Times of Ministry While Training

When I received these pictures via email yesterday, and saw the smile on his face, I felt such peace about us being apart. I'm not saying it's easy and I like it or anything; I'm just saying I love that he is there for the soldiers and ministering to them. God put him in this ministry for a reason, and I'm learning more and more to lean on God and trust that what we are doing is for His kingdom and His glory. He's the one smiling! (haha) In the picture below they are taking supplies to some of the soldiers and going to visit them.Yes, that means he got to ride in a Blackhawk Helicopter! I figured out those are his goggles on his head, covered to keep all the dust off of them I guess. It kind of looks like a [brown] smurf hat.Here he's having a service for his soldiers right where they are. I love seeing pictures like this!!

Here he's taking a little break or something with his assistant. For those who don't know, chaplains don't carry a gun...so, yes, I do a lot of praying for his assistant with the upcoming deployment! Actually, there's someone much bigger who has his back - God!!That's my man! (Even though I didn't recognize him when he first sent the picture...It was his hand with the wedding band that I recognized first.)

I sure love him and miss him!

A Renewed Heart

Over the last few days I've done a lot of reflecting, and what I discovered is this:

- I allowed other things to creep in and distract me from the most important relationship ever, my relationship with Christ!
- I allowed the weight of "my world" to fall on my shoulders and was not giving it to God.
- I was allowing things that I have no control over (like the upcoming deployment of my husband) to control me and get the best of me.
- I was not growing.
- I was not focused on anything significant or eternal...and so on.

But...PRAISE GOD...He did not leave me. He used a book on a shelf, while I was walking through a store praying to Him to help me get out of the rut I was in, to catch my attention - "A Woman After God's Own Heart"...that is my desire, I told Him! I want to be that woman - one who seeks to know Him and grow in my relationship with Him each day, one who doesn't allow the day to day demands or struggles get to me in such a way that I lose focus of what God would have me learn or experience for His glory.

Two weeks ago, early on a Sunday morning, I believe God woke me up and laid it on my heart to go get my bible and read Joshua 1. I did, and He spoke to my heart. Three times in the first nine verses of Chapter 1, God told Joshua to be strong and courageous. He told him to meditate on His Word day and night. He told him not to be discouraged and that He would be with him wherever he went. I believe God was telling me the same things that morning.

You would have thought that the next day I would have gone back to His Word and started in Chapter 2 of Joshua, but I didn't. Here's the catch. After about an hour of prayer and drawing near to God last night, I felt like God was leading me to pick up another book I had purchased by the same author and go directly to the chapter on Fear. I hated jumping into the middle of the book, especially when I was hardly through the first one I started reading this week. Do you know it took me right into Chapter 2 of Joshua?! In that very moment I knew that for two weeks I had missed out on what God wanted to show me the very next day in Chapter 2, and so on.

My heart has ached, and all the while God was trying to speak to me...trying to comfort me...trying to teach me something new about who HE is in my life. I would pray off and on throughout the day, but mainly for my husband and his soldiers and other people in my life who asked for prayer, but I was neglecting to draw near to God.

Today my heart is whole again. In fact, that took place last night as I surrendered everything to the One who knows me from the inside out, the One who knows what the future holds and what is best for me and my family, and the One who is in control of all things and is victorious! My heart is renewed!

Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." That was my prayer, and he was faithful! Psalm 51:12 says, "Restore to me the joy of my salvation..." That, too, He has been faithful to do! I praise Him for a renewed heart and a renewed focus.

The word is out.

I write and erase, write and erase...

Today we got word of where our husbands will deploy to. All I can say is I'm thankful they didn't announce to us when via email. I hope we get to hear that with our spouse beside us! If I could have it my way...I want to hear that from my husband as he holds me in his arms and tells me everything's going to be OK. Hearing anything when you can't talk to your spouse for another couple of weeks just stinks! That's all I'm going to say about that!

Lots of bubbles!

This evening makes night #2 without my husband. I miss him very much! This morning I woke up feeling like something was missing...kind of like when you go on a trip and as soon as you leave the house you start wondering if you forgot something important...like your passport or your purse, not just a pair of socks or something insignificant. Except it's more than that. I don't want to say it's an emptness I feel; it doesn't go that deep because God filled that void many years ago, but it's just a big part of my heart that's missing and I can't get it back until he returns.

Anyways...the twins and I went to get some groceries and just sort of hang out for a little while. When we returned home, we had dinner and then the twins were unloading/reloading the dishwasher and I ran upstairs to check emails and blog a little before turning in for the night...then it happened. Darby calls from downstairs, "Mom! The dishwasher is spewing!" I thought I'd find that it "threw up" in the sink due to the garbage disposal, but when I arrived in the kitchen there was water and bubbles everywhere! It took us about an hour to clean it all up, but we did it.

The moral of the story...don't buy different types of soap without telling your kids! I guess I confused him a little. Either that or he wanted to see what would happen when you use dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent! :) I'm kidding. The kitchen floor is squeaky clean and we're all doing fine. God is good and keeps us moving along. Maybe it all happened so we'd focus on something totally different than not having dad around... oh wait a minute... I was thinking, "Where's dad when things like this happen?!" at one point. Then we set out to do all that we needed to do to make sure nothing got ruined, and later we'll have a good laugh when we get to tell dad what happened while he was away.