Welcome to the Faith Deployed...Again online book club, Day 19! (Not sure what this is all about? Click here.)
In Your Book: Before we begin, please turn in your copy of Faith Deployed...Again to page 232 and read "Letting Go" by Donna Mull. (If you don't have a book, don't go away! We'd love to have you join us for this discussion anyway!) This devotion and blog post fall under the "Blue Star Mom" category, but I'm sure a military wife would also be able to apply the truths found here. Now Let's Talk: Today's discussion is led by Sharron Carrns. After being a mom for twenty-seven years I have come to realize that we begin the process of letting go of our children from the moment they are conceived. With each cell that multiplies, and each tiny finger and toe that forms our bodies are preparing our babies to be born to live their own lives. We let them go when we give birth and the cord is cut. We let them go when they take their own first steps. We let them go when we send them off to their first day of school, and their first camp, and their first date, and their graduation. I cried and prayed and cherished every one of those days. But I never expected to have to trust God completely with my little girl serving in the Army during a time of war. There is a beautiful song by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir called "Still I Will Trust You." The words of this song have sustained me through many days as a mom. It first came to be a gift from God as I lay on complete bed-rest, fighting to keep from losing my second baby girl, who is now a teenager. I would wake in the night with the words of the song playing over and over in my mind…
"Still I will trust You. Still I will follow. Still I will listen to Your every calling. While the storm rages on and I can't find my way, still I will trust You Lord.”
The storm began raging a little over a year before basic training. Our daughter had her own faith from the time she was young. Everything seemed to be going according to our hopes and prayers. But that first year of college she began to struggle. The boyfriend who shared her faith broke her heart. Some childhood experiences we never knew about began to surface. Free to make many of her own choices now that she had left home, she decided she’d tried it God’s way and it hadn’t worked out as she hoped. She was going to try it her own way. Partying started. Grades slipped. Bills mounted. And an angry girl we scarcely knew emerged. Our pastor advised us to remove the safety net. Shortly after, the storm that was now raging took her to Iraq where she was the only woman in her unit. With this girl I was not flat on my back with bed-rest. Instead, I was flat on my face on the floor, crying out to God, “Still I will trust You. Protect her. Be relentless in Your pursuit of her. Open her heart and her ears to hear Your voice.” I asked God to protect her and let her know He was the only one who could help and sustain her. One Sunday, in the midst of it all, a friend told us she felt God was asking her to come to our home and pray with us for our daughter. We told her to come. At the end of our prayer time she said, “It may sound funny, but I think the work of Corrie ten Boom will be instrumental with your daughter.” The very next time we heard from our daughter she was crying on the phone, saying, “Mom, God stripped everything away from me but Him. I’ve been so lonely. There’s not even another woman here to talk to. I went into the MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation) and decided to get a book. The first book I saw was that book you read me when I was little by Corrie Ten boom, about being in the presence of her enemies." We knew in that moment God was showing us we could trust Him through the rest of this storm and any storms that followed. We are an Army family. My husband, father, father-in-law, nephew, son-in-law and daughter have served this country while the rest of us “served” alongside them. The best service we ever gave was founded in prayer and trust in God. Still, I have searched my heart and wondered what I would do if baby girl number two, or our only baby boy, or the grandchild we are now expecting announced they were joining the Army. I can say I would be proud. And that our family commitment to this country is a legacy that goes on. I also know in my heart I would be as helpless as I felt with our first daughter. But helpless is the best place I can be, because it is a place of trust and dependence on the heavenly Father of my children. It was the only place of peace in the long year our daughter was in Iraq. Still, I will trust Him. He is the only help in all of my helplessness. He was with her before Iraq, He was with her in Iraq, and He came home with her from Iraq – in her heart.
Discuss: 1. Psalm 121:1-2 says, “I lift my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” What words can you use to ask God to help you as you entrust your son or daughter to Him today? 2. How has God shown you that you can trust Him in the past? 3. The Psalms are full of heartfelt prayers and affirmations of trust. Read and claim in your heart Psalm 121:1-2 (see above), Psalm 9:10, and Psalm 20:7 (see below).
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. ~Psalm 9:10 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. ~Psalm 20:7
*For more from Sharron, read "God, My Soldier's Parent" on p. 244 of Faith Deployed...Again.
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