Along with her love for the Lord, I've come to love Morgan Farr's practical wisdom. In this special Christmas UPLIFT, she shares three ways we can all reach out to lift up a military family near us during the holiday season.
"One of my absolute favorite Christmas songs," Morgan says, "is Bing Crosby’s 'I’ll Be Home for Christmas.' I could listen to it a thousand times and not grow tired of it."
The one line in that song that always gets me (Dawn) is "I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams." I remember my own daddy when he was shipped overseas with the Navy. How he dreamed of being home with us around the tree.
Morgan continues . . .
The lyrics of this song are incredibly simple and yet it strikes a chord with me every holiday season, for a special reason.
We are a military family.
Each year at the holidays, service members and their families wait to find out if they will be home for Christmas.
Between deployments, TDYs, staff duty and being in the field, it is a toss up each year as to whether or not the service member will be able to be with their family around the tree on Christmas day.
Even if the service member is at home with their family for the holidays, this home usually means being far away from their extended family like grandparents, aunts and cousins.
This can make the holiday season extremely difficult for the servicemember, the spouse and the children.
Thankfully, brothers and sisters in Christ have the incredible gift of church family and community to help bridge the gap when service members are unable to be with family during the holidays.
I want to share with you—How To Bless a Military Family during the Holiday Season.
1. Dish the Dirt
Tell the military family where all the best holiday activities are held locally.
We had a family tell us about a neat place called Christmas Circle while we were stationed in San Diego, and it was such a blessing to us!
Oftentimes, the military family is not familiar with the area they are stationed in. Play tour guide and help them have a memorable holiday experience.
- Where should they go to get a real Christmas tree?
- Is there a local holiday festival or parade?
- Does one of the churches nearby put on an awesome Christmas pageant?
- Where are the best Christmas light displays?
2. Wrapping Party
I had a local friend invite me to come to her house and we wrapped Christmas gifts together.
We had eggnog, listened to Christmas music and wrapped gifts for our families. It was a blast!
If you can’t get together with your military friend, offer them the use of your extra wrapping paper, especially if they just moved in.
Finding all of your essentials when you unpack is hard enough, let alone trying to find wrapping paper!
3. Family Time
Invite them to your home for a holiday meal.
It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, last year my friend invited my family over for pizza and Christmas cookies right after Christmas and it was wonderful!
Play board games. Play in the snow. Read through the story of Christ’s birth. Let the military family participate in normal family activities.
Matthew 25:35 says, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Military life is hard on the regular, boring days. It is incredibly difficult at the holidays.
Military families are often treated like strangers, and it can be incredibly lonely.
Reach out to the military families in your town. Love on them in the name of Christ.
What can YOU do to help UPLIFT a military family this holiday season?
Morgan Farr is a Texas-loving, succulent-cultivating, book nerd. Stationed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
this Army wife is working to better love her husband, develop her three small children, and learn more about homeschooling. Morgan is a homemaker dedicating her time to ministering to other Army wives through Bible studies, one-on-one mentoring and physical training. She writes about her transition out of feminism and into biblical womanhood at The Forgiven Former Feminist.
Graphic adapted, Public Domain Pictures, courtesy of Pixabay.