No Atheists in Foxholes

Growing up, my parents took my sister and I to church every Sunday and enrolled us in religious education classes or CCD as it was called. At the time we thought it was torture, sitting there reading the Bible, so we passed notes to pass the time and let the words in one ear and out the other. In second grade I received my First Communion and was confirmed in tenth grade. After that, I stopped going to CCD and saw going to church on Sundays as more of an annoyance than anything else... I'd have to get up early!

When I went off to college at UMASS in 2003, church and religion were the last things on my mind. I was more concerned with making friends and going out on the weekends. I transferred to the University of South Carolina in 2005 and lived with my now best friend, MegBo, a devout Christian. Living with her definitely changed my view on religion and made me feel bad about not going to church, but I still didn't go. I did realize that people down south are much more religious than my native northerners. I really respected that.

It wasn't until last year that I started to go back to church and even then it was very occasionally. Being a Catholic in South Carolina is like being Jewish anywhere else, a definite rarity so I went to church alone, but I almost liked it better that way.

When Hubby left for training after we got married, I started attending with more regularity, because well, it was a good thing to do and a good habit to form. I have every intention of raising my children with faith; it gives them morals and the opportunity down the road to decide to continue on.

It wasn't, however, until Hubby left for Iraq that I really took a deep understanding to or appreciation for my faith. When everything is so out of your control, you have to believe that someone or something greater than you, will give you the strength to keep going and to be the shield that protects Hubby and his fellow comrades. In a book I read about Army deployments, the author said that it is the people who have faith that have an easier time making it through than those who have none. This makes complete sense. Those of us with faith depend on the fact that God will protect our loved one and bring them home to safety all the while He is giving us the strength and courage it takes to get through each day.

As the saying goes, "there are no atheists in foxholes." LT G, Hubby's fellow platoon leader, adapted the saying adding, "...or on combat outposts." Could anyone without faith really make it through a deployment? Whether they are on the front lines or the homefront, faith is what gets us through.

There are no atheists on combat outposts or deployment homefronts.



Take a look at LT G's blog at: www.kaboomwarjournal.blogspot.com