Follow by e-mail

Enter your e-mail address below to have my blog posts sent to your in box. I will post about once a week, and you can unsubscribe any time.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Straight as an Arrow

Motorpool Monday is when the entire Battalion goes to do preventive maintenance on their vehicles.  It is a time-honored tradition, and an excellent time to catch up with Soldiers.  I spoke at length with one today who was highly encouraging.  He is a Christian with two teen-aged daughters.  Mom and dad are also in school working on degrees.  They are dealing in healthy ways with parenting challenges, some typical, some unusual.  But he talked about overcoming generational patterns and preparing to send his daughters out on the right course.  I prayed with him, for his daughters, for their Family, their church, their communication, their emotional health, and much more. 

I reminded him of Ps 127: "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them (kids)".  Children are like arrows: we form them, fashion them, sharpen them (or did in ancient times before Walmart).  But we raise them up for a specific purpose.  That is to shoot them out into the world, in a particular direction, prepared to fly straight, aimed at a particular target. 

Often I think of ministering to others.  Thank you God when I am reminded of overarching life purposes and I am ministered to by others.  God, I also pray for the Soldier I am meeting with to discuss Christianity through Mere Christianity.  Open his eyes to see and believe.  Grant me wisdom and courage to speak truth. 

Bless my Company of Soldiers in Louisiana, my memorial service this Thursday for the Soldier who committed suicide--grant me the Scripture and words to speak.  Bless my son Craig who is 14 today--and give us wisdom, balance, grace in parenting him, and them all.  Grant strength through Friday's local marriage seminar, and the weekend marriage seminar at the beach, and time to recover and regroup, and be refreshed next week!  

1 comment:

David and April Weber said...

Praying for you as you put together your message. This must be one of the most difficult situations to handle as a minister. May the Lord grant you wisdom, insight, and tenderness.