Trusting in God’s Grace — as an American, Homeschooling, Military Mom

By monthly contributor, Ann Dunagan of Harvest Ministry

“America, America,
God shed His grace on thee.”

As Christians, God gives us a supernatural grace to live for Him and to trust Him for everything. As moms, He has a grace for us. Even for our nation, despite our many faults, God has a grace.

My oldest son was recently in Afghanistan, commanding a platoon of snipers in the United States Marine Corps and serving our nation as a 1st Lieutenant specializing in Ground Intelligence in an extremely dangerous and hostile area.

Throughout the past four years, as I’ve walked day-by-day as a mom with a grown man in the military, I’ve been learning to rely on God’s grace.

My hope is not based on human reasoning or any personal assessment of today’s political situation. My trust is not based on our current national leadership or in my evaluation of the moral value of our country’s international purpose. I put my hope in God. I trust in Him. He is always reliable. His purposes never change. And I can completely put my faith in Him.

God has His grace for us — for whatever He has called us to do.

And God’s grace is totally undeserved.

I don’t get God’s grace because I’m a good mom, or because I deserve it.
I don’t ask God to protect my son because my son is better than others.

I ask the Lord to protect my son, because He is my Lord and He loves my son even more than I do. And I know that He loves to be our Protector and our Covering. God gives us His grace because He is good and because He is a GRACE-GIVER. God’s grace is His free gift and it’s so awesome.

God’s grace is being supernaturally empowered by God–so we can have His help and His hope and His ability–to do whatever He asks us to do.

Over the years, God has prepared us and trained us to TRUST Him. We had to trust God when our son was a boy (that’s him on the left, as a cute little blond guy).

We had to trust God in our homeschooling, especially continuing all the way through high school. Sometimes, I would question if our homeschooling would “mess up” God’s plans. My husband and I strongly felt that our son was supposed to go to college, and to a top-notch university, but what if our inadequacies would hinder God’s future? Continuing to say “YES” to God’s plan for homeschooling was a step of faith and learning to rely on God. It was a step of obedience.

How would God provide for the future? Again, we had to rely on God’s grace . . . and to move forward in faith by taking action and steps of obedience. Throughout high school, our son competed for many scholarships and in patriotic speech competitions, including VFW’s Voice of Democracy, even representing our state at nationals in Washington DC. Working with veterans and speaking at patriotic events taught our son even more about our nation and about the value of service and sacrifice. It was a learning experience . . . and an important step in releasing our son to God and to His purposes.

What about college? We were thrilled as our son received a full-tuition Presidential Scholarship to wonderful Christian university, over 2000 miles from home. Again, we had to pray and to trust God. It was an exciting opportunity, but to move forward, we had to release our son to God.

Lee Binz the HomeScholar encouraged me with these words:

We spend much of our homeschool years explaining to people the reasons we keep our children safe at home. Those reasons don’t change when our children grow up – it’s our children that change.

In fact, they become adults.

The Bible says: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 13: 11)

Adults must interact with a fallen world on a regular basis. Firm in their faith, adult Christians are able to negotiate the contrasting world views with their own beliefs intact. At some point, your child will be ready to “become a man” (or woman) and move on into adult life – and that may include college.

Train up your children in the way they should go, and when they become adults, encourage them to engage the culture and change the world. Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (Mark 16:15)

During college, our son grew spiritually, socially, and academically . . . and for him and for our family, it was very good. As our son graduated (as the Most Outstanding Student in the Undergraduate College of Business, equivalent to Valedictorian) we praised God for His grace. But it was just a step in the process.

(My husband and our pastor, praying for our son before entering the USMC.)

Next, our son felt led to become an officer in the USMC, a very hard and difficult process. He left for OCS, Officer Candidate School, and made it. Then, he had to sign his commission, putting his name on the line to accept the responsibility of becoming a USMC officer. He was not only responsible for his own life, but for the lives of all the men he would lead into combat.

It’s a tough world, and the Marines are a super tough selection. The road, especially as a godly Christian man, is not easy. But the US military is a world that desperately needs good men of moral integrity and spiritual strength.

We all had to trust God.

When God wants us to do something, we know we can do it. If God wants us not to do something (whether that is avoiding a certain sin or making a particular sacrifice) we know we can do that too . . . because God will help us. God will never ask us to do something and then just leave us defeated in hopelessness and despair with some unattainable command. We will be able to obey God, because God will help us.

God protected our son, by His grace, and brought him home:

Our son fulfilled his USMC commission, and is now embarking on his next season of life. He applied to various graduate schools, and we all praised God as he was recently accepted into Harvard to get his MBA (where he will attend in the fall). It’s an exciting honor and as parents, we are thrilled about the opportunity!

Some homeschooling keynotes ask, “Harvard or Heaven?” as if there needs to be a choice in our parenting goals as visionary and mission-minded Christians intent on advancing God’s kingdom. But we say, “Why not BOTH?!”

We need to raise our children to be mighty men (and daring daughters) for God, empowered by His grace to do whatever He has called them to do.

I want my kids to be willing to go forward — in service and in leadership — and even into dangerous and dark areas — to shine brightly for Him.

We can trust in God’s Amazing Grace — God’s grace and help and ability to answer prayer. God’s grace — based completely (100%) because of everything God did for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through His death on the Cross of Calvary and His resurrection.

America, America, God shed His grace on thee.

As we pray for our nation of the United States of America, and for our troops, and for our leaders (and for the upcoming election), we need to pray for God’s grace. As a nation, we need God’s grace — not because we’re good enough. Not because we’re better than any other nation. But because of our need for God’s help and His ability to fulfill the purposes that God has for us as a people.

May God help us to be willing to stand up and to be bright lights for Him, not just lights hidden under a basket . . . especially in dark times.

God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above.

Related posts:

Related posts:

1. GREAT Blog Article: A Case for Homeschooling
2. The Quest for Knowledge: My Mother’s Relaxed Approach to Homeschooling