Wife of Soldier in Iraq Goes Public with a Frank Testimony to God's Grace and Power
"My faith in God is strong. I have a relationship with Him, not just a religion. I know He is there, walking with me—the same way He is walking with my husband in Iraq...I was so determined to be strong this year that I allowed self-efficiency to overrun my dependency on Christ. There were many times that I tried to be my own power, my own fuel and my own spark. No wonder that pilot light kept going out. No wonder my engine stopped and sputtered so many times."
(Tennessee)—Sarah Horn is the wife of a military reservist in Iraq who decided to go public with her emotions and her faith in a powerful and touching op/ed in The Tennessean. The following are excerpts from that editorial. To read Sarah's letter in full, click on the link provided at the end of the article. (Photo: The Tennessean)
"I have always considered myself strong and independent," says Sara. "As the wife of a military reservist currently deployed to Iraq, I have seen that layer of strength chipped away at times this year...Just as my husband has an honor code, along with the men and women with whom he serves, so do military spouses, though ours is unwritten. We are the strong ones. We hold up our spouses, our children, our houses, our jobs. We are the glue that keeps everything together. But even glue can sometimes weaken.
"My faith in God is strong. I have a relationship with Him, not just a religion. I know He is there, walking with me, the same way He is walking with my husband in Iraq...I was so determined to be strong this year that I allowed self-efficiency to overrun my dependency on Christ. There were many times that I tried to be my own power, my own fuel and my own spark. No wonder that pilot light kept going out. No wonder my engine stopped and sputtered so many times.
"If you think about it, most of the men and women we read about in the Bible weren't great because of what they did, it was what God did through them during their struggles and weakest moments that make them memorable, perhaps because we can identify with them so well...I know that I feel my most vulnerable, my weakest, when I am sitting in church, and I know I'm sitting in God's presence, with no distractions or other things to keep me busy. I've heard other military wives say this as well, and sometimes it even keeps them away from services because they don't want to cry. They don't want to be emotional.
"But maybe that's the whole point. Being strong in my faith doesn't mean I say I trust God but then do whatever I can to take care of myself with God standing by as a bystander or a spectator. Being strong in my faith means standing despite my weaknesses, knowing God is holding me up. Depending on God to hold me up. It means being strong enough to hand over those burdens to the One who can hold them, and it means trusting Him enough to know that He will.
"The more we can place our cares on God, the more He can be praised, because we see firsthand just who He is. He is God and He is my strength.
So in the words of Paul—as I await my husband's return and do everything I can to help other military wives—I will "delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
