For Those Dreaming of Going Home

Guest Post Written by Kelley

I was recently asked to lead a ladies meeting for a local church here on Guam. We enjoyed a potluck dinner in one of the ladies' homes. Half of us were forty and younger and at fifty five, I was probably the oldest of the forty and older. I asked the younger set to each share a hope/dream they had. A hope, I explained, is something that, if it can be had, it will be, and a dream is a vision, a goal, an idea. One unwed mother hopes, she said, to get married to a godly man. An Air Force military bride and mother of two teen boys said she dreams of saying, "I have my GED." What one expectant wife said, who has a master's degree and is a teacher, struck a cord with me and every other wife and mother in the room. Tearfully she told us she dreams to go back home full-time and be a better wife and a good mother to their soon-to-be three children. Another young wife who recently went back home full time said she dreams of being a counselor for marriage relationships. When this young wife's marriage was on shifting sand due to her own attitude toward her husband, she submitted herself to no one else and nothing else but the Word of God. With her own two hands she has rebuilt her house, and her marriage to her unsaved husband has never been better. 

Next we discussed concerns and fears. I explained that a concern is something that worries us, and may even cause sleeplessness or a change in appetite, and a fear is a distressing emotion that makes us afraid of impending danger, evil or pain. Many young women feared their families would not be ready to meet the Lord's return for His Bride. The young wife who wants to help other troubled marriages said she is afraid she is not sheltering her children enough from the worldly influences they get at school. Another young woman said she was afraid she will never get married and have children. 

After we aged women over forty listened to the younger women, I asked each of us to share some gold nuggets. Your post today, Lori, is similar to one of the ladies' testimonies. I know so many women are struggling in marriages with unsaved husbands and even Christian husbands who have, like their wives, believed society's lies to them about how they should "do" marriage and family. After all the wonderful testimonies were shared (LOTS of tears), I read Connie Hultquist's testimony about bringing her husband back home. The sweetest presence of the Lord came into the room. Oh, the power of the testimony of a woman who has been to the other side of answered prayers! In conclusion, we realized that the vein that was the scarlet cord through every victory is the power of prayer. 

Prayer, prayer, prayer. Young women, aged women, if we will pray, and submit to God's way, His timing, His Word, we will win every time. Do on earth what you can do in obedience and He is bound by His promise to do in Heaven what only He can do. I've seen it happen too often for anyone to convince me otherwise. Oftentimes prayers must even be coupled by fasting like Widow Connie Hultquist did. Some battles won't be won any other way. There's a lovely song I'm requested to sing and often (I think Dawn Thomas wrote it?), "I've Been Through Enough to Know He'll Be Enough for Me." 

My heart is full today, Lori. I've been married for 35 years. (The first two decades of that were pretty rotten because of my own attitude.). Our firstborn is 32 years old and I've been at home for 31 years. My choices, my prayers, my thrift, my own two hands, my preferring my husband, my practicing in the mirror, "Okay," (that was my gold-- Practice "Okay" in a sweet tone of voice and with a smile), my cooking, cleaning and puttering, my investments in the Word every day, my building up my man, my giving my man my body that is not my own but his, my relationship with God and with my husband and our children today makes it worth it all. 

*hugs* to all the wives who dream of going back home.

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
James 5:16
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