This is a little different than what I normally write so bear with me as I explain the reason why. We are a military family. There are a lot of Church members who are now currently serving. We have a proud history of members who served in all four branches of the United States Military.
Being a military family brings certain challenges. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is the frequent moves and everything else associated with that. In fact, just this past summer we moved or PCS’d as they call it in the military because of a new military assignment. For our kids this meant leaving friends and a neighborhood they loved, and a ward that they really felt at home in. It can be a really tough time for the kids. It gets harder for the kids as they get older.
As a military spouse I try really hard to stay positive. I know that my children look to me for their cue as to how they should handle the change. I know that if I’m going to complain all the time about the move than they will too. I also know that they will have a hard time so I talk to each of them individually way before the actual move and after the move. We also talk to them together in our family home evenings and at other opportunities.
We tell them to look at our upcoming move as an adventure, as a chance to see a new place and meet people that they otherwise never would have seen or met. We tell them that just because they are leaving old friends that doesn’t mean that they can’t still be friends. We tell them that they shouldn’t look at it as losing something but as a chance to gain something. It is a chance for them to touch someone else’s life and for others to touch their lives. Sometimes the talks work and sometimes they don’t.
While I always worry about whether or not they’ll fit in at their new schools and whether or not they’ll make new friends right away, the one thing I don’t have to worry about is the acceptance we’ll get from our new ward. It is so wonderful to know that wherever the gospel is you will always find a family. It might take some getting used to your new ward family and they might need to get used to you too but it will come. The gospel brings us together and is our common bond.
Being a Latter-day Saint family in the military is a challenge but it is also a blessing. Because we interact in so many ways with many different kinds of people we have a chance to show by our examples what it really means to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We who are associated with so many have a great opportunity to teach others the gospel through the way we live our lives and the way we treat others in our military community. Elder M. Russell Ballard taught us that we need to extend the hand of fellowship to everyone and not just to a select few.
If you are a member serving in the military or if you are a military family please know that there are excellent resources available to you. Some of them are available through the Church’s official website. In fact they have a page specifically for Military Relations. In the next few weeks I hope to share with you more resources that are geared to military families as well as ways we can share the gospel with others in our military communities.
