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Prayer Requests 4-25-19

It’s Thursday, so don’t forget to pray for Jo, her students, and the people of PNG.

Anyone else?

Psalm 83

1 O God, do not remain silent;
    do not turn a deaf ear,
    do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl,
    how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
    they plot against those you cherish.
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
    so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

5 With one mind they plot together;
    they form an alliance against you—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    of Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Byblos, Ammon and Amalek,
    Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
8 Even Assyria has joined them
    to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
    as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10 who perished at Endor
    and became like dung on the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession
    of the pasturelands of God.”

13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
    like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest
    or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
    and terrify them with your storm.
16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord,
    so that they will seek your name.

17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
    may they perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
    that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

20 thoughts on “Prayer Requests 4-25-19”

  2. Son in law was taken in for a psych eval due to some things he said at work. Is it a test from the chain of command to see if she will break? Trying to cover their backsides? Trying to take advantage of husband being there for baby? Or a real concern? Most of the paperwork is finished for bringing baby here, just a couple more signatures.

    When she got a text telling her he had been taken in, she was a mess but husband was there so he was able to help. He had her get a hold of a friend to come get her, had her dress in her uniform, told her to buck up and act like she was in boot camp again. She left, not as confident as he had hoped, but looking sharp and steady. Apparently she got some surprised looks when she got to the psych ward, fully composed and ready for action. We will see what God has planned. We have talked about how God prepares us to help in similar situations later. Husband was a commander and was quite used to dealing with troops. He has dealt with the psych wards before. Comes in handy.

    Liked by 6 people

  3. Ok, we are good. Apparently, working where he works, he made jokes he should not have and they had to act on them. Both parents are back home with grandpa and baby but the plan is to move quickly now on getting grandpa and baby moved. Husband’s sister will probably fly over today to help him bring baby back.

    Liked by 5 people

  5. I knew Mike would pull through–though I’ve been praying.

    All parents are required by the Navy, at least, to have a plan for where the children would go in the event of both parents deploying. I’m thankful you’re willing/able to take in your grandchild. This has got to be hard for everyone, but probably the best plan for the baby.

    Where are they stationed?

    Liked by 2 people

  8. I feel bad for all involved, especially the poor baby who doesn’t know what’s going on.

    Michelle – As old-fashioned as I am, I hate the idea of mothers being deployed where they can’t take their children. Even more, I hate that there is a possibility for both parents to be deployed away from their children.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Certainly, Kizzie. A friend of mine was married to the CO of a large ship going to sea. He called early one morning, on the day the boat was deploying and said, “I need you down here. Ten women sailors have shown up with the children in tow saying they can’t go to sea because they don’t have childcare.”

    You sign a contract when you join the military. Some, apparently, thought the Navy would bend the rules. The sailors had to go to sea.

    My friend and a few other senior wives organized all those kids by sending them to child protective service until family could be found to take them.

    Can you imagine?

    It had to have been worse for those kids to have been left on the dock, but the parents chose to break the rules and didn’t take care of them. Shades of other situations we’ve learned of recently. 😦

    After that, the Navy changed their policy and everyone has to have a notarized sheet–signed by whomever will take the children– in their file explaining who will get the children in case of an emergency deployment.

    During the Gulf War I, another Navy CO’s wife got a phone call from her younger brother. He and his wife, both JAGs, were among the first deployed to that war. They were given 48 hours to get their lives in order and ship out.

    They had three children, including a 10 month-old.

    I’m tearing up as I type.

    The sister was the person on record. Even though her husband was out to sea on a submarine, she had to make room in her house to take three children under 6, within 24 hours.

    The mother stayed up all night getting things organized and packed for the kids and then she flew them from TX to Washington and left them with a sister-in-law the children had only seen a few times before, and the baby, never.

    For whatever reason, the JAGS were the first in and the last out. The three children lived with this Navy family and their teenagers for 18 months.

    It turned out for the Navy family to be a blessing, they became so close to their cousins/nieces and nephew. The Navy wife said the hardest thing she ever did was to return that 2.5 year old back to her parents–who, of course, didn’t remember them.

    Entering the military should never be considered an easy choice. It takes sacrifice and a commitment to the mission. Choosing to have a baby while on active duty CAN be done successfully, but a lot has to do with your rate and whether you’re on a shore or sea-going command.

    It sounds like in this situation, both mom and dad are sea-going and of course, Okinawa is a long way from everyone else in the family. Because there are so many women in the service in valuable roles, the Navy cannot make exceptions. I’ll bet they looked very closely at the dad yesterday–to make sure he wasn’t causing trouble in order to stay with the baby.

    This is a heart-breaking situation, for sure. We can all be thankful Mike was willing to go so far for his children and his grandchild. We always knew he was a hero; he’s just showing us once again about greater love.

    I taught a Bible study on Tuesday after comfort in suffering. This particular chapter dealt with a military mom grieving and fearing over her son sent to the same Gulf War.

    I had to explain before I started that I wasn’t sure as a military wife I should be leading the study. We have to have a stiff upper lip for so long to survive a military life intact. For 20 years I lived at ground zero for a nuclear attack. I could NOT choose to fear.

    Yes, we can and should be sympathetic, but I think my heart hardened in order to cope. My prayer partner and I prayed about my heart this morning.

    I guess we all come away a little scarred from our life experiences.

    Liked by 3 people

  10. Michelle – I agree that the parents need to consider what they are doing before they sign up or have a baby. (Of course, there are also the unplanned pregnancies that come along, too.)

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Mike is among the finest men I have ever known.
    I was not here often enough to completely realize what and where this was happening. For some reason I though he only had to go to Boise.

    Michelle of course I teared up at your story.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. You know, I don’t think the government has any authority to force separation of families, whether for slavery or for military duty. It’s one thing for a husband to go to war and leave his family for a definite national emergency, but when a woman joins the military, perhaps as a single woman, and doesn’t understand what it means to leave her (future) children in the care of others for some undesignated period of time, for some probably unimportant reason, it is morally wrong to force her to go anyway.

    Yes, she has made a commitment, and yes, there should be a penalty for breaking that commitment. But I’m not a big fan of women in the military–and am adamantly opposed to women fighting–but I’m a really big non-fan of forcing a woman to leave her children and do something less important than caring for them. If she has committed a serious crime and has forfeited her life, that’s one thing. IN a criminal case, she might be forced to separate from her children. But to leave one’s children in the care of others for some vague military priorities, no, that is not good, and the military that forces such a thing is on morally problematic ground. (And yes, I understand that “she has a baby, so now she can get out of her commitment” would encourage single women to conceive children just to break their commitment. Again, not a fan of women in the military in the first place. But surely there is a way to let her serve out her committed time without taking her away from her children, or to punish her for stepping away from her commitment in a lesser way than taking her from her children or court martialing her.)

    God gave children to their parents, not to the government. It was wrong to separate families by force during the days of slavery, and it is just as wrong to separate families by force now.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. But, we have decided to have women in the military and we have decided to treat them equally so there we have it. People are given the facts up front People often don’t realize how they will adore their children. It is tough.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. How is it more wrong than taking the father away? Well, if it isn’t wartime and the father is the sole support of his family (e.g., his wife has died since he joined up), then he too should be able to refuse to go overseas or anywhere he cannot take his children. Men do–and should–make sacrifices in wartime, and children sometimes suffer for it. But if it isn’t wartime, and his family circumstances have changed since he signed up, if possible his family circumstances should be taken into consideration.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. But that is not the country we have now. Women wanted equality. They got it. It would not be reasonable for them to be in the military and take all the stay at home jobs so the dads could never be home. Nor is it reasonable to let people off of their commitment because they changed their minds and decided to have children. Women have done that for years and still do: suddenly get pregnant because you don’t want to live in the barracks and they don’t allow pregnancy beyond six months in the barracks. Or get pregnant so they don’t have to deploy. etc.

    Liked by 3 people

  18. As Michelle pointed out, it is clearly laid out for people. Same as the people coming over the border. Same as foster care situations. It is not nice but it is where we have put ourselves by demanding equality in all things. One parent is not more important than the other. Though my personal opinion is that dads are slightly more important in the mental health of children. Or we would not have so many children with missing fathers in prison

    Liked by 2 people

  19. Mumsee, I don’t think either parent is more “important” than the other, but I do think that if one parent is going to be supporting the family financially (even with some occasional travel), it’s generally better if it is the father. And I think that military life is a man thing, with some exceptions.

    I also don’t think that (outside of wartime) the military should have such higher levels of commitment than anything else does. For example, I might take a job that requires a two-year commitment, and if I choose to leave in less than two years it might reflect badly on me, and possibly it might cost me something. I join a church, and I can move and quit the church. I sign a one-year lease on an apartment and I leave in just eight months–I am going to have to pay a penalty, likely having to pay the final four months anyway. It’s fair that there should be a serious penalty involved in not keeping one’s commitments . . . but it’s too much if that penalty is going to jail.

    Yes, some women “fought” to live in such a world, but does that mean all women must be stuck with the consequences (or that they should be)? If an 18-year-old woman romantically joins the army, makes a six-year commitment, and has a baby in four years, her commitment to the baby is bigger (or should be bigger) than her commitment to the army. No, it isn’t fair if women can have babies and put themselves in cushy stateside jobs as a result. But surely there is some solution short of putting babies a few weeks old into foster care so that their mothers can do some job overseas.

    I personally think our military has gotten way too “important” in terms of thinking it’s our job to be the world’s policemen, keep thousands of people deployed even though we aren’t at war with anyone, etc. If we were fighting an actual war, it would make sense that some of our young men (and their families) would be making sacrifices. But asking young adults to sacrifice their families for what exactly? No, it’s unconscionable. And putting both of a child’s parents, or the child’s only parent, into active duty is wrong. It may be the parents’ wrong, it may be the military wrong, or it may be both, but it’s wrong.

    Liked by 1 person

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