Five Minute Friday: Belong

It's Five Minute Friday and this week's topic is Belong. It's over at Lisa-Jo's so go check it out. :)

What goes better with friendship than sombreros?

She's got three little ones in tow in a new place in a new life. This whole military lifestyle is foreign. The work her husband does is hard and long and the language used is a jumble of an-acronyms. She doesn't understand the half of it but she does understand she doesn't have long to be in this new place. The orders say two years...thats 730 days until roots are pulled up and another unknown begins. How do you make it in the now when you know the now is temporary? How do you find a way to belong when there seems to be no permanence? Because you have to. You have to dig deep and go and step out because just like every other military wife they need you as much as you need them.

You see there are some advantages to military life...you can't get too caught up with the material stuff because the stuff is always changing...where you live, what the job is, how long you will be in a certain place. If there is one thing that is certain in the military its change. So you get ample opportunity to give control back to where it belongs... in His hands. In each new place is an opportunity to belong...but belonging doesn't come to you...you've got to seek it out. You have to go where the friends are and you have to risk going deep in a short amount of time because that's all you've got. If you want something you've got to be something. If you want a deep friendship you've got to be a deep friend. Not only that you have to keep going. Sometimes we expect reciprocal behavior and it doesn't come...don't put too much thought into that...don't assume the other person doesn't care. Just assume the other person has a lot of life going on and pick up the phone again. The risk is worth it.

We receive so much more than the work we put in. We receive blessing through belonging. We receive comfort in our sisters when our world feels as though it's crumbling under the weight of deployments. We receive friendship when we need it most in the midst of joy, laughter, and tears.