Be Safe, Love Mom by Elaine Lowry Brye

Author:Elaine Lowry Brye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2015-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

What Holds Us Together

I Believe in Miracles

There I was, standing awkwardly with my breast smushed like a pancake between the cold glass plates. I was late—very late—getting my annual mammogram, due to one of my stubborn idiosyncrasies: If one of my kids is deployed I cannot possibly add one more stressful thing to my plate, and so I don’t. A mammogram definitely fits in the category of stressful things on the plate. But my son Eric had just returned from seven months in an undisclosed location, and I needed to get it done. No more procrastinating.

Connie, the mammogram X-ray technician, had just one more view to take when she casually mentioned she had a son in the Army.

“Really? So do I,” I responded, trying to keep my mind off my discomfort. Actually, the mention of her son did take my mind off my discomfort.

“Yes,” she said, “and he’s in Afghanistan. Now hold right there. Don’t move. Don’t breathe.”

I stayed as motionless as possible until she told me I could exhale again.

“Afghanistan!” I said, feeling an immediate connection. “My son just came back from the Middle East. How do you cope?”

“Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray,” she answered. “Every time I think about him or his wife and little boy I am just on my knees.”

I asked her if she knew Psalm 91, The Warrior’s Psalm, which promises the guardianship of angels, protection for the faithful from dangers seen and unseen, and the satisfaction of a long life. Whether Christian or Jewish, many of our warriors who put their faith in God—and many of those warriors’ families—find comfort and encouragement in this outpouring of reassurance. Connie had never heard The Warrior’s Psalm. And so that morning we sat down together in the X-ray room, me in my hospital gown and Connie in her lab coat, and we read it together.

When we concluded our impromptu prayer session, Connie wrapped me in a huge embrace and said she was going to memorize the psalm so she would have it with her whenever fear crept in. And as I left the medical facility that day, I felt lighter than air.

As the saying goes, there are no atheists in a foxhole. And I don’t think there are many atheists who have kids in a foxhole, either. One of my good friends, Lurline, sums up this wisdom perfectly: “If you aren’t a person of faith before your child enters the military, you really need to find a faith fast. You will be praying like nobody’s business in times of trouble.”

Praying like nobody’s business—now there’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one. I have the Lord on speed dial. Just like Connie, my X-ray technician, I “pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.” I pray for good leadership, for airplanes not falling out of the sky, for protection from enemies seen and unseen. I pray when I knit. I pray when I’m in church. When driving. When washing dishes. I pray as I drift off to sleep at night and sometimes before I open my eyes in the morning.

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