This week I read these articles and I loved them! I feel they are so relevant for everyone in or out of the army. When we have hard times we should always turn to these five things!
These stories come from five Latter-day Saints who are in military families and they share where they turned for comfort during the time they were separated.
Turning to Service
Every
summer the same annual orders arrived in the mail for my husband to go
to Fort Lewis, Washington, and serve as ROTC advance camp staff
chaplain. Every summer I had resented the orders and the 3,000 ROTC
cadets who filled my husband’s time. However, this year our youngest
child was serving a mission in Italy, so I decided to accompany my
husband to Fort Lewis. It turned out to be a summer worth waiting for.
Why? Because I made up my mind to get involved with others.
I
started by volunteering at the army thrift shop. Soon I was attending
the Seattle Washington Temple weekly. Before long, I had developed
friendships among the military wives.
The
turning point in my attitude, however, came on one extraordinary
evening when my husband invited me to go with him out into the field and
say a few words to the cadets at an all-faith service. Seven evenings a
week, chaplain teams drove to combat training sites to ensure each
cadet an opportunity to worship. The cadets were under extreme pressure,
and many felt the need for the Lord, some for the first time. These
services meant so much to the cadets that even after a 24-hour maneuver
they were willing to meet in heavy rain amid the tall, wet grass and
mud.
Fortunately,
that night we were meeting in a forest clearing under a full moon.
Suddenly, it was my turn. My eyes adjusted enough in the moonlight to
see the young faces of the cadets as they stood or sat reverently
dressed in green camouflage among the grass and ferns. One petite female
cadet appeared distressed as though wanting to cry out, “What am I
doing here?”
With
a prayer I turned the flashlight onto my notes and spoke of how much
these chaplains and interfaith leaders loved them. “With the love of
Christ you are their common cause,” I said. “They’d let you down if they
didn’t look beyond their religious differences to see your needs.
Perhaps their camaraderie is rare, but you are precious to them and that
is what unites them.”
As
I sat down, I began to feel like a member of my husband’s team, the
Lord’s team. Before the cadets divided into religious affiliation
groups, the petite cadet came to me, put her arms around me, and we wept
together. Other cadets also came to share their tears.
I
knew this brief experience would help me remember how much these cadets
needed my husband as a chaplain. I realized that whether my husband and
I were together or not, we were a team. We were both needed and could
serve others.
As
our ministry team drove back through the forest that night, I felt the
love of Christ more than I had ever felt it before. The resentment I
once harbored was gone. As my husband and I drove the last part of the
trip home alone, I realized something more—the love of Christ surpasses
everything.
