Following

 

 

Back in the 1990’s my husband, Tony, came to me with the dreaded words, “What do you think about me going back into the Navy?”

“No way!” I spouted without a moment’s hesitation.

Raising children alone with him gone on long deployments, being in a community where divorce rates were and still are high, and seemingly throwing my college degree away did not seem like the ideal life path. I vehemently silenced the idea, and on we went with life in our quaint little Georgia town.

So I thought.

My husband waited patiently. Eventually the subject resurfaced again and again until, in frustration, I finally mentioned it to our pastor’s wife. Her words stopped me cold in my tracks, a spiritual gong of sorts.

 

 

What could I say? What ammunition fights the Holy Spirit?

 

None.

 

I hadn’t considered Tony’s God’s request. I hadn’t prayed. My answer had simply been an adamant no.

 

I didn’t like the idea of being a military wife. It was too hard. It was too transient. It wasn’t in my dream for the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Lois’ words sounded so clearly, I went home and prayed.

God’s answer became unmistakably clear: Tony was being called back into the Navy. (He had been active duty in the Navy five years earlier, then became a drilling reservist in Atlanta when we married.)

 

Tony put the paperwork into action, and we began our Navy adventure. First stop after a short reenlistment stint in Atlanta was Jacksonville, Florida, followed by several other stints in the southeastern states as well as our current duty station of Hawaii.

In this path of God’s will I did indeed raise children “alone” while Tony was out to sea. In fact, he left just hours after we arrived home from the hospital with child #1, and child #3 was birthed with him deployed on another continent. But in the midst of the “alone”, I was never truly alone.

 

 

 

 

Several special friends and family members gave to and strengthened our lives. I look back now and see the tight-knit, God bonds formed with these people that would likely never have formed had it not been for God’s perfect plan.

A transient lifestyle attached itself to us. We moved every 2-3 years. Our friends moved too. They are sprinkled all over the globe.

 

 

 

It hasn’t been easy and the military life is certainly not for everyone, but His path to the Navy for our family has been good and perfect. And now, fourteen years later, I wouldn’t trade a thing.It’s not always easy to set our will aside, trusting that His good and perfect will is indeed trustworthy for our future. It’s not always easy to offer ourselves and follow Him, whether it’s for salvation, life in the military, or other plans the Lord has.

 

 

 

 

Do you have an area in life where you’ve automatically said no? Perhaps that’s an area ripe for prayer, ripe for the Lord’s call. Offer yourself to Him, be willing to follow versus the automatic no, and watch what He does.

 

 

 

So here’s what I want you to do,
God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life
—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—
and place it before God as an offering.
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Romans 12:1 The Message
To God be the glory.