I Said No, God Said Yes (Pt. 1)

As I was thinking back over my husband and I’s journey into the “land of the leathernecks” I realized that several times I told God “No, I would never do that” and God said to me “O ye of little faith”. It started off with me telling God I didn’t want to marry a Marine. My view of the Marine Corps was that they were all stuck up and snobby about their “lofty” position, even though I failed to see it as such. Most Marines will even admit to being stuck up and snobby because they think they are the best. I tend to agree with them now but not when I was telling God no. I didn’t like most of the Marines that I knew, and now as I look back I realize I didn’t know that many. I didn’t want my husband to become one of “them”. When my husband first started considering the military, he was looking at the Navy and I was alright with that. I gave God my stamp of approval on that and was excited about becoming a Navy wife. However, as the months dragged on while we waited for a job opening, my husband said he couldn’t leave our growing family hanging with no substantial job in the immediate future and he started looking to other branches of service. I was currently 6 months pregnant. He had come to the conclusion, after much prayer and thought, that the military was where God was leading him but not necessarily to the Navy. He wanted to talk with the Marine recruiters and I almost said out loud “No way!” After my own thought and prayer I realized that this may very well be where the Lord wanted my husband. I went with him to the recruiters and he left there saying “I want to do some PT with them and run the IST and see how I do.” He did such a good job and enjoyed it so much that he came home knowing this is what God wanted him to pursue. After that, the Lord clearly paved the way for him and once things got rolling, they haven’t stopped! Again, the Lord was making His way clear to us and it was definitely different from mine!

The next time I remember verbally saying no was when we were deciding who would be there with me for the birth of our first child. I wanted it to just be me and my husband to enjoy this miracle. Even though I knew my mom wanted to be there I said no and she decided she wasn't going to come until after our baby was born. Because of the uncertainties of babies coming, she wasn’t sure whether she should book a flight for my due date or wait until we called and said I was in labor. She decided on waiting until she got the call so she most definitely wouldn’t have been there for the birth. But, with everything falling into place so quickly with the Marine Corps my husband most definitely wasn't going to be there...he would be in Boot Camp far, far away so now God was telling me "Yes, Leah will be there with you." From this I was learning that Gods ways are not always our ways and He always has a much better plan in mind for us. What only He knew at that time was that my husband would make it back in time for our daughter’s birth and with a few hours to spare! 

                Before we were even pregnant with Aurora, I had told God how I wanted things laid out. We were going to start our family after we had been married for 2 years. That would give us enough time to do what we wanted, which was mostly taking a couple vacations just by ourselves. We would also be able to pay back most, if not all, of my husband’s college loans and then we would be more financially secure and feel more like it was time to start a family. Again, I was telling God “No, I don’t want a child yet” but God was saying “I have a different plan in mind for you.” As I look into my beautiful daughter’s face, I realize that His plan is always best but so often it doesn’t match ours at all. We were not expecting to be pregnant 7 months after we got married but God had something different in mind. 

~Leah Borg