With all the rain we’ve had around here lately, my eight-year-old has been asking questions. “How much rain does it take to make a flood? Do you remember when the streets became rivers? Can anyone die from a flood? How do I not drown?” Patiently, I answer each one, because I remember very clearly when the river seven blocks from our house flooded so severely that we evacuated our home and headed for higher ground. (Our house was spared, thankfully, but thousands were not.)
“The way to not drown,” I tell her, “is to stay above the water.” “Get in a boat?” She offers. I nod, and visions of flood victims being rescued from their homes wash over me. My heart catches in my throat.
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. ~Psalm 69:1-2
Life has its own storms. We can feel powerless and out of control. How do we stay afloat during these tumultuous times when circumstances batter us? We need to stay in—or get in—a lifeboat. That lifeboat, of course, is the truth of God’s Word. Truth does not make life trial-free, just like a boat doesn’t make the floodwaters recede. But it does buoy us and carry us through. Since this is Military Family Appreciation Month, I’d love to share with you three truths that I've noticed sustaining women during the Civil War—arguably our nation’s stormiest era in history. While researching for my Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War fiction series, I have delved into the diaries of real women who endured unfathomable hardship. Whether they were north of the Mason-Dixon line or south of it, they waged their own battles against near-paralyzing fear or sorrow. Some women came out victorious. And some succumbed. Those who lived with faith and courage weathered their storms by clinging to truths that apply to all of us today, as well. We are in good hands. Psalm 31:5 says, “My times are in your hands.” It’s a truth Mary Custis Lee, wife of General Robert E. Lee took to heart, even after the war ended. When a well-meaning journalist called her husband’s death untimely, she fired back with her own pen: “We must not deem that untimely which God ordains. He knows the best time to take us from this world; and can we question either His love or wisdom?” We are not confined by our own limits. Every one of us, at some point, has felt as though we simply couldn’t go on. That whatever was pressing down on us was far too heavy for us to shoulder. Sarah Broadhead, a Gettysburg housewife, certainly felt this way as she emerged from hiding in the cellar for three days of battle. Never one to stomach the sight of blood, she rolled up her sleeves and help nurse as many of the 24,000 casualties as she could. I’ll never forget her quote: “We do not know, until tried, what we are capable of.” With Christ, we can do all things (Philippians 4:13). We are on a journey, and it doesn’t end in the valley. “Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). One of the biggest fears we deal with is that we will never be OK again. That our world has been broken in a way that can never be fixed. But God’s word says otherwise. The night may feel endless, but dawn is on the way. Joy comes in the morning. Psalm 23:4 says that we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We don’t pitch a tent and camp out in it. We are moving through it. And God is with us, for there can be no shadow without the presence of Light. I’m inspired every time I consider the depth of faith and courage demonstrated by women during the Civil War—and by military families today. Are you struggling to keep your head up right now? Dwell in these truths, and let them carry you through the storm. There are more than three truths that keep us afloat. Which truths do you cling to?
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