Taking Care of His Soldiers....

It never ceases to amaze me how God's love works in our lives. He is always there, beckoning us to him. Wanting us, loving us, forgiving us.

Even those who don't believe, he's there, waiting for them to turn to him.

And when they do, he's ready for them. Always prepared, always taking care of things ahead of time.

Always picking up the pieces of his weary soldiers.

The military is very different. My experience, today, with the military went something along these lines.....

(Me walking into the finance office to fill out the paperwork for our travel pay)

"Yes, I have my husbands separation orders and I need to fill out the appropriate paperwork so that we will receive our travel pay"

her - "He's getting out of the Army?"

me - "yes"

her - "you have his orders?"

me - "yes"

her - "Well there is nothing I can do for you until he attends the separation briefings"

me - "He's not actually separating until Feb."

her - "then why are you here?"

me - "I have my husbands orders because I need to fill out the appropriate paperwork to receive our travel pay, we're leaving in a week, he's leaving in a few months"

her - "you can not receive your travel pay before his ETS date"

me - "yes, you can if you have orders"

her - "do you have orders?"

**rolling my eyes in my head and thinking how many times I've already repeated myself I reply...**

me - "ummm, yes" while pointing to the papers she's holding in her hand.

her - "yeah, about these, it doesn't specify that the travel pay is allowed for you and your children before the ETS date"

me - "orders are orders aren't they? They wouldn't have cut them this early if they were not for us to use."

her - "I'm sorry, but there really isn't anything I can do. Except I can tell you that in April you can fill out this form and send it in. Where are you driving to?"

me - "Mississippi"......"Grenada, Mississippi"

her - "let's see here..." punches in some info on a computer....."you will be allowed 20c a mile, 74.25 per day for yourself and 49.50 per day per child. But like I said, you can't even see if your eligible for that until April."

me - "ummm, well thanks for letting me know how much I probably won't be getting. That's always pertinent information."

her - stares at me over her little glasses

me- trying to think of something polite to say....

her - "anything else I can help you with?"

When did she help me??

me - "no, I suppose not for now"

her - "well......" then she gets real quiet and hands me a small stack of papers like they're holding some serious secret information...."take these, give them to your husband, it'll help him when he's out processing."

me - "ummm, thanks. Bye"

I get out to the truck and I open the stack of papers. What are they??????

WHAT ARE THEY????

She had handed me back his orders and my Power of Attorney I had given her. Good grief.

That was a sample of how my day was. I couldn't help but to compare how God is always prepared to take care of us, even if we are separating ourselves from him. He's always there, holding out his hands to us.


I'm done with that. The Army has a lot of really great perks that make it difficult to leave, but once you get past the comfort zone, and realize it's a security blanket full of holes, it isn't too hard to leave.

It is, disappointing.

God isn't like that. His promise is that even through the bad, he's going to be there with us. To love us to comfort us. He isn't going to take the hurt away, but he'll hold our hand when the waters rough. He'll prevent us from drowning. His deep and intense love for us will be our life raft.

What an incredible Father we have!! We're so very blessed. So blessed. ~