Right after I had my third son I set about worrying about the responsibility of raising three men, keeping them out of danger and ensuring they could lead productive, happy lives. Strange enough, in the middle of all that worry, I never thought once about my sons coming to age when our nation would be involved in a war on terror. It’s almost hard to remember now, our world, we Americans lived and though differently before those towers in New York came down. I certainly didn’t know that while Jake and John watched me nurse their very tow haired brother, the day would come when two of them would go to a foreign land as soldiers. As their mother, I have prayed and do pray for those two, their safety and their souls as they made or make life and death decisions and protect and serve, as they came and will come home, with different thoughts and, I pray and prayed for a better understanding of their place and the mission and plan God has for them, the whole time I have and do marvel at their willingness to serve. As it turned out, all three of my men love God and while the youngest and oldest chose to soldier in this earthly war, my middle son is a soldier as well, just one of a different sort, one that is fighting for those that seek Heaven. As a minister, he too is maturing in ways that only his own path would lead him to, and I pray for him daily. As different as God made those sons of mine, they each see their Father differently and for all my worry, for what paths I might have chosen, for what a different world I had planned for them, God gifted me with three men beyond my imaginings.
There are many mothers blessed and worrying o