough experiences stay in the past, but we bring them with us to the present so we can help others who are experiencing the same thing. I think that is very much God’s intention: for us to encourage others and remind them they are not alone.
I think that’s what Jesus did; He came to Earth as a man to be an example to us all. And remind us we’re not alone.
So if you are going through a rough patch right now; maybe you’re in the middle of a deployment that seems like it will never end, maybe you’re struggling in your marriage or in your family or with a hormonal teenager – whatever trial you’re facing, let me encourage you to not give up but press in to God and ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn from all of this. And then be ready to pass those lessons on to someone else.
When you’re handed a trial, look for the blessing. It’s there, for you and for others you’re meant to help.
For You meet him with the blessings of good things… - Psalm 21:3
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