Check this out. These days are synonymous with two significant events that bears remembering. The first date of 7,305 days is how many days from my husband’s birthdate until the day he was wounded in Viet Nam by friendly fire. The 13,140 days represents the number of days my husband, Gene Greenberg and I were married. It represents all the hard and grueling days of agony we spent torturing one another with our own stupid expectations, words and expressing those expectations, and wanting our own way. However, it also represents all the wonderful moments we captured to remember and reflect on how God orchestrated the events that brought us to an end of ourselves, and how He orchestrated the miracle within our hearts that played out in real time to create the marriage we dreamt about.
We managed to create a disaster during the few first years that just about destroyed us. I reflect on some of the disagreements we had back then and if I had made a list of all the things we argued about it would be laughable…to ourselves and to others as well. I’m sure of it.
Today is Veteran’s Day. My hero, my prince, has been gone for 19 years; he passed in 2006. Today is the day we remember all the sacrifices veterans have made for us to have all the freedom’s we enjoy. He came home from Viet Nam to a divided world over the war. He and many other Vets had a hard time not taking the protest of the war personally. His comment was, “We were hearing bullets whiz over our heads and watching our comrades, our buddies, get blown apart while we hear and “feel” the hatred and protest about what we were doing.” Being able to step back from that a little as a more mature adult and farther removed from the fire in his belly he could rationalize what happened and be proud that he was a part of something bigger than himself. Gene being wounded by friendly fire, makes the pain of all of that harder to swallow. But he did process it to a place where he was no longer angry and bitter. He accepted his role there and then came to realize why he came home. He told me he figured out that God wanted him to tell others about the peace he found in Jesus and encourage them to do the same.
Part of our struggle was because of Viet Nam and how his heart was so wounded, but it was also about both of our immaturity as we thought we knew what we were doing when we planned on getting married with me being 17 and him just 3 days away from his 21st birthday. Others thought we were “out of our mind,” particularly my parents.
I’m writing on this day when others are remembering so many memories of their sacrifice, the sacrifice of their comrades, and the families of those comrades. I never want to forget their sacrifices, and I lift them up to God to comfort, heal, and restore the joy so many of them lost on that battlefield.
God is a good God, and he orchestrates our lives whether we believe that or not. He is always working even though we cannot visibly see it. Where was God when___? I always say He was on His throne, the same place He was when Jesus was crucified on that cruel cross so long ago for each one of us, for me, for Gene and for our marriage to be all that he created it to be. If you will tap into His life giving power, you too can experience the grace to become all that He meant for you to be in every area of your life.
Thank you, Jesus.
We managed to create a disaster during the few first years that just about destroyed us. I reflect on some of the disagreements we had back then and if I had made a list of all the things we argued about it would be laughable…to ourselves and to others as well. I’m sure of it.
Today is Veteran’s Day. My hero, my prince, has been gone for 19 years; he passed in 2006. Today is the day we remember all the sacrifices veterans have made for us to have all the freedom’s we enjoy. He came home from Viet Nam to a divided world over the war. He and many other Vets had a hard time not taking the protest of the war personally. His comment was, “We were hearing bullets whiz over our heads and watching our comrades, our buddies, get blown apart while we hear and “feel” the hatred and protest about what we were doing.” Being able to step back from that a little as a more mature adult and farther removed from the fire in his belly he could rationalize what happened and be proud that he was a part of something bigger than himself. Gene being wounded by friendly fire, makes the pain of all of that harder to swallow. But he did process it to a place where he was no longer angry and bitter. He accepted his role there and then came to realize why he came home. He told me he figured out that God wanted him to tell others about the peace he found in Jesus and encourage them to do the same.
Part of our struggle was because of Viet Nam and how his heart was so wounded, but it was also about both of our immaturity as we thought we knew what we were doing when we planned on getting married with me being 17 and him just 3 days away from his 21st birthday. Others thought we were “out of our mind,” particularly my parents.
I’m writing on this day when others are remembering so many memories of their sacrifice, the sacrifice of their comrades, and the families of those comrades. I never want to forget their sacrifices, and I lift them up to God to comfort, heal, and restore the joy so many of them lost on that battlefield.
God is a good God, and he orchestrates our lives whether we believe that or not. He is always working even though we cannot visibly see it. Where was God when___? I always say He was on His throne, the same place He was when Jesus was crucified on that cruel cross so long ago for each one of us, for me, for Gene and for our marriage to be all that he created it to be. If you will tap into His life giving power, you too can experience the grace to become all that He meant for you to be in every area of your life.
Thank you, Jesus.
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