Hope for the Mil Kid

So all the cousins were together at Grandma’s house for Easter dinner, but you had to miss it.

The church at home puts on a big Christmas play every year that you loved to be a part of growing up, but your new church doesn’t do that.

The PCS timing means you will miss all the VBS programs and summer camps you and your kids enjoyed.

The last duty station had a great youth group your kids loved, but this one has none.

Some days, it’s easier to trust God while sending your warrior to a danger zone than to trust God with your children while living this Military life. This gypsy adventure can feel so foreign to how you were raised that you wonder if your kids’ spiritual life will suffer (along with their mental, emotional, and social lives). When you struggle to get them plugged into a good children’s ministry, when the mentors in their lives are changing or are far away, when every PCS drops them into a new social environment with new possible pitfalls, you can feel like you are losing the battle for their spiritual life.

How will they deal with the instability? The anxiety of a parent being deployed? How are they supposed to have deep relationships when the people in their lives change every six months?

It feels like you’re conducting this great experiment, but the test subjects are your children, and you have no control over the outcome.

News flash: you have no control over the outcome. This is the same for Military and civilian families. You may just be more aware of your lack of control in the Military. But if God has called your spouse into the service, he has called your whole family. He will care for your children.

Share your plans with the Lord, and you will succeed.

Proverbs 16:3 (CEV)

In some translations, “share” from this verse is translated as “commit.” Just a few pages over in Proverbs 3:5-6, the Bible says to trust the Lord and let him lead, and then he will make a clear road for you. When we share, commit, and entrust our lives and our children to the Lord and his plans, he will care for our families.

So let’s watch for the ways God is working in the lives of our children already despite not having the same stepping stones you may have or that other civilian kids have. Thank the Lord for the creative ways he is guiding them. See how they are resilient and more aware of making new friends and enjoying new places. Be thankful they are learning and won’t shrink from the meaning of sacrifice. Praise God, your family is learning bravery and to rely on him and each other since they can’t always be with others. Thank God for the many times you have seen and will continue to see him send just the right person at the right time to help them on their way.

Above all, trust him to establish your children’s path as he has your own as they learn to follow his leading in their own choices.

PRAY

Oh, Lord! I worry this Military life is too hard on my kids. But you work in all situations. Please bring them closer to you through all these difficult things. Amen.

TIME TO TALK

Conversation starter for kids: Provides you with questions and prompts to facilitate a time of applicable discussion with children to lead them towards knowing God and His Word more deeply.

Question(s): What do you think God is teaching you these days? What parts of Military life do you think are making you a stronger person?

KEEP IT GOING

Related passages: These additional verses will help parents expand Scriptural knowledge and place on the armor of God’s Word to tackle each day. Swipe to read the passages today.

Psalm 37:5-6

Proverbs 3:5-6