Tour Of Duty - Book Review

I'll never forget the "BLIP" my phone made that day.

I had just rocked our newborn daughter to sleep...  "BLIP" - an email from my husband at work.  Curious what he could possibly have to tell me just hours after returning to work from paternity leave, I quickly checked the message.

"I'm doing everything in my power to change this, but I wanted you to know as soon as I did" the email began... 

My heart sank as I scrolled down further and read that he had been given orders to deploy to Afghanistan again, much sooner than we could have ever expected.  My mind instantly began questioning "but I thought you had orders for training which made you non-deployable... I thought we were moving in a couple months...  I thought you were promised... "  I quickly realized it didn't matter what I thought was going to happen because every plan we had made had already been changed.  He was going to have to deploy again, like it or not and ready or not.

Later that day, I was browsing Facebook when I saw that Sara Horn was asking for bloggers to review a copy of her new Bible study for military wives titled "Tour of Duty: Preparing Our Hearts For Deployment".  Knowing how much I loved her previous book "God Strong" I felt like this opportunity couldn't have come at a better time.

Tour of Duty: Preparing Our Hearts For Deployment touches on essential key elements in preparing your heart as a military wife to go through the battles we all experience while our husbands are deployed.  We cannot "do" deployment alone and the great thing is that we do not have to because we have a wonderful God to help us get through it all.  This book gave me a completely new perspective on deployment and believe it has a message that all military wives need to listen to and believe!

Tour of Duty is broken into 7 chapters that go through all the stages of deployment - from the moment of saying goodbye to the lonely drive home to an empty house where we wait for news that our loved one has safely arrived at his destination.  Sara then goes on to discuss the detours that come along during deployment, such as the water pipes breaking, the car quitting and many other situations that just seem so much harder to deal with when our husbands are away.  Next comes the mountains and the desert - the middle of deployment.  Oh, how we wonder if we can possibly keep going!  My favorite chapter discusses "facing the giants" of doubt and fear.  The book closes by discussing how deployment can be your time to serve God and trust in Him in a way that you may never have before.  

"Nothing happens in our lives that God does not see.  Nothing happens that He can't turn into a beautiful piece of His master plan.  He has a purpose for deployments, and He has a plan for each of us." - one of my favorite quotes from Tour of Duty: Preparing Our Hearts For Deployment.

I love how Tour of Duty focuses on each of these stages we go through during the course of deployment and the fact that God has a bigger plan for us while you journey through what can be a really difficult time, as well as a time of great personal growth.  God uses the challenges of deployment to strengthen our walk with Him, to strength our marriages, our friendships and to strengthen our faith in ourselves!  If you're not sure how God can possibly take the challenges of deployment and turn them into a positive thing I really encourage you to check out Tour of Duty.  If you're going through your first deployment or tenth deployment I encourage you to use Tour of Duty to prepare your heart for the challenges before you.  Going through this book while going through a deployment is like having God there to personally hold your hand no matter what stage of deployment you are in!

"If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans..."  So here we go.  Deployment is coming again and we're embracing the challenging season ahead as part of God's plan that is so much bigger and better than anything we had planned for ourselves.  As my husband's departure date gets closer I find myself going back through Tour of Duty and praying that God will really help me to prepare my heart for this upcoming deployment.  It is my prayer that God will show me His plans and strengthen me as only He can, while my husband is away.  With God's help I know that we'll make it through this next deployment.

Soon enough, I'll have another kind of "BLIP" on my cell phone.  The "BLIP" that tells me that my husband has landed safely back in the US and I will soon be in his arms again.  Until then, I'll be doing my best to trust God in the journey.

Tour of Duty: Preparing Our Hearts For Deployment is available online at Lifeway.com or your local Lifeway store.  If you're interested Wives of Faith is also hosting an online Tour of Duty bible study that starts January 6th and goes through February 28th.  You can find out more information and sign up on their website!  You can also find Tour of Duty on Facebook - where excerpts are posted frequently to encourage, inspire and remind us that we are not alone on this journey!

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