She can laugh at the days to come

Tonight the Chaplain wives in the San Diego area had a "Hail and Farewell". For those not in the Navy, this is a time when we welcome new families to the area and say good bye to those who are moving on to their next station.

This particular event was really special because the farewell was the wife of a Captain who is retiring on Friday. They have been in the Navy for nearly 30 years. They married and had children when they were young (still in their 20's). They've seen the world... Hawaii, Okinawa, and all over the coasts of the US. They've been through wars... Desert Storm, Iraq, Iraq again, Afghanistan. On Sunday they are making their last trek across the country to Philadelphia where they have purchased a HUGE house for the purpose of providing free housing for other chaplains who need a place to stay for vacation and/ or for churches who go on urban mission trips and need free housing.

As I sat listening to her and other women's stories, I thought to myself, can we do this? One of the new wives talked about her fear of deployment. The response of the seasoned? It's all in your attitude. When you're a military wife, especially a Chaplain's wife, you face an awful lot of separation. How do you reconcile that with kids who LOVE their daddy? How does a marriage retain it's strength if you don't see each other for almost a year at a time?

You overcome with a positive attitude. You find a way to make moves, deployments, holidays, etc. fun and adventurous, even without daddy. You talk about him often. You make videos for him. You write him letters. You come up with plans of things to do when he gets home. But most importantly, you keep a positive attitude.

It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman. The woman who can look to her future and "laugh at the days to come". As for me? I'm terrified. If we stay in this field, can I really handle a deployment?

No. I can't. I'm not strong enough to do that. I need Bryan.

Honestly, that's the first thought that goes through my head. Then I think about our history. Scotland. Saoirse's birth. Reuben's birth. Moving across the country with two kids under two. I didn't think I could do any of that either.

It's crazy how often I need to be reminded of how BIG my God is. You'd think I've learned this lesson by now. But he keeps teaching me over and over again because, apparently, I have a friggin' thick skull.

Bryan isn't being deployed yet. We don't even know if it will happen or not. But if it does, will one of you please remind me that I serve a BIG, HUGE, AWESOME God? Remind me that He is infinitely stronger than I am. Remind me that I'm not alone... that other wives are there to support me.

Remind me that my God is bigger than any of our problems... including deployment. Don't let me forget that. Maybe I can look at those days ahead and laugh because I know that I'm not really in control of anything. And that's the most encouraging thought ever.