The Diaries of a Fruitcake in a Half Baked World!

The other morning I came across the words “lowly” and “servanthood”.  Reading the Bible I find that it is a characteristic that would actually help me and others. To strive for, to be a servant of Christ.  I, for one, am interested and desire the characteristics of Christ. Currently I am doing a workbook study on “The Mind of Christ”.   The word “servant” has a negative implication for me when it came up.  I mean, reading those two words, lowly and servanthood, sound like you are being a doormat and serving others and treated badly. I immediately felt my heart fall because I know this is one area I have a problem with. I started getting sad right away. I like to be happy and I like to make people laugh. Being a servant and being lowly don’t sound like a way to be happy or does it?

In Phil. 2:7 it says Jesus “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”.  A Christlike characteristics to becoming a servant is being lowly. Woah there!  Lowly?  Why would I want to be lowly? There are  a couple of reasons to not wanting to be lowly. The first is not knowing what it means and the second would be pride.  I mean, if you think about it, pride has been around since Adam and Eve in the garden!  God despises the proud, but He dwells on the lowly.  *Lowliness does not mean belittling yourself. Rather, it means esteeming others.

Ok, fast forward….I am laying in bed flipping through channels around 10:30 at night and come across Joyce Meyer Ministries.  I rarely ever watch t.v. but this night I turned it on and was searching for something to entertain my mind.  Joyce was talking about depression.  We all have something to be depressed about, seriously. If you really want to get down, then you can find something to make you sad and if you dwell on it, you will stay there.  Well, she made a really interesting observation on how to get out of depression without medication.  It is esteeming others! Imagine that.

To becoming lowly, I need to esteem others. Now that is not hard or discouraging like I thought.  I know I can do that. If we all desired and put some effort into esteeming others wouldn’t the world be a better place?  When you lift others up, some might not be very receptive to it at first, but when you truly mean it and the smile on your face is genuine, people notice and can’t help but smile back or if they don’t, they will eventually.

So if you find yourself depressed right now, find someone that you can esteem.  You will find that not only does it make that person feel better, it will make you feel better because your mind will be off of yourself and your problems and on someone else.

We would love to hear your stories of experiencing the characteristic of being lowly. Tell us how you have esteemed others around you. We would love to hear your ideas.

*The Mind of Christ  by T.W. Hunt and Claude King pg. 21

It’s the countdown to my husbands retirement. October 23rd he had his retirement ceremony, which was awesome having both sides of the family there. He will be going on 24 years of service with the U.S. Army and his time has come to an end.  I am blessed that he has made it through all his deployments!  We celebrated our 20th anniversary, three days before his retirement and I have learned so much and grown so much as a military spouse.

When we married back in 1989, I was a dependent of a military Officer. I have always moved every 3 years and loved to always try a new area. Marrying into the military was absolutely what I wanted.  To keep traveling and meeting new people and setting up home where ever the Army sent us.  It was somewhat of a challenge going from being the dependent child to the spouse.

I was 18 years old when I married my husband. He was an Private stationed at Ft. Rucker, AL.  We were there during the Gulf War but he never had to deploy due to his job and where he was at.  The time did come for him to have a one year hardship tour.  Honduras.  We found out 1 month before he left that I was pregnant with our first child. He missed the pregnancy but was home for her birth, only to leave 3 weeks later to return. He didn’t come home until she was 6 months old.  So, I was 21 years old and raising our first child together, alone. I had to grow up quickly.  At 22 years of age, we had our second child in San Antonio, TX. Then at 23 years of age, we had our third child in Ft. Hood, TX.  When our last one was 2 months old, I found myself alone with 2 toddlers and an infant, 3 car seats, 5 pieces of luggage, 2 dogs and 2 crates on a plane to Germany to meet my husband for our 3 year tour.  Talk about being alone!  This time in my life was the time that I came across women who wore their husbands rank and looked down at me.  This is the time when I learned that we had to overlook those things and get along because we were all that we had when it came for help and staying sane. Our husbands were gone to field duty exercises and Bosnia.

When he came home we were on our way out of Germany to Ft. Rucker, AL for a couple of years and then to Ft. Campbell, KY where we are now and retiring.

During my time as a Military Spouse, I have enjoyed all the travels.  I’ve been to France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Germany, Alabama, Texas, Kentucky and he has been to Bosnia, Honduras, Iraq, Qatar, Afghanistan and so much more.  One thing I never got was a shrunk or coo coo clock or grandfather clock.  I did get my pottery and crystal though.  I made a lot of friends and one, Angela, that I met in Germany, followed us from Germany to Ft. Rucker to live one street over from us for a couple of years and then to Ft. Campbell.  I’ve watched her kids grow and join the military and she has watched mine grow.  Her husband is retiring next year too!  This world is really a small world.

Some things I won’t miss are the deployments, the TDY trips and field training exercises. The rumors that sometimes turned out to be true from those trips. Being a military spouse is really a hard job. You find yourself alone a lot and having to take care of everything. Then he comes home and takes back those responsibilities, which kind of upset the flow of things. It is very hard to have to take control and then give it back.  Many spouses find it hard to cope with deployments but my hands were always full with our children.  My friends and I would plan on the meals for thanksgiving, Christmas, easter, etc…  It was hard but at least we had each other.

So now the choices of retirement.  I have no idea what it is going to be like as a “civilian”. He got his job in the civilian world the day of his retirement ceremony and he will be with the guys at his current unit, which is wonderful for him! Today was a day of figuring out insurance, dental, medical, making those decisions and fedEx’ing them back to the company. His hair is longer than I have ever seen in since I met him in 1987. He has a beard! I will have to post a picture of the werewolf!

If you are already retired from the Military, send me some advice, if you have any. I would love to read it, learn from it.

Well, I will be the first one to share a casual story. My husband has been in the military for over 23 years. He is retiring in January 2010. So excited!! Last year when he was going to retire, it wasn’t as exciting because we didn’t know what to expect or if he needed to get another job. Some things happened with the soldier who was to take his slot and he decided to stay in for another year until the unit got another soldier to fill his position. It was a relief for us when he decided to pull his papers and they approved it. The reason was it gave him more time to decide what he wanted to do with his career.
We are so happy that we did this. It gave us more time to settle into the fact that we were retiring from the military. He was able to find another job and it is going to be a smooth transition. He has been on leave since October 23rd and his new job starts on January 4th. It is a great way for him to end his career with the military. Taking it easy, growing a beard. I am proud of him.
Now it’s time for cilivian life….