Blue Star moms

[[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"796", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft size-full wp-image-1073", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"204", "height":"336", "alt":"FaithDeployedAgain_cover204"}}]]Welcome to the Faith Deployed...Again online book club, Day 21! (Not sure what this is all about? Click here.) Today is our final day of book club! In Your Book: Before we begin, please turn in your copy of Faith Deployed...Again to page 240 and read "Wait Training" by Kathy Guzzo. (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 military wives can also apply the truths found here. Now Let's Talk: Today's discussion is led by Kathy Guzzo. We're getting close to January, the month of resolutions and one topic we hear a lot about is losing weight and getting healthier. We’re told that to accomplish optimum health, we need to eat better, and exercise to increase our stamina, to tone our muscles and strengthen our hearts. Many people each year make this their goal. However, most of them don’t realize that a huge part of training is the waiting to see results. So when they don’t immediately see changes they tend to get discouraged. The same is true in our Christian lives. When God’s answer to our prayer is ‘wait’, we lose hope. We don’t want to hear that our unanswered prayers may be God training us, or that our faith will grow stronger because of the wait. “Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.”~ John Ortberg [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1102", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-full wp-image-2453", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"347", "height":"346", "alt":"Grandma"}}]]When our son enlisted in the Marines, I had no idea that waiting would become part of the mixture of everyday emotions. It first became apparent during boot camp when I waited daily for contact from him. But I learned later that waiting was minimal compared to the waiting I endured when he was deployed. Because of his unit’s mission, we knew we wouldn’t have much contact with him but on his 2nd deployment, other than a quick email saying he had arrived, we had no contact with him at all for the first 53 days. It was agonizing. My heart needed more than just to know he was okay; I needed to hear his voice. During this time of silence I prayed earnestly, but God’s answer was ‘wait’. As I said in Wait Training when God’s answer is “wait”, I need to remember that waiting for God’s timing allows His perfect plan to fully develop and not be short circuited by impatience. I’ve always hated waiting so I had to choose to allow God to strengthen me while I painstakingly awaited news during my son’s deployments. I held on to God’s promises especially Isaiah 40:31 “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles.” These words encouraged me when the waiting seemed overwhelming and I felt depleted of all energy. During those long days and even longer nights, I cried out to God from the depths of my soul. At first in the majority of my prayers I asked for peace, hope and the strength to endure the unknowns and uncertainties of my son’s deployment. Then gradually I noticed the focus of my prayers shifted to praising Him for who He is, and His plan for my life as well as my son’s Also, since I’m a visual learner, something I’ve always done is to write out Bible verses on sticky notes and put them in obvious places throughout the house. During my son’s enlistment I made sure the verses were focused on trusting Him. Reading and reciting these verses throughout the day helped me focus on Him. I realize now that both praying and meditating on verses were part of my training to increase my faith. “If any are inclined to despond, because they do not have such patience, let them be of good courage. It is in the course of our feeble and very imperfect waiting that God Himself, by His hidden power, strengthens us and works out in us the patience of the great saints, the patience of Christ Himself.” ~ Andrew Murray Possibly you’re a mom in a state of despair over life. You may feel you’re always waiting for God to answer your prayers. Not just your prayers for your child’s safety, but prayers for joy to replace despondency, hopes to replace fear, or your prayers relating to health and finances. Believe me, I’ve waited for answers to all of the above, and I assure you that He’s listening and because he loves you, he will answer your prayer in the way that he knows is best. You will eventually see that his answer will fulfill his perfect plan for your life as well as that of your military child. Allow your time of waiting to be your time to strengthen and train your heart, soul and mind to be closer to Him. Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.” Discuss: In what area of your life are waiting for an answer from God? What training can or do you do to strengthen your faith to keep the waiting from overwhelming you? Share with us a Bible verse that helps you when God’s answer is ‘wait.’ Thank you all so much for joining us in the Faith Deployed...Again online book club! I hope you've been encouraged during these last several weeks. May you have a truly blessed Christmas!

[[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"796", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft size-full wp-image-1073", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"204", "height":"336", "alt":"FaithDeployedAgain_cover204"}}]]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 [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1100", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-medium wp-image-2447", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"200", "height":"300", "alt":"momcomfortsdaughter"}}]]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.