Memorial Box Monday - God's Orders

I really should have been doing these for a while now but those of you who know me, know that I hate to start something I can't finish. It is hard enough for me to commit to this blog once a month, let alone once a week. I finally just decided that I will do it when I can but I am praying that writing about the times when God has been more than faithful to our family and recording them in a Memorial Box will become even more than a weekly habit but a part of our lives. Until I find the perfect Memorial Box I plan on placing items on our bookshelf.

(You can learn more about Memorial Box Mondays, the amazing woman who began them and how to begin your own, by clicking on the picture above.)

It is hard to know where to start. I have promised a few stories to you all in the past, so I have decided to share one of them first. After James has been in the Navy five years we were more than tired of being apart. He decided that he would get out and we would move back home. God did many things during our time in Idaho including showing my husband that He was calling him to youth ministry. We felt strongly that this calling was from the Lord but we didn't understand how what happened next fit into His plan. Through a course of another Memorial Box Monday post ... it became clear that for this to happen that James would need to rejoin the military. We knew that God had showed us our old duty station as the place we were to mister and knew that the only way we could afford to live there was being in the military. The two just did not seem to fit together but we chose to trust in the Lord's plan.

Once he had joined he left for retraining and in that time awaited orders. Confident in the Lord's calling, we called for orders and politely asked for our old duty station. The detailer seriously laughed and said that he was sending us to the middle of the desert in California. Um, no ... we will wait for the next set of orders. Time and time again we made this phone call with the detailer insistent on where he was sending us. I was beginning to get angry, not with God but with this man! He was standing in the way of what God had shown us! (Looking back I really do laugh.) We finally submitted to the fact that we would accept the only orders offered to us but I let James know that it was NOT the Lord's plan. He called and was told, "the Navy is out of money so we cannot cut you orders right now." What???? How does the Navy run out of money?? We were told to call back in two weeks.

Two weeks later James called for his orders but his detailer was gone on leave. He instead had to speak with this mans boss. He asked James why he was being sent to California since it was clear that his expertise was at the base we had been at previously stationed at and asked if we would be willing to go there. WHAT???? Would we be willing???? The Lord had set up the perfect timing to fulfill His plan and in the midst, shown us how awesome and all knowing He is!

Once we got to our new duty station, the Lord did just as He had shown. He placed us in a church where we were able to serve as Sunday School teachers for the high school class and eventually James was able to serve as the youth minister there. It was an amazing time of service that molded our relationship with the Lord and taught our older children what a gift there is in serving.

So in memory of this miracle that God did in the last hour, we will have a magnet from that duty station in our Memorial Box. Thanks Linny for encouraging me to recall all that the Lord has done for us. I would always think that I just did not have stories like you did but I see now that I had blinders on. I am loving this tradition already :)