What Would It Look Like . . . ?

So here’s the question: What would it look like if a Christian couple chose to face military life as an opportunity to exhibit and demonstrate Christ-likeness under all circumstances. . . even deployment? What would it look like if they faced the challenges of “constant schedule changes, the times of transition, the long periods of waiting, (for orders, housing, homecomings, etc.) the many uncertainties concerning deployments, the long periods of single-parenting, the long ‘silent’ periods during separations, the months spent ‘camping out’ at each new location, the adjustments of each family member at new homes, schools, and working environments” (Footsteps of the Faithful, p. 11) totally relying on God to meet their needs, strengthen and comfort them, in order to be able to finish strong? It would look like the McColl family, as shared in the book Footsteps of the Faithful, subtitled “Victorious Living and The Military Life.”

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Philippians 4:8 For Marriage

You would think after writing and editing Excellent or Praiseworthy since 2007, that I would have read, heard or thought about everything to be learned from Philippians 4:8 ... But in 2014, I was challenged by teaching I had never considered. That is taking Philippians 4:8 into one of the most normal, everyday struggles of marriage—conflict between husband and wife.

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St. Patrick’s Day

No doubt you associate March 17th each year as St. Patrick’s Day, as I do. For as long as I can remember, the date set aside to celebrate St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, has been a day dedicated to the wearing of green, to decorating with leprechauns and shamrocks, and to holding parades in locations where many Irish have settled. But little did I know that March 17th is also a holiday because of a military victory.

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Follow-Up to “Identity Crisis”

“Identity Crisis” is a long devotion—one of the longest we have posted.  Knowing your ops tempo we are surprised when the numbers come in as to its popularity.  That speaks to us of the need for spiritual material dealing with growth during deployment, and we are grateful to God.We were already planning on a follow-up piece using JJ Heller’s “What Love Really Means.”  So we post it tonight with joy and anticipation for how God is going to use it to affirm you in your spiritual walk with Him during this time of war:

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These Two Things I Know

I was with military wives, studying Beth Moore’s “Living Beyond Yourself”, when I heard Beth speak these words on the video, “These two things I know from Psalm 62—that God is strong, and that He is loving.” I immediately opened my Bible to read that psalm and get the context to that passage. . . because the simplicity, truth, and power of it cut right to my heart. During my quiet time the next day, I re-read Psalm 62 and “feasted” on the beautiful words of truth in verses 11 and 12: “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that You, O God, are strong, and that You, O Lord, are loving.” As I pondered God’s demonstration of His love and His strength in my life, I was reminded of the song that I had just been singing the week before with my little granddaughter. You know it, and it goes like this: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”

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The Presidents’ Wives

Growing up in Minnesota in the 1950s, February always meant two days off from school because of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th and the celebration of George Washington’s birthday on February 22nd. But sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s dates shifted—and what I had experienced as two “for-sure” days off became one “iffy” day off on a Monday—to celebrate “Presidents’ Day.” But there is an interesting aspect of these two presidents that our history books typically miss--the role of their wives and marriages in their leadership and presidencies.

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“Wax On, Wax Off”

What is God training you for during this deployment? Does it feel like loneliness and frustration? Does it feel like so much “wax on, wax off”(mission preparations?). . . . . "sand the floor” (take care of the kids?). . . . “up, down” (pay the bills?). . . . “side to side” (month after month?). . . .and in the midst of all of that you cannot see what God is doing? Is it only when it is over that you can look back and see how God is putting it all together—and you have learned patience, grace, wisdom, discernment, perspective, endurance, self-control, perhaps forgiveness . . . in other words, character?

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