Serenity

Serenity

We are in Week 4 of the Bible study Let. It. Go. by Karen Ehman.  This week I want to talk about serenity as part of our blog hop.  With my husband serving active duty in the Army Reserves, boy is there a lot I can't control.  We get told where he has to serve at and when we have to move.  He gets told when he has to go to Annual training and often when he has to have drills.  About this time last year, we were informed we were having to move from one part of Pennsylvania to another by the end of the summer.  He was going from being a Training Non-commissioned officer to a Rear detachment commander.

We timed everything out perfectly "in our minds at least".  We move the end of July.  Then my husband would take the next three weeks off until his report date which was almost the end of August.  We would be able to unpack the house, spend time together and maybe even go camping.  What we did not count on nor could control was the fact the Army lost our paperwork.  So instead of moving the end of July - it was the middle of August when we reported.  Instead of having leave to spare, we had to use every single day of leave we had.  But God's hand was working in it all.  We still had wonderful times with our family.  We were able to take my mother (who was living with us) and the children to our new home where they camped out. Then my husband and I went back to deal with the move.

Also we thought we had the perfect people to rent our home, but one thing after another caused that to fall through.  Then my husband's unit was deployed to help with Hurricane Sandy only a month after he had his first drills with the new unit.  We had no church yet, so it was just the children, my mom and me.  He got word one day and left the next day.  I was going through basically alone.  There was no family support system or anything else.  It was one of the loneliest times in my life.  Communications was spotty at best.  I was fortunate if we even got to talk.  There was no real power where he was or anything.  No one was really able to tell me anything.  Plus everyone assumed we were communicating with each other.  But he did not have a smart phone yet, so he really could not text me or anything else.  The only one I could rely on for serenity was God.  I was tested by health issues for myself and our oldest son.

Out of all this darkness, my husband came home before Thanksgiving.  We rented our home to the perfect people.  God put a great church in our path.  Then just because He is God, He put some other opportunities in front of our family.  Through it all, I learned that God is the only one we can rely on during times in our lives.  He can grant us serenity and peace even when it feels like the world is crashing down around ourselves.  But first we truly have to Let. It. Go. and turn to Him.  We have to be willing to take what He provides and realize even in times of difficulties and trials, He is with us.