This is recruit Conrad calling to inform you that I have arrived safely. Please do not send any food or packages. I will be in contact by mail in the next 7-9 days. Thank you for your support. Click. I wonder what the voice will sound like when I hear it again in thirteen weeks?
Since we first laid eyes on Thomas twenty-three years ago He's become quite a young man. His Marine Corp packing list included only the clothes he wore, razor and toothbrush (forgot both), and Bible (which he remembered), and $20 (I guess there aren't too many vending machines on Paris Island). As he undergoes this intense period of preparation and transformation I find myself praying:
- that the body God has blessed him with will stay safe and strong
- that the mind God has blessed him with will master knowledge and skills that will serve him for a lifetime (and some, I pray, that he will never have to use) and
- that the spirit God has given him will be strengthened by the Spirit that indwells him.
Our son is a Marine. I ask you to pray for him. I hope you will pray for his parents.
Pastor,
ReplyDeleteWe will say an extra prayer for Thomas and your family.
Donnie
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
ReplyDeleteThe goal is to break him. To cause him to fall to the ground, then through it, straight to the core of his being. Only then can he be reborn a Marine. I don't envy his decision, even as I don't envy your anxiety. Yet brokenness is the most fertile soil in the Lord's vineyard. A substrate where beauty emanates from hardship afresh every morning. There are seeds in Thomas' future. Seeds of perseverance, character, temperance and faith. Of selfless service to country and of earning the right to wear the uniform.
The hardship is about to begin. Still, let your mind dwell on the beauty ahead.
Eddie
Pastor, Can you post Thomas's address to this blog? I was going to write a letter today and misplaced the bulletin with the address.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Earnest Lawrence