ChristianMilitaryWives

After speed-reading to get to the last page (I wasn’t bored, I just couldn’t wait to find out what happened!), I have just finished reading A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin. Thanks, Baker Books, for my free review copy. I enjoyed every page! Here’s the synopsis:

Will a chance meeting in a time of war change her life forever?

Never pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother, Allie will do anything to gain her approval–even marry a man she doesn’t love. While Allie has nearly resigned herself to that fate, Lt. Walter Novak–fearless in the cockpit but hopeless with women–takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas.

Walt and Allie meet and begin a correspondence that will change their lives. As letters fly between Walt’s muddy bomber base in England and Allie’s mansion in an orange grove, their friendship binds them together. But can they untangle the secrets, commitments, and expectations that keep them apart?

Book 1 in the Wings of Glory series, A Distant Melody is an exciting and tender story of love, courage, and sacrifice during World War II.

I’m convinced that most of you reading this blog will enjoy this book. Here’s what I liked about it:

• It’s a love story, but it’s not sicky-sweet.
• It’s set during World War 2, so I think military wives/girlfriends of any generation will be able to relate to some part of the heroine’s journey
• It’s very thoroughly researched. I was so impressed with the level of detail in the descriptions of the Flying Fortress (B-17s), as well as life back home in California during the war. But don’t worry, it’s not dull, it’s fascinating.
• The characters grow and develop throughout the book- they are not flat characters by any stretch. They experience tough times and they make a few poor decisions, so they are fallable, approachable, and easy to relate to. But they’re also very, very loveable!
• The dialogue is perhaps the best I’ve ever read in a love story. It’s not cheesy. It’s actually witty, realistic and interesting. Every line mattered. (You can’t say that about every novel!)
• There is resolution at the end of the book. I was afraid there wouldn’t be when I noticed this is the first in a series. I was worried I’d get to the end and still be left hanging. But thankfully, the reader is definitely rewarded for getting to the last page, but there is much more story to be told, so I’m looking forward to the sequel!

For an excerpt, click here and click the button at the bottom of the screen that says “Download Now.”

If you are looking for a great "escape" novel and enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book! It's available at Amazon and all the other major online book retailers.

GOD + MILITARY SPOUSE UNITED OUR FAMILIES WILL STAND.  By Kathleen Cline

 
If you are looking to bring God into your marriage and strengthen your marriage, then this book is the place to start.  Every chapter ends with thought provoking and reflective questions about you and your marriage.  There are also Points to Ponder at the end of each chapter to help you reflect on how you react or respond in certain situations.  The end of the book has corresponding verses to study.  Kathleen Cline writes this book from experience as a military spouse.  She had dealt with the separations and hurdles that can be thrown at military spouses. 

            It doesn’t matter how long you have been married to your military man, this book will help you to reflect on your marriage and your reactions to the hurdles thrown at us.  Mrs. Cline stresses leaning on God and having faith, using scripture to get through the tough times and the assignments we may be less than thrilled about.  Mrs. Cline opens chapter three this way:

As Christians, we pray for God’s will in our lives.  This is what we are taught.  But do we mean it?  For Example, your husband is up for orders and you and your spouse start praying for guidance.  You look at your selections, pick out what looks best and make a choice.  All is well in your household.

Then the detailer calls and there is a change.  You are now going overseas, or worse yet, your husband is being deployed.  “No!” you scream.  “This is not fair.  My husband has gone twice already.  Look at him over there.  He has not gone at all.”  Sound familiar?  It should.  We do it every day with God.

We pray for His will, and when it comes, we cry because the path is too hard.  Somehow it does not fit into our schedule.  Sadly, we then do something that is so accepted in our Christian walk; we stall by praying.  This answer could not be correct, so you go and pray some more.  Understand, you are not praying for clarity, you are praying to get God to change His mind.  You tell everyone around you that you want God’s will, but you are doing everything in your power to get things changed.

I know that I have felt this way, acted this way and have prayed this way.  The only true peace I finally received, is when I accepted that this was God’s will, that he had a purpose for us, and that we would be where we were supposed to be.  This is a fabulous book that helps us to examine our feelings and rely on God to help us through those tough times.  The book covers the rollercoaster of our lives, from deployments to our own faith, and being representatives of God.

            The reflective questions truly have you reflecting on your responses and how you felt about them, many have more than one question per question!  Here are a few examples:

            What is your biggest fear?  Have you given it to God?  If no, then why not? (p. 22)

            What daily discipline do you practice to stay on God’s path? (p. 49)

            Have family and friends derailed you from your mission? Did you ask for advice or was it

            unsolicited? Have you ever given unsolicited advice? What was your motive?(p. 65)

You can use this book to strengthen your marriage, studying it by yourself, or you can use the book and study as a group, learning and supporting each other.  Either way it is a great way to bring God into your marriage to make it stronger and more fulfilling.

I love lists. I love to write them, I love to cross them off, and I love to read them. In fact, one of the first things I do whenever I pick up a book for the first time is flip through it and look for lists! They are scannable, usually very practical, and I can tell immediately whether or not the items are applicable to my life.

That's one of the major reasons I fell in love with Sue Augustine's Sanity Secrets for Stressed-Out Women (Harvest House Publishers 2009). Every chapter is full of lists, much to the delight of the time-starved, stressed-out women she is writing to! In fact, every chapter concludes with "Sanity Savers & Survival Hints." a summary in bulleted-list format.

I used one of her lists in a previous post this week. There are other lists for:

• seven truths about stress
• sources of stress
• stress symptoms checklist
• 10 instant relaxers
• 7 quick rechargers
• rational problem solving
• insightful problem solving
• time and scheduling stressors (and how to creatively problem solve!)
• 10 simple rules to take back your life

There's a lot more than that, too. But there's plenty of philosophical wisdom between the nuts-and-bolts practical application lists, too. Take this excerpt from the chapter, "Sanity Secret #8: Rethink Life Balance":

"The truth is that balance without flexibility is stressful and doesn't allow for the detours and surprises God gives us. We live in a crazy, unbalanced world. Our lives are rarely in perfect balance . . .

Still, leading a rich, well-rounded is essential to our sanity, inner peace, and enjoyment of life. In that sense true balance isn't necessarily what you do, but how you view life. . . A [good] way to measure balance is by the activities that leave us energized versus those that drain our energy. It's not a chore if you're washing dishes or making the bed while having meaningful interactions with your spouse. It wouldn't be a bothersome task to drive your kids to the soccer game while catching up on all that's happening in their world. Maybe you're stimulated when working on an article you're submitting to be published or energized by staying up late to prepare a gourmet dish for a dinner party tomorrow evening. Work that is rewarding and allows you to fulfill your true values and highest ideals is great. With that as part of your balance, life is pleasurable, and you'll feel energetic."

Even though I could easily pick and choose which parts of this book I read based on the chapter titles, I'm actually going to read this one all the way through. And for my stage of life, that's just about the highest compliment I can give to any book. Whether you make time to scim, scan or scour this book, I highly recommend adding Sanity Secrets for Stressed-Out Women to your library.

If you find yourself fighting a losing battle with fear, crack open Micca Campbell's new book, An Untroubled Heart: Finding a Faith that is Stronger than all my Fears.  While Micca is not a military wife, she knows what she's talking about when it comes to fear: as a twenty-one-year-old mother of an infant son, her husband was killed in a tragic accident.

An Untroubled Heart surprised me. At first glance, I noticed the many personal illustrations and examples from movies we've all seen and chalked it up as an easy, light read but nothing new to chew on. But with a closer look I discovered that tucked within all the stories are powerful truths that are suddenly easy to understand. I imagine that reading Micca's book is a lot like sitting with her over a cup of coffee, hashing out together what we can do with all the burdens that weigh us down. It's easy enough to read that I can do it during those thirty sleepy minutes before I turn out my light for the night-- and yet it's deep enough to change my life, if I let it.

Here's just a snippet from the third chapter, called "Fashioned for Faith--not Fear":

"It's easy to case my cares upon God. The hard part is not taking them back. When it appears to me that God is not paying attention to my needs, worry returns, and I feel the need to do something about it. . . .When you and I cast our cares on God, we are recognizing that it's His responsibility to care for us--not ours. At first, the weight is lifted, but oftentimes God doesn't respond to our need as we think He should. Then we are quick to retrieve the burden. We forget that God is painting on a large canvas. He sees the big picture. We only see what's happening to us at the moment. God may allow events to come into our lives--good things and bad things, things that make sense and things that don't. Every one of these incidents serves as part of His plan for our lives. What you and I may think is harmful, God is using for our good--to bring us to completion in godly conduct and character. He will allos nothing to happen to us that isn't first filtered through His screen of protection. In other words, what won't destroy us, God uses to better us. Ultimate harm would be if God left us in the state we are in."

The real power of this book, I believe, is in the Bible study portion that concludes each chapter. You'll be going back to the Old and New Testament, examining how biblical characters dealt with fear and exploring your own heart with reflective questions. Great for independent or group study.

One note of caution, however: if you're like me, you might read this book, and notice that every example of a fearful situation seems to pale in comparison to the fears a military wife faces (especially during deployment). Try not to dismiss the entire book just because it's written with civilian struggles in mind, like I almost did. We can all still learn a great deal if we can get past that little voice that says, "I have more to fear than just that." The principles of overcoming fear still apply.

Micca Campbell is a national speaker with Proverbs 31 Ministries, an organization that seeks to lead women into personal relationships with Christ. She was named Mother of the Year by ParentLife magazine in 2004. She and her husband Pat live with their three children in Nashille, Tennessee.