Wives of Faith

I hope that things are getting into order for you as we get the first weeks of school behind us.  Stop by the blogs of these wonderful ladies to treat yourselves to some quiet time and fellowship with God after the flurry of activities the end of summer brings.

At In the Hands of the Lord, Mari writes about her journey of adopting an older girl from China and their family’s recent move to Japan. She is also a homeschooler, for those of you who may want to reach out to fellow homeshooling moms. The blog design is beautiful and has great P&W music on the playlist!

Beth is also a homeschooler (2nd generation) and military wife. She is a woman who sees blessings amid the negative things that happen. For more music and a great lesson in recognizing God everyday, visit her September 5th post at Living, Laughing, Loving, Learning.
She writes:

You know that old saying, It never rains but it pours?
So often we equate that with negative thoughts.

It poured a bit during Andy’s three weeks away.

But, on the flip side of that old saying, sometimes you feel like you are in a drought. A drought of blessings, or at least a drought from seeing and appreciating like you should.

This week, and especially this weekend, the blessings have just rained down – poured out. I want to cry, because my eyes are able to see them. Read the rest here.

Allison, a new mom, has a beautiful and moving post at her blog, 6976 miles, about attending a memorial service with a friend whose husband was KIA.

As we arrived at his particular grave before the service started, I slowed my pace in the muddy grass while the rain thumped on my rain jacket. His site is on the corner of a large plot of other graves, all lined up with such precision you could measure angles by them.

I hope God will bless you with these posts. Be sure to let the bloggers know that you have stopped by with a comment.

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“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
James 1:2-3

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Obedience. Such an important concept when we’re parenting, and such an important concept in the Christian faith. And an unpopular one, if I’m honest with you.

Just as it’s sometimes (or in some children’s cases, most of the time) difficult for our children to obey us, their parents, it’s often difficult for us as adults to obey God, our Heavenly Father.

Today as I opened my Bible, I got excited when I saw the name of Naaman. I love that story!, I thought. Who wouldn’t love a little biblical schadenfreude every once in a while, right? Oooh, let’s watch the proud man have to dunk himself in the muddy Jordan River!

So I read 2 Kings 5. I’ll link it to Bible Gateway here, and you can choose your own Bible version this morning on the drop-down menu.

I think we’d all agree that the necessity of obedience is crucial in the military. Many of you are former military as well as being military wives, so you know this better than the rest of us. Naaman, however, was the army commander. I don’t think he is overly concerned with his own obedience, because he’s the one in charge.  Obviously he answers to the king, but it sounds like they have a good working relationship. Probably more collaborative.

So to imagine this tall, powerful military man, who suffers from an uncomfortable and even painful and ugly skin ailment, ticked at the prophet Elisha for not coming out and meeting him, AND being told to bathe in a lowly muddy river, not once but seven times? It’s no wonder he balked at the instruction and got upset!

How many times have we disobeyed the Lord ourselves? When we choose fear over faith. When we don’t follow that inner Holy Spirit nudge to talk to someone or pray for someone or even pick up the phone and call someone. I know for me it’s too many times to count.

I love what Naaman’s servants (the NLT actually says these men are his officers!) tell him, and I’m so glad Naaman listens. In verse 13 they say, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” (NIV).

So Naaman obeys and is healed.

In the book of 1 Samuel, the prophet Samuel declares, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obeying those inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, God Himself, is more important than sacrifice.

He wants our obedience.

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Registration is now open for our third semester of Survival Sisters! We’re kicking it off October 1 – this semester will be shorter than previous semesters - we believe offering 6 weeks instead of 10 will make it a lot more manageable for ladies who participate. This is a great opportunity to get to know another military wife who not only shares the military life but the Christian faith.

Also, I am so pleased to introduce to you Tasha Whye, our new Survival Sisters Coordinator. Tasha is a Marine wife and mom to two adorable little girls both under the age of two. She enjoys staying home with her children while she takes classes at Northcentral University, working on her master’s in psychology in Marriage and Family Therapy.  She’s looking forward to helping encourage our members through Survival Sisters, which I believe is one of our most important programs we currently offer.

If you have not been involved in Survival Sisters yet, let me encourage you to register for this semester. Registration is now open but will close September 24. Go to the Survival Sisters page for all of the details and register here. Please note that we do limit participation to 50 wives. Contact Tasha (tasha @ wivesoffaith.org) with any questions.

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About a month ago I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  At first, the diagnosis was terrifying, and as the minutes ticked by at a painful pace I started become increasingly depressed.  How was I going to get through this?  Being a celiac isn’t a temporary thing, it’s a life change.  Complete and total discipline. (more…)

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I’m diligently reading and researching time management on a quest for the best information out there for all of us, but I didn’t want too much time to pass before posting again. I also found my quest derailed by a little thing I’m calling my Broken Tooth. I have a crown on a back molar, and it chipped and cracked on Monday during lunch.  So I had to make time in my research and writing schedule (such as it is) for a couple of dental visits.

The idea of “making time” for something like the dentist makes me think of Richard Swenson’s book Margin—which, if I can find, I’d like to read again. (It’s actually stored in my husband’s boxes of pro gear in the garage, but he has about 15 boxes out there. And it’s hot. And I’m choosing to spend my time writing instead of hunting down one book out of all those boxes.)

Anyway, Dr. Swenson’s premise is that we need margin (think of the margin on a typed piece of paper, that blank space surrounding the text) in our lives as a reserve of sorts, for the overflow of life events that occasionally spill over. We need some room for those times of crisis.

Thankfully, in my case, it’s not really inconveniencing anyone but me (as far as time) and my husband (as far as money) for the dentist. But what about those who work full time while their spouse is deployed? They spend all day working, and all evening taking care of the kids and the house. Where is their margin?

I also surmise that many of us find ourselves frittering away our free or unclaimed time, doing tasks that suck our time without any return on our investment.

While I grant that it’s going to be harder for some of you to figure this out, let’s work together on something practical before next week, so we can move along from there.

So here’s your assignment (if you’re so inclined to join me): Write down what you do for one day and how much time it takes. Extra credit if you do it for more than one day.

I bet we’re going to be surprised by what we find. I predict we’ll find our “time suckers.” I’ve done this exercise before, but for the purposes of this blog series, I’ll do it. (Obviously, I need it if I’m still struggling with how to manage my time!)

Next time, we’re going to talk about priorities and the fairy-tale idea of a balanced life.

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Let’s join Liz today in her August Prayer.

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August Prayer

August is a special month because my husband is coming home after an eighteen month deployment. I heard on NBC news that ten thousand troops are coming home from Iraq this month. I realized there will be many homecomings this month. There will be many happy wives and excited children. There will be many blessings across our military family.

It’s times like this when I want to thank the Lord for watching over our military family. The Lord Jesus Christ provides us all so much strength to overcome adversity. I believe that he does have a special plan for military members, spouses, and children. We all serve together.

I wanted to include a short prayer to all of those military families that are currently deployed this month:

Dear Heavenly Father, we pray for all the military families who have members deployed this month. We pray you give them strength to complete their mission. Your grace will lead them to a place that is safe. Your love will help them overcome the obstacles. We pray for the military members who are coming home this month.  We pray that they have a safe trip home. Please watch over the military families that are awaiting their spouses’ return. Lord, in times like this we turn to you to hold us in your arms. Your light is a beacon for us to follow. Thank you for walking with us during deployment and helping us cope with the separation. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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It’s Monday, the first day of school for my girls, and the first day of my quest to get a better handle on my time.

On a whim, I posted a question to the Wives of Faith fan page on Facebook last night: “What are your thoughts about a blog series on time management?” I was surprised to get so many responses so quickly, to be honest. I know I’m not alone in this struggle to manage my time–why else would there be so many books on the subject?–but somehow I get wrapped up in my own head and forget to look around and find some support.

We’re all about support and encouragement here at Wives of Faith, so here we go. I’ll be writing a blog series on time management, and in doing so will commit to finding as many helpful resources and tips as I can to help us all in our struggles.

Do you want to know an embarrassing secret? The thing that made me think about writing about time management was a conversation with a friend of mine who’s leading a breakout session at her church’s women’s retreat in a couple of weeks. I was talking to her about preparing for her session, and I shared with her that I’d led a breakout session once about ten years ago. “What was it about?” she asked.

Time management.

Oh, the irony.

Even back in the day I struggled with it! You’d think I’d be better by now, wouldn’t you? But that was before child #2; four moves and two hubby career changes later, here I sit in full confession mode: I can’t manage my time well.

So, welcome to my series as I learn along with you about how we can manage our time.

Let’s begin with prayer.

Lord, You have given us life, and time, and Your Word.
Please lead us and guide us as we learn how to better use the time You have given us to serve You,
for Your kingdom and Your glory. Amen.

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There I was.  She spoke English to me and I respond in Italian.  What?  We were in a restaurant in Germany.  The sweet waitress had just asked us in English (with her thick German accent) what we would like to drink, and I looked at her and ordered in Italian.  She looked at me and attempted to repeat;  I looked at her, not understanding why she was giving me a funny look.  Then it hit me–she asked me IN ENGLISH and I responded IN ITALIAN! Poor girl!  We laughed and I corrected myself and it is still something we chuckle about today.

You know, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. Often it is the best way to deal with a situation, and I have no doubt God had a chuckle too when this occurred.

Being in Italy was challenging, but I found that when I attempted to order or give a greeting in Italian the people were patient and smiled.  They did laugh sometimes but I could tell is was a laugh of appreciation as I tried to speak their language.  For me it was a common courtesy, and I wanted to honor Christ.  It was hard sometimes though. I did not like some of their customs, I just wanted to speak English, I wanted someone to speak English to me and, oh girl–AND I wanted to wear my RED, WHITE AND BLUE colors everywhere!!!!  But alas, I couldn’t.

God allowed me to laugh a lot at myself though with my frustrations and bloopers.  Like when I told the money man at the toll booth “Griao” instead of “Grazie, Ciao.”  I was trying to say “thank you, goodbye” but it came out as “thbye” in Italian! Oh, my girls and I giggled all the way to base and then we told everyone!  After that our standard greeting for some friends was “Griao!”

So, I encourage you to learn some phrases in another language if you have not.  If you have, keep it up and learn some MORE. You are letting the local people you respect them, their culture and language.  You are then letting God know you will honor Him wherever He sends you and in doing so others will see Jesus in you!

Let me know your funny mishaps and any words you have created.  Oh, by the way, you should see my spell check going crazy with my “griao!”

Love you all to pieces!

Griao!

Rachel

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From Liz:

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My Deployment Meltdown

The Lord was looking down on me when I had my deployment meltdown on August 9, 2010. It was an accumulation of months of stress and two accidents that I had no control over. My husband had been deployed for almost eighteen months and was due home in nineteen days. I was so excited about his return that I never expected to be overwhelmed by my emotions.

A couple of days earlier I got into an accident in my husband’s car. It wasn’t a serious accident, I actually hit a rock. I was at a park I had visited many times and I never saw the rock coming. The rock was two feet tall and heavy enough to carve itself into the side of the door. This was the first time I ever had a car accident with a rock. Thankfully, my husband took the news in stride and reminded me to be more careful.  I took this accident as a sign that I needed to slow down.

The second accident happened when a tree fell on the power lines. The tree fell down in the middle of a bright sunny day. We had no power for most of the day. I took my son out to dinner and put him to bed. I realized the house was engulfed in darkness. For a moment, I felt completely powerless. I couldn’t use the oven, washer, air conditioning, internet, and TV. I used my cell phone to call my family and broke down in tears. I had my first deployment meltdown. I was strong for almost all of my husband’s deployment except for that moment.

After I was finished talking to my family, I sat in the dark. I thought about my next step. I wondered if I should plan a vacation before my husband’s homecoming. I prayed for guidance from the Lord. I prayed for strength, because I had never felt so weak before in my life. Everything seemed to be out of my control. I knew the Lord had a plan for me but I needed some clarity. Moments after I finished my prayers, the lights came on. I was relieved to have our power back. The light of my faith had been turned on.

I know the Lord will give me the strength to survive the next nineteen days. It will be wonderful to be reunited with my other half. I know we have both grown in our faith and love for our Lord, Jesus Christ. We are reminded of the Lord’s strength in scripture, Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Halleluiah!

God Bless!

Elizabeth Ornelas

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