Used with permission from Melissa Lynn Photography

Embrace means to accept without hesitation.
I love the title of this blog because I am learning through a relationship with Christ how to do that day by day.
When I set out to transform this blog into more than a girl rambling about her life, I wanted to offer a space of encouragement for other women.
As a young women I have kept the mantra; slow and steady.
There is a lot to learn about writing, people, and how to love them better. {It requires time}

Recently I’ve been achy inside the heart and I’ve desperately wanted to share but it wasn’t right.  I was an emotional mess following no wise counsel.
The future had looked grey.
I’ve asked God to keep me cheerful instead of tearful! <-Did you catch that rhyme?
{I smiled}

This deployment will be here shortly and finding out the length of this thing feels like a swift kick to the gut!

Our last deployment there wasn’t time to process him leaving since it happened suddenly and I was surrounded with family, a great church family, and was involved in a children’s ministry.
This time I can give you a list of 10 things why this deployment is dragging me down.
But I don’t want to trudge along in the mud this deployment.
God has set me apart from the junk of this world and attitudes like above are terrible from a girl who knows where her strength can come from.
He will let me have my sad moments but he won’t let me stay there and I praise God for that!
He is so good to us through hard circumstances.

I have spent more time in his word working to memorize verses.
I know that our future requires more strength.  I want the mind to know truth when the heart doesn’t feel like it.

Today I lost my credit card.  Fell right out of my pocket!
I realized it after I came home and made a quick phone call to where I was and then decided to cancel the card.
Friend, this is not the girl I recognize.
The old, {pre-military wife} laura would have been frantic.
It didn’t hit me until later but I thought ‘wow you didn’t even flinch through that’.

God has grown a back-bone in me and I love that!
The hard part is going through experience to develop that strength.
I see military wives from all walks of life handle deployments differently.
I’m going to tell you right now I sat on the couch tonight, knees held tight to chest telling my husband I was bummed about the future.
And then my guy spoke wisdom to me:
You will be okay, Laura.

He is a man of so many words ;).

But he is right.  I’m going to be okay, our son will be okay, and he will be okay.  I may need an extra dose of encouragement from time to time but I don’t have to walk through this time without hope.
I hope God places some sisters in my way dealing with the same thing so we can do this together.
It’s more do-able with a friend by your side, right?

Military wife, if this is you leading up to a deployment, already in one, or at the end.
You have hope in the one who promises to offer a place of rest.  (Matthew 11:28)

~Laura~