Thankful Thursday-The Trials that Make Us Stronger

Because my Thankful Thursday posts will be limited in number I want to make sure that what I write for them is meaningful–not only to me, but to everyone who reads my blog.  This week I had trouble deciding on a specific topic or blessing to focus on.  Even as I sat down at my computer to start my post I still was not sure what I was going to write…and then the phone rang.  It was my brother calling from Florida to tell me that he and his wife are expecting a baby (after being certain they were done :).

We got to talking about the unexpected baby and my brother pointed out that this baby must be part of God’s plan for his family.  Well, actually that came after he told me that his oldest, and adolescent son, wrote in his Christmas wish list that he’d like a little brother for Christmas; he has 3 sisters.  He said that perhaps the baby is Heavenly Father being funny.

As we talked my brother shared something that he has been struggling with for years and has only recently made public.  My brother is a Naval Medic with the Marines and was in Fallujah when everything was going down.  Though he was a medic he was not exempt from the combat in Fallujah.  He witnesses carnage and was wounded.  He has been suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) in silence since returning home.

He managed to live his life with PTSD looming in the background for years, but that life has been plagued by flashbacks, breakdowns, and discord.  It was not until recently that flashbacks during flight training forced him to seek help.

My brother has had a difficult life.  He’s made some bad decisions and had some problems.  He has always wanted to improve himself, but was never willing to seek help.  He told me that he thinks he suffered in Fallujah so that he would finally seek the help he needed.  He is now seeing a therapist and has learned that many of his problems and bad decisions have come as a result of focusing on what was wrong with his life and what he didn’t have.  He realized that when we stop fighting against ourselves we realize that trials are for our good.  We begin to understand the plan our Heavenly Father has for us.  We begin to see how our trials give us the understanding and tools we need to thrive.