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• Solid as a Rock: God's Faithfulness in the Changes

  Moving to Alaska is no small feat. Particularly when you drive one of the most treacherous roads in North America, fraught with bears, bison and moose (oh my!) and traverse thirty mile stretches of gravel in a sedan. I am elated to report that we survived our recent move, with just a few scrapes.
  
  Before our trip, and definitely during, I prayed vigilantly for our safe travel. I prayed from a combined place of hope, faith and fear. In each situation, talking to God about my concerns- whether for three seconds or thirty minutes of rocky road- helped me to remember my relationship with Him. He is my perfect Father in Heaven who takes care of me and looks after me. He has promised never to leave me or forsake me (Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). When I make it through times that seem so desperate, I remember to trust Him no matter what.
  
  But sometimes that’s hard to remember in the midst of changes, even when God has shown us how great He is countless times before. Now that we are all settled in our beautiful new home, I continue to fight the doubt and fear Satan tries to plant in his efforts to tempt me to stop trusting God. Lately, my biggest struggle is worrying about money, particularly when finances are in flux after such a big move. Will there be enough? Will God come through and provide again?
  
  Although it’s not always my first response, I am increasingly disciplining myself to turn to God’s Word in times of change. When everything else in our world is so transitional and temporary, it is vital that we remember our God and His Word are everlasting.
  
  In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus relays the tales of the wise and foolish builders. One hears the words of Jesus and builds his house on the rock of God, while the other ignores Jesus’ words and builds his house on sand. The house of sand collapses in the first storm, but though “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house,” the house on the rock prevails because it has a solid foundation (Matthew 7:25).
  
  

  I know that no matter where we go or what we go through, our house is built on the rock of God’s word. Even through the storms of change He shows me the way, and makes me strong, especially when I remember to put Him and His word first.

   

  
  Reflection
  God reminds us multiple times in the Bible that He will never leave us or forsake us. Why do you think He tells His people this more than once?
  Think of a time when you faced a big change in your life. How did you handle it? If you surrendered those circumstances completely to God, how would you have handled it differently?
  Changes are part of our life in an unstable, fallen world. How will you prepare for the next transition in your life in a Godly way?
  
  Prayer
  Father God, I thank you for the changes you have placed in my life. Even though I don’t know how things will work out, I believe that you will work things together for my good. Although I struggle with fear and doubt in this time of transition, I pray that you will show me my next steps in following you every step of the way. I trust you and keep my hope in you God. Help to make my faith solid like a rock today and every day. In Jesus’ name – Amen.

  
  
  
  

  Mary Parker is an Air Force wife who works as a public relations writer. A South Carolina girl at heart, she and her husband have recently relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska. Mary spends her spare time honing exercise and cooking skills, and is a self-proclaimed DIY addict. You can read about how faith and hope shape military family life, and check out Mary's latest projects at her blog, Mary's Mischief.
  
  
  

• Praise and Thanksgiving

  

  
  

  ​by Mary Parker

  
  
  Lately, on Sunday nights, I’ve had trouble getting to sleep. Thoughts of Monday morning “what-ifs” and “to-dos” keep my brain riveted in cyclical momentum. This has resulted in several crabby (to put it mildly) Mondays, after a great day devoted to God just 24 hours before.
  
  The same restlessness plagues my brain as we plan a cross-country trip during the holidays to see our family for the first time in two years. A time that should be full of joy and relaxation is haunted by worry and anxiety. The harder I try to plan and fix, the messier everything seems to get.
  
  In the situations of holiday planning and late night restlessness, I often find that the comfort I’m seeking only comes when I surrender my tired body and brain to
  Jesus.
  
  So instead of staring at the ceiling in mind-numbing thought, I thank Him for the mercy He provides for me to start each day anew, for the lessons of loving others that make my marriage, familial relationships and friendships more fulfilling, for providing more than my family could need or imagine and encouraging me to give freely to others. The list goes on, and I find myself beautifully rested and restored when I awake Monday morning.

   

  When I begin praising God for all He has done and continues to do in my life, I become less concerned with what can go wrong. I can even remember the times when things have blown up at work or with family, and the times I rely on God to see me through are infinitely more successful than when I rely on my own devices.

  
  For some of us, restlessness comes with the daunting challenges of the work week. For others, it’s during the nail biting moments of the college football game when we say things we probably shouldn’t (myself included), while prepping the prized Thanksgiving turkey, or while planning to spend holidays apart from loved ones. 

  
  

  Whatever the restless moments in your life, I encourage you to praise Jesus in the midst for all that He has done, is doing, and continues to do in your life.
  
  Ultimately, thanking God for the blessings, which surely exist in our lives, is an amazing way to renew ourselves daily, as He intends:
  
  “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him'” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
  
  
  

  Questions for Reflection:

  *​If you are struggling with restlessness, is there something you need to give to the Lord?

  *What are some specific blessings you can thank God for right now?

  *How can you remind yourself of God's faithfulness?

   

  Prayer:
  
  Father, thank you for all the blessings you have put in my life, for loving me more than I can ever know, for pouring your mercy on me every single day, and for refreshing me daily. I seek you today and ask for help to recognize your great hand in this world. Help me to be thankful for my blessings and not take them for granted. I love you Father and am thankful for your supremacy in my life. Amen. 
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Mary Parker is an Air Force wife who works as a public relations writer. A South Carolina girl at heart, she and her husband have recently relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska. Mary spends her spare time honing exercise and cooking skills, and is a self-proclaimed DIY addict. You can read about how faith and hope shape military family life, and check out Mary's latest projects at her blog, Mary's Mischief.
  

• Change is the Constant

  

  
  

  by Molly Huggins

  
  

  ​Change is the one constant in this Army life of ours.
  
  We are on our fifth home in nine years. We’ve spent four and a half of those nine years apart. Our little family has expanded by three. And always a steady flow of orders issued and changed at the eleventh hour.
  

  
  I know I am singing a familiar refrain to you all. 
  
  

  Currently we are rejoicing at the return of my husband safely from Afghanistan, his fourth deployment complete. It brings me so much joy to rearrange the spaces in our home to include him. What bedtime looks like with daddy. What breakfast looks like with daddy. What Saturdays look like with daddy. {A whole lot of donuts!} 
  
  There are boots on the floor, dirty uniforms draped over the chair, empty Diet Coke cans NEXT to the trash bin, and I couldn’t be happier. The Husband is home.
  
  But with return comes reintegration, and with reintegration comes more change. I am equal parts giddy and panicked.
  
  That is just a small snapshot of us. Your pictures may look wildly different - your moments anchored by circumstances nothing like mine. But the change? The change is constant. 

  
  And friends, it’s far too easy to be afraid in the face of change. To curl up, overwhelmed at the immensity of each thing. So for this season, for all your seasons of change, may I offer this reminder from the heart-cries of Jeremiah: 
  
  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
  
  (Lamentations 3:21-25).
  
   
  In the midst of hard, constant change, His steadfast love never ceases.
  
  Every morning, every morning, I am refreshed by compassions made new. And in every season of change in our life, the threads of grace and mercy shine bright, written by a loving, faithful Father.
  
  Great is His faithfulness.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Molly Huggins is an Army bride, one-time helicopter pilot, compulsive writer, friend seeker, and lover of color and all things textile. Her current occupation is ringmaster of the Huggins family circus (party of five). She has a B.A. in English from Covenant College and a passion for meeting other women right in the middle of their own messy stories. Pull up a chair at her virtual beat-up kitchen table, listen to her stories, and maybe even tell her yours.
  

  
  

• Mary's Story

  By Mary Parker
  
  On August 29, 2010, things were a little hectic in my life. I had just started graduate school, and was a full-time student working about 20 hours a week. I lived with my future husband, and we were scheduled to be married in just a little over a month. School work, planning the last details of the wedding, and feeling imminent pressure from a number of sources left me drained, sad and alone.

  
  I confided in my fiancée and one of our best friends how I was feeling, and we decided to try a church we had heard a lot about. Although I attended church frequently as a child, I always felt the messages were condemning and didn’t really apply to my life. Once I was on my own, friends and priorities like working and partying became my life, so church wasn’t even on my radar. Neither was God. I felt like something was missing in my life, and since I had tried everything to fill the void (work, school, relationships, lifestyle), it seemed like church was worth a shot.
  
  That night I heard the gospel in a way I never had before, laid out in a way that I could understand and even see in my own behavior: God loves me, but due to sin I am separated from God. NO amount of work that I do on my own can ever bridge the gap between us, but God is constantly pursuing me through the love of Jesus, who died so that I might live. “The only way to the Father is through the Son,” Jesus, who lived a perfect life in a horrifically imperfect world, and by acknowledging that he is the “way, the truth and the life” I can return to communion with God.
  
  It sounds so simple now, but it rocked my world. As a child, I legitimately thought the only reason people went to church was so they wouldn’t go to hell. No one had ever told me that the reason Jesus died was because God loves me.
  
  So that night, full of conviction, I walked to the front of the sanctuary, wrote my name on a slip of paper and nailed it to a cross. My husband and dear friend made the same demonstration of faith that night, and our lives began to change forever.
  
  A month later my husband and I were married. Two days after our wedding we were baptized together. We began volunteering at church and in the community. Our relationships were enhanced. We learned daily lessons about following Jesus, especially in ways of patience, mercy and grace, through reading our Bibles and worshipping with fellow believers. I learned that in my past I had been too focused on church to see Jesus shining through.
  
  Following Christ didn’t mean that all our troubles were over, however. When I was in graduate school, we struggled financially, which led to credit card debt and tension in our new marriage. Once we realized this was a “treasure” in our lives that we were coveting and prioritizing more than Jesus, we made the move to surrender our finances to Christ and began tithing. On a household income of less than $40,000, we paid off more than $11,000 in debt in under a year. If I ever needed proof that God wants what is best for me, this was it.
  
  During this same time, it became apparent that something in our lives needed to change. My husband was unfulfilled in his work, and I was daunted by anxiety and responsibility. We prayed and studied our Bibles, but couldn’t figure out a solution. We had always hoped for worldwide travel and adventure, but we felt stuck and stagnant, as though we weren’t in the right place to flourish. That’s when the United States Air Force entered our lives, by glowing recommendation of my husband’s aunt, a retiring Lt. Colonel.
  
  After a lot of discussion and prayer, we became an Air Force family. We had one long hot summer in the west Texas desert, and then we moved to the frozen frontier of Fairbanks, Alaska. We love our home and the adventurous lifestyle we experience everyday in the extreme climate and adventure of Alaska. We still face struggles, big and small, daily.
  
  Though we’ve searched for months and visited several churches, we haven’t found a new church home. We miss our church in South Carolina dearly; it is the community where we received salvation, were baptized and began walking with the Lord. Nothing can replace that, but we are seeking a new community of believers locally to share life with. We’ve also been trying to grow our family for more than a year, and have reasons to believe that we may have more difficulty than the average couple.
  
  Whatever struggles life may bring, we know and are ever thankful for the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. Our God provides, comforts, sheds light on a narrow path, and is always right beside us every step of the way.
  
  Mary Parker is an Air Force wife who works as a public relations writer. A South Carolina girl at heart, she and her husband have recently relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska. Mary spends her spare time honing exercise and cooking skills, and is a self-proclaimed DIY addict. You can read about how faith and hope shape military family life, and check out Mary's latest projects at her blog, Mary's Mischief. 
  
  

• Hope

  

  ​

  by Molly Huggins

  
  
  
  Here’s a little known fact about me: I am horribly indecisive. Inevitably, the season I find myself living in is my very most favorite! And after weeks of snow and ice have blanketed the South, spring is here! My very most favorite season. Spring, the days when what seems dead comes alive, when daffodils cover the bleak- looking fields, a harbinger of the explosion of green coming. A season of birth, and life, and hope. 
  
  A season echoed in the book of Romans, a glorious retelling of our death, our rebirth, and our life through the story of Abraham and Sarah. 
  
  “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations' in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, 'So shall your descendants be.' And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” 
  
  Friends, there have been more moments than I care to remember where all the circumstances in our Army life have been contrary to hope. Miscarriages, the loss of friends, countless moves, wrenching goodbyes, and so. much. fear. We are in the midst of one now, another move, and little ones who are old enough to understand the heartache of goodbye but not old enough to comprehend the whys of it. 
  
  And yet, and yet, there is hope in which I believe. Hope for the new year, hope for new places, hope for a new life (we are pregnant with our 6th child, the 4th living one), hope in glory, and above all, hope and faith in the gospel. 
  
  I just finished writing my testimony and I will tell you like I tell the world, 

  “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:21-24, ESV). 
  
  As you watch the world come to life around you, in what are you placing your hope?
  
  And sisters? If you are in a place contrary to hope, a place that feels like death, I am praying desperately that you will see and be comforted by the steadfast love of the Lord, that you will receive grace, and above all, hope. 
  
  
  

  
  

  All my love. 

  Molly Huggins is an Army bride, one-time helicopter pilot, compulsive writer, friend seeker, and lover of color and all things textile. Her current occupation is ringmaster of the Huggins family circus (party of five). She has a B.A. in English from Covenant College and a passion for meeting other women right in the middle of their own messy stories. Pull up a chair at her virtual beat-up kitchen table, listen to her stories, and maybe even tell her yours.
  
  
  
   

• When God Goes With You

  
  

  by Chantal Graupmann

   

  Editor's Note: This month we are welcoming two new members to our blogging team here at CMWF.  Today's post is Chantal's first one with us.  Welcome, Chantal! We're so glad to have you sharing your story with us!

   

   

   

  As followers of Christ we all have defining moments in our faith where God asks us to follow Him.

   

  Choosing to let Him guide our family as we joined the military was one of those moments for me.

   

  When my husband and I got married, the military was not a thought in my mind. We planned to stay in our home state of Minnesota, where almost all our family resides, and raise our future children. We never discussed other options. But two years into our marriage the economy took a downhill turn, and what I thought would never affect us, did. My new husband lost his job, and we were faced with the same difficult situation of unemployment that many Americans were facing. Young and newly married, we were completely unprepared for the difficulties that lay ahead.

   

  During the following year and a half, finding work was tough. I was earning my Bachelors degree and working part time, while my husband painstakingly searched for suitable work to keep us afloat. With little hope in sight, we turned our ears all the more to Jesus in desperation. Jesus, what do you have in store for us?

   

  Never before had we been so open to listening to the Lord.

   

  A little whisper spoke to my heart and practically out of nowhere I found myself asking my husband, “Have you ever thought about the military?” I was completely surprised that this was coming from my mouth. As we began a long discussion about joining the military, I feared how this would affect our marriage and our family. I wanted our children to know their family and I certainly did not want to leave the new family I had gained, or be torn from my own.I was fearful of our future and how this would shape our family, but I felt God reminding me of all the time He had spoken in my life. He was encouraging me to move forward through my fear.
  

   

  God began to deal with my lingering fears as my husband left for basic training. He led me to the first chapter in Joshua, specifically verse 9:
  “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

  Those words spoke so strongly to my heart during the time my husband was away. They were a source of great comfort. He was encouraging me to trust in His plan like never before and I knew He would form our family into what it should be.

   

  A little over three years have passed since I was encouraged with that passage in Joshua. As I look back, I can see how God has used the military to shape our extended and immediate family. He has kept His promises to me, and no matter where we are, He has provided us with support in the form of family and great friends. Our family is stronger and healthier than it was before the military because distance has forced us to communicate better. God has placed others in our lives at each duty station to fill a specific role where family would traditionally serve, which has created lasting friendships.

   

  This passage of scripture continues to encourage me on the days I feel like military life is an impossible feat. It reminds me that He has chosen our family for this task, and no matter where the military may take us or how it will separate our family, He will be there to provide for our needs and to strengthen us.

  
  
  
  Reflection
  What fears are lingering in your heart today?
  Where are you struggling to trust in God’s provision?
  Who is one person you can come alongside of today to encourage with the message of God’s faithfulness?
  
  Prayer
  Lord, thank you for your constant presence in my life. Thank you for your promise to be with me wherever I may go. Your plan for my family is perfect and as you continue to lead me, I hold onto your promises for the difficult and sometimes lonely days that military life holds. I pray that you continue to go with us all our days.
  
  

  Chantal Graupmann is an Air Force wife and mother to two children. She is striving to serve women in the midst of motherhood and military life, and is passionate about building community. She loves finding time for DIY projects, experimental cooking, and travel.