Aim High!

My friend's kid is going into the military. This in itself is not an earth shattering fact, I mean kids go into the military every day. And by kids I mean 18 year olds. Sheesh, I am so old. Anyway, this got me thinking about my own brush with military life. During a very intense elliptical machine work out this morning, if there is such a thing, she expressed some concerns about what the war machine would do to her baby. She is not he sentimental type, but she is still a mom. I have always said I would never want any of my babies to choose that life. It was such a pit of despair for me. Others seem to thrive in it though. Dan the man made it look easy. So here are a few things that I learned from my military stint that most likely her boy will learn to. And its not all bad.

1. Whining about how bad something sucks does not make it better. It also does not make it go away. I had to learn that one rather quickly. You are asked to do things that make no earthly sense and seem like a serious waste of time, but you still gotta do it. Most of the time you don't even get a reason, which infuriates Dan the man. I had to learn to take directions, shut up, and be obedient. Even if it was only outward obedience. I think lots of people could use that lesson.

2. I am not the center of the universe. Other folks matter. I can't just clock in, take care of my little corner of the universe and go home. We are a team and joe schmo, whether you like him or not, is on your team. If he fails, you fail and vice versa. We are pretty selfish in our society. I don't think it would do any of us harm to wake up and smell the teamwork.

3. I can do anything for a short amount of time, and everything is a short amount of time. I can run 3 miles, shine shoes, do an obstacle course, run with a duffel bag and gun that weigh more than I do if I know there will be an end. You know why? Because I have to. See #1

4. Left to my own devices I will act like a complete fool. Its true that every 20 something goes through that rebellious phase be it in college or in the military, but for some reason enlisting seems to make it happen at lightening speed. All of a sudden you have this freedom. Freedom and a paycheck. You have virtually no bills and when its time to go home for the day you are on your own. This can lead to a lot of mischief and bad behaviour, even for stark white church girls. Its inevitable. You will learn a lot about where you stand on a number of topics. What do you really think about God, drinking, sex, and politics? You start to make your own decisions often by trial and error, which I have to admit is not the best way. It gets the job done though. You start to figure out who you are and who you want to be. Sometimes you get stuck in a persona that isn't you, but the more confidence you get in yourself the less you care about what your team thinks of you and you figure out that people who stand on their own are often times more respected than party time boy. It also doesn't hurt to have a family who loves you and is praying for you while you figure this out.

I don't have that many fond memories of military life, but I wouldn't be who I am without it. As long as you remember who you are, and who your God is you can't go wrong. And we all go wrong, but he takes us back anyway.