ChristianMilitaryWives

Being military spouses, we hear the word hero thrown around often.  We are referred to as hero's wives or as heroic families.  In many ways, it's flattering.  I love walking through an airport or other crowded place with my husband while he is in uniform, provided he's not boarding a plane to leave again.  I can't help but smile when people stop him to shake his hand and tell him how thankful they are for what he is doing with his life.  I feel that little surge of pride just like other wives in my position do.  However, as wonderful as i think my husband is and as proud of him as I am, he's just a man.  Peter said in Acts 26 "I'm a man and only a man, no different from you."  He was so right.  My husband , and yours, is just a man.  I think mine is fantastic, but I won't be washing his dirty feet and drying them with my hair any time soon.  Nor will I be sitting at those feet hanging on every word he says.  There is only one set of feet I want to be sitting at and paying that much attention to, Jesus.   He is our only hero.  It's so easy in this day and age to "worship" other "hero's" and celebrities.  We buy their movies, go to their games, watch them on tv, flip out when we meet them.  (if we are so fortunate) We put these mere mortals on pedastals.  In Hebrews 3, God reminds us that Jesus is greater than any man.  He was sent here as a man on this earth to live a perfect flawless life and then to die a horrendous death for US.  He counts us as his children, part of his house, the house that HE built.  He reminds us that while we are PART of his house, we are not the BUILDER of his house.  HE is the builder.  We are to worship HIM and only him.  The next time I am with my husband and I feel that surge of pride when he is called a hero, I'm going to do my best to remind myself that he's only a man, and God is the ONLY hero.   

We all know that Lent is the beginning of the Easter season.  Lent is the 40 day period of preparation for Easter and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Ash Wednesday starts the season of Lent. During Lent many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.  Not all Christians observe Lent the same way.  I felt this year a great need to revisit Lent and what it means to me.  In past years I have gone through the motions, not really observing a period of anything. 

Let’s start with some soul searching reflection.  I was raised Catholic.  This meant that Lent was a big big deal, full of ritual in my parental home.  We always attended mass on Ash Wednesday to receive our ashes and wore them as a tattoo on our foreheads the rest of the day, often getting some in our eyes, when scratching our foreheads, forgetting the ashes were there.  Every Friday we abstained from eating any meat, this often meant having pizza because my mother was allergic to fish.  We were also expected to give up something for the season of lent.  Many of us went to the old stand-bys of not swearing, or giving up candy or getting along with our siblings and not disrespecting or talking back to our parents. 

Now, I really need to be honest, while growing up I truly believed in God and knew that he was there for me, but, the rituals of the Catholic Church were just things that I said and did, I didn’t really “feel” it.  As a teenager, after making my confirmation, I rebelled against the Church.  I still believed in God, but…well that’s a whole other subject to get into.  To make a long story short, after meeting my husband I began attending his church, which was Methodist, and finally felt like I was “home.”  The services were familiar enough to me, but also different enough for me to feel the freedom of my relationship with God.  However, the church we were attending did not have a strong Lenten season.  Now, by this I mean, they did not openly talk about abstaining and fasting in the way that I grew up hearing and seeing.  This did not make it wrong, but for my new relationship with God, I ended up ignoring that fasting and abstaining, when in reality I really needed it.  I don’t know how I figured this out, but recently it struck me that I need to go back to my “roots” in some ways to strengthen my relationship with God.  One of those ways is to more fully embrace the Lenten Season, to appreciate what was given up for me, the sacrifices made for me, and the love that is constantly there for me from God.

There are several instances in the Bible that tell us that fasting is a way to worship God.  There are also instances in the Bible that tell us to do something that glorifies God.  Matthew 3: 8 says, “Do something to show that you have really given up your sins.”  This can mean abstaining, fasting, tithing, whatever you feel is necessary and right to glorify God and show that you have given up your sins.  We are challenged today by God, as people have always been, to substitute empty religion for true spirituality.  This is something that we should be constantly working on and growing in.  Attendance at church, reading your Bible, praying and sharing our faith need to be joined with a way of life that consists of integrity and Christ-like character, otherwise, they are just empty rituals that can lead us down the wrong path, away from God.

The days leading up to Jesus being crucified were painful days for him.  He was forsaken by His disciples, He was taunted by non-believers, He was beaten and mocked, and crucified.  During Lent, isn’t it wise for us to show Him how thankful we are that He died for us?  To save us?  Romans 8: 16-17 says; “God’s Spirit makes us sure that we are His children.  His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised.  We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with Him.” 

Our suffering is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered for us, but can’t we fast on occasion to glorify him, or abstain from our worldly obsessions and dalliances?  In the scope of things, 40 days is not a long period of time, but we can use these days to show God that we are repentant for our sins, and that we are thankful for Him giving us His son to suffer for all of our sins.  The Christians of the world were saved from our sins when Jesus died for us, it was a new beginning for us. 

This Lenten season, I am going to abstain and fast so that I can begin the “new year”, free from my sins, glorifying God for the gift that was given to us when Jesus was crucified, died and was resurrected. I am looking forward to becoming closer to God in my walk, and I am looking forward to using Lent to show God how thankful I am for the sacrifices that were made for me, and how sorry I am for my sins. 

I urge you to take sometime and reflect on what the Lenten Season means to you.  Are you glorifying God?  Are you showing Him that you are truly repentant for your sins?  Did His only Son die in vain, or are you thankful for the sacrifice that was made for you so that you may also rise to Heaven?  Lent begins on February 17^th, what can Lent do for you?  Will you rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus and cleanse your sins to begin anew?

I  had the pleasure of interviewing a dear friend of mine, Sue Gallogly, on our show last Friday. Sue was raised as a military dependent, and later she married and lost her husband in the Vietnam war. After becoming a Gold star wife of the Vietnam war, Sue later remarried another man in the military and now has two sons in the military who have been through several deployments. 

Even as a young child Sue was a believer in Jesus, but she also was covered over in fear, doubt and insecurities. Instead of taking her fears, doubts and insecurities to the Lord she took food and used it to comfort her and fill in the empty places.

Sue "dieted" her way to 280 pounds. At a point of desperation she reached out and found a 12-step program that helped her to deal with her addiction to food. She lost 110 pounds in 9 months and has kept it off for more than 13-years. 

Sue is willing to personally talk to any woman from CMW who fears she may have an addiction to food. For more information listen to the show ("listen" tab at the top - show is hunger and thirst for righteousness) and then email me at claire@christianmilitarywives.com  with your questions for her or indicate that you would like to talk with Sue personally.
 

I wanted to share something that hit me while in Church yesterday. One of the verses the Pastor quoted was Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for the good for those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (NIV). He read that verse and then made the comment that not all things that happened to us would be good but that God would use them for good.
Wow!
Ok, so I basically tuned out for a few minuets after he said that ( sorry Pastor Brinker!) because I had to look a bit more closely at that verse. The KJV says this "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Now, the sermon yesterday was how pivotal circumstances could grow your faith and the Pastor used the death and resurrection of Lazarus as his example and he talked about how Lazarus died so that others would believe in God.
Again, WOW!!!
Now, this is one of those verses that you here Christians quote all the time, especially to other Christians who may be going through difficult times or questioning what God is doing in their lives. I myself have actually avoided quoting this verse to others or to myself because I felt like it was saying that good should always come to me just because I love God and we all know that just because we are saved by grace doesn't mean our lives are magically easy.
So, as I looked more closely at the words in this verse and thought about what Pastor Brinker said it just hit me- anything that happens in our lives, good, bad, or ugly, God can use it for good because we love Him.

• All things - This means the good that happens in our lives as well as the painful and the bad
• Work together for good - This means that God is going to use the things that happen in our lives for good; the good of growing your faith or the good of bringing others to Christ
• To them that love God - God does this because we love Him and we are called to His purpose which is to bring others to Christ

God didn't promise us an easy life when we decided to follow Him and in John 16:33 he says "....in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." NIV

In Romans 5: 3-5 we see that we should "...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." NIV

I now have a better understanding of this verse and will not think of it as the pat answer to a Christian suffering but as the reason that suffering happens, for God's good, for our good even though when your going through trials you don't see how there can be any good that can come out of it and yet this verse assures us that the things in our lives aren't just random happenings with no meaning or purpose and that makes me feel better.

But I still don't like the bad things!

FYI! From Armylive.dod I will be printing the full reoport and will write up an article about it in detail next week. 

**********

Impact of Multiple Deployments on Children

The new reality of repetitive deployments has led to innovative programs and policies designed to assist military children in dealing with the difficulties of deployments.  Initiatives—ranging from “flat daddies” replacing deployed soldiers at the dinner table, to senior leaders ceremoniously signing the Army Family Covenant at installations across the world, to the First Lady proposing nearly $9 billion to support military families—point to the growing concern that multiple deployments may be as stressful to Army children as they are to soldiers.  Despite the increased attention and seemingly endless resources directed at children in deployed families, however, there has been very little research examining the effects of multiple deployments on children.

In March of 2009, Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras from the U.S. Army War College began a two-phase study to examine the effects of multiple deployments on Army adolescents.  The first phase, collected through an online survey, evaluated the perspectives of over 2,000 soldiers, 700 spouses, and 500 Army children between 11 and 17.  The second phase collected the views of over 100 Army adolescents through individual interviews at 8 Army installations throughout the U.S. 

As expected, they found that strong families—to include a non-deployed spouse who coped well with deployments—as well as ample activities such as sports to keep Army youngsters busy serve to reduce stress levels of Army adolescents during a deployment.  Surprisingly, they also found that the attitudes of Army children play a role in dealing with deployment stress and coping with a life of deployments.  Children who believed that soldiers are making a difference in the world and that the American public supported the war were significantly more likely to report that they were coping better with deployments.  The study highlights the often overlooked impact of attitudinal factors such as the influence of public opinion concerning the war and the importance—in a life marked by multiple deployments—of an adolescent’s confidence that their parent’s call to duty is worth the sacrifice.

For a free download of the full study, please visit the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute website:http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=962. 

Get free, professional help and filing services at Military OneSource. Below is the information you need to start your tax filing claim today.

***************

Military OneSource Tax Filing Services

Military OneSource brings you H&R Block At Home® (formerly TaxCut) online tax filing through the Military OneSource Web site and telephonic tax consultations by calling our tax hotline at 1-800-730-3802. Prepare your 2009 state and federal taxes with this easy-to-use program. Provided by the Department of Defense, H&R Block At Home® is and free to active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service members and their families. Have questions? See our FAQs.

Tax consultants are available 7 days a week from 7 am – 11 pm ET by calling the Military OneSource Tax Hotline at 1-800-730-3802.

Please Note – You must use the link on the Military OneSource Web site to access our customized product and create your account. Do not go to the public H&R Block Web site to create a user account.

 

        Challenges for women come in many forms, especially when a spouse is deployed.  Sometimes they come in the form of illness – the children, you or even the pets can become ill and provide challenges for a spouse at home.  Sometimes, they come in the form of broken things – vehicles, appliances, toilets, the toy of a preschooler, the heart of a teenager or any other myriad of things can stop working as they were intended to function.  Sometimes those challenges can come in the form of little furry rodents called mice.

        When I first began to notice little holes in bags of food in my pantry, I wondered if I had picked up a damaged item at the commissary.  Then I noticed the little holes had jagged edges to them and the food inside the bags also had little jagged pieces missing.  Finally, I discovered little dark pellets around the pantry that let me know there were creatures having a party with my food every night and this time, they were not teenagers.  Mice!

        After cleaning and throwing away more food than I care to think about, I headed out to the store for some assistance.  I bought what looked to be fairly humane traps that would allow for the capture and disposal of mice without me ever having to touch or see them.  Carefully, I set the traps around, anxious to have my problems contained for easy disposal.  But the mice who had decided to party in my pantry apparently snickered behind their little whiskers at my vain attempts, and the traps remained undisturbed – unlike the food in my pantry.  I decided to replace the traps with packaged poison that was supposed to be very enticing to little rodents, but once again, my photo apparently ended up in the editorial section of “Mice Times” with the words “Who is she kidding?” under my picture.  My poison packages remained untouched, but I lost another bag of hot dog buns.  My father even gave me blocks of poison that had produced multiple dead rats around his bird feeders when he had a rodent problem, but every night the mice return to chew on the poison while none of them turn up dead, at least not in my house.  They just keep coming back for the party.

        So what is a woman to do?  I am so glad that you asked. 

        I honestly believe my mice are very symptomatic of so many other large and small challenges in my life and the lives of many women.  It really isn’t about the mice.  It rarely is about whatever challenge life may deal us at even given moment.  It is about my response.

        This is typical of my process when things in life are a struggle, though the order of events changes depending on where my heart is resting at the time.   I cry out to God, “Please deliver me!” I work very hard at finding my own answer.  I look to see God bring deliverance.  And here is the reality in my life – sometimes, deliverance from my challenge does not come. 

        So what does my response look like in those times?  What if my challenge continues, sometimes even increasing in difficulty?  Oh sweet sisters, I think so often God desires not to catch the mouse, but to calm the mouse catcher.  How often does my Father long for me not to know deliverance, but instead to know my Deliverer?  For in those days when I do not see deliverance from my challenge, I have an opportunity to know my Deliverer more deeply.  To seek His face.  To look for His strength.  To depend on His love. To be the place where I take refuge.

He is my loving God and my fortress,

My stronghold and my deliverer,

My shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Psalm 144:2 (NIV)

       

So what is your challenge today?  What are the mice in your pantry?  Do the heavens seem silent?  Are you weary in waiting for deliverance?  Stop.  Breathe deeply.  Know your Deliverer and take refuge in Him. 

  This week I finished a car seat cover for Sugar, this one is made out of 2 layers of flannel for cold days. ( Which we have plenty of...at this moment it is 1 degree outside) I will sew a summer version in the Springtime.
To make your own cover I recommend using one of the following tutorials:

Hippos and Dinosaurs

A Wednesday Afternoon

Make To Do

Have a blessed weekend!
Melanie

A Note From Give An Hour: