"That's a great idea--I would have never thought of that!" A young Army wife shared with me something she had done to help prepare her family for her husband's upcoming deployment. Before her husband left for Iraq she had taken a picture of him with their children in each room of the house, and then framed them for displaying. The house was filled with Dad’s presence—reminders of times when they were together. This wife knew that in the days and months ahead there would be moments when both she and the kids would wonder--is he really real? He feels so far away--he is so far away! But the pictures were there to bring back the memories of his presence in their everyday lives.

Some people know him as Chuck Swindoll, others as Charles Swindoll. But whichever name is more familiar to you, he’s a favorite. After pastoring a church in southern California for years, he returned to his native Texas and was president of Dallas Theological Seminary before founding Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco in 1998. But even before all of that he was a Marine. It’s his Marine stories that are always my favorite.

Do you know what “waiting on the Lord” looks like to me? For our first family trip since my husband returned from his second deployment to Iraq, we decided to visit a friend in Colorado Springs. This was to be an important visit—a tender one—as this friend’s husband had been killed during that first deployment. But it is a long drive from central Texas to Colorado Springs, and attitude means everything.

If the word “nothing” would lead us in Scripture to Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You,” and Luke 1:37, “For nothing is impossible with God,” . . . .then a search for the word “never,” in this paradoxically positive context, would lead us to: “I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have renewed my life.” — Psalm 119:92

From the blog of a soldier's wife, serving in Afghanistan: As I write this, winds continue to howl furiously throughout the woods in our backyard. The weather was expected to be severe late tonight, but as we drove home from dinner we were surprised to find ourselves driving into heavy rain and severe lightening. The severe weather had arrived much earlier than predicted. As we neared our home, we drove deeper and deeper into the severe storm that was passing through Georgia as it continued it's way North East.