For Marine and Military Moms
as our sons and daughters pack up to leave
by Jen Shroder

To all the Marine and military moms out there grieving as your sons and daughters pack up to leave, just remember, the measure of your pain and loss is a testimony of how richly you have been blessed! Try to appreciate all you have been blessed with...I realized that the other day, the depth of my sadness was because I've been so rich. God has been so good. Every day with our sons and daughters...since they took their first breath until this day...we have lived and love so much!

And I'm going to say something that I think needs to be said. I see people encouraging each other that God will protect our kids and everything will be okay. No, everything will not be as we would have it. If our warriors know God, then God DOES have a plan for their lives, but it may not be our plans. Some of our own WILL go home to be with Him. Some will remain and struggle through life with pain and injury. Some will come home as though nothing happened. But if they do come home, it will be because God has more work for them, they're not finished yet.

Because heaven is the ultimate blessing and healing. We fear death so much, but God IS waiting there to catch them when they fall. I grieve when I see us reassure each other that it won't happen, because some of us will know that pain, and we need to know that He is right there with us, to comfort us, to hold us, to help us to stand it. He will not fail us but His plans are His plans, not ours, and they are for a greater good than we can imagine.

Our sons and daughters have done a noble thing, they put themselves in harm's way to fight for our freedom, to keep us safe, to protect us and keep us, and we have to be real about what that might cost.

But know that it will not be the end. That even through the darkest days, there will be rejoicing and laughter and joy in the greatest of all homecomings. God loves our sons and daughters even more than we do, He will not ask them to do anything that He didn't go through Himself that we might be where He is. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." (Romans 8)

And to those who's children do not know God...trust Him. Who knows whether God opens up the heavens for our loved and lost to see in those moments on the battlefield? God opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant just before battle (2 Kings 6:16), He opened the eyes of Stephen just before he was martyred (Acts 7:54-56). He appeared before Paul on the road to Damascus. Only God knows the exact moment that a man or woman is ready to come home. Only God.

It’s hard to let go every time we get to see them and then they pack up their bags, put on their boots and go out that door. And as my son prepares for war, I fear I have a valley ahead of me that threatens to overwhelm me. But I trust Him. And though this is just a website, I hope you can take my hand and trust Him too. We are not alone. We are military moms and dads and we have the honor of having sons and daughters that have such courage as Joshua of old. We have been much blessed. So blessed. And I am so very proud and thankful for every moment, for every smile, for who they are.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29)