Drill Sergeant

A Latte Love (Factor of 7)

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Sharita

Yesterday at 5:45am, my phone alarm went off. But unlike other days as of late, I had NO problem bounding out of bed.

It was time for third month of Factor of 7. I was so excited about it, I woke up three times throughout the night to make sure I hadn’t overslept for our Jesus adventure.

As I write this, I can’t tell if my excited jitters are from the skinny caramel macchiato I had or the remnants of our Starbucks Factor of 7. (Talk about some legit Jesus Caffeine!)

So yes, yesterday my beloved and I found ourselves at McGraw housing complex Starbuck’s here on a Fort Benning. At 7:00am. Ready to bless some folks with free coffee. $107 of free coffee, to be exact.

And as it has proven the last two months… It. Was. Awesome. Jesus was there– and blessed us immensely.

My beloved approached the cash register and ordered our personal drinks. (Perk of Factor of 7 experience: We get an excuse to treat ourselves to coffee/yogurt etc.) He asked the cashier/barista to break a $20 bill. (We needed a couple smaller bills to get our exact cash amount.) Needless to say, the cashier/barista looked a smidgen annoyed at our request.

But in less than thirty seconds, that all changed.

Brandon handed me the $5 bill I needed, then I stepped up to the register and told Shauna that we were going to pay for the next $107 worth of coffee that came through the line.

Her expression was PRICELESS. Her jaw dropped, eyes got big and she gasped…. “WHHAAAA… ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!”

The entire atmosphere of that little coffee shop changed quicker than you could say “double shot espresso.” For the next 45 minutes or so, Brandon and I stood at the pick-up counter, notebook and business cards in hand, watching peoples’ reactions and asking how we could pray for them.

That's us on the right. Sharing some Latte Love

In total, we were able to buy coffee/breakfast for 22 people. One of our bless-ees is having a baby in June. Another is deploying to Germany. Several families were preparing to watch their son/brother graduate from Basic Training today and tomorrow. (Fun conversations ensued when I told them that the handsome man behind me was a drill sergeant. Fortunately they weren’t in his battalion, so my beloved wasn’t one of the drills who probably made their son cry ;-) )

When I asked one lady how we could pray for her, she leaned in close to me, eyes misty and whispered gently, “I am a cancer survivor.” I very loudly (and enthusiastically) blurted out “WELL, PRAISE THE LORD!!” I’m sure the other customers were intrigued.

It was a fantastic way to spend part of our morning. Oh… And did we mention that a reporter from The Bayonet (the local Fort Benning newspaper) was there? She is going to run a story on our ministry in next week’s paper. (Thanks for that one, Jesus!)

Today we encourage you to share the love of Christ around you. Get creative. Pop over to the Factor of 7 page for ideas. You never know who you will bless… and how YOU will be blessed in return.

Oh, one more thing… To celebrate this successful event, we are doing a GIVEAWAY!!!  We are sharing a little more Latte Love with a chance for you to win a Starbuck’s gift card!

The contest starts today and will continue until the story runs next week in The Bayonet. (Approximately one week.) To enter, share this post (and/or future/past posts) with folks you know via Facebook, email, Twitter, etc. And then leave a comment here to give your reaction and how you shared.

The more you share/comment, the more times you can enter to win some of your own Latte Love!

We are so thankful that we have been called to serve in this way… More than 22 different kinds of drinks were purchased on Wednesday at McGraw Starbucks from frappuccinos to white chocolate mochas… But every single one of them was made with little Jesus Latte Love!

Caffeinated with Christ,
SGK

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
–John 13:34

Categories: army, blessing, Drill Sergeant, evangelism, excited, Factor of 7, generosity, giveaway, God, husband, Love | Tags: , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Creatively Crafty

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Sharita

I am not a crafty person. I don’t mean the kind of sneak-crafty but I rather Pinterest crafty. Unless God Himself comes down from heaven and suddenly blesses me to paint neatly and draw straight lines, you will never see any of my “work” on Pinterest (or any other cute-crafting site for that matter.)

For some of you who know me well, you might dispute the claim above. But let me clarify– while I am not crafty– I am creative. I do believe there is a big difference. In my case, I can use limited resources to reach a goal in a unique way… but that doesn’t involved crafting a super cute wreath that anyone would ever want to hang on their front door.

I do like attempting to craft– at least in a creative kind of way. It can be a stress reliever and really gets me pumped up about life. But I have to have a goal, usually involving other people. Let me give you an example.

My creative side got motivated on Monday afternoon. (Mainly because I want to procrastinate on anything that required writing and/or dish-doing.) I had been thinking about doing something for the girls in our Foxtrot company (I am Family Readiness Group leader) for several months. Apparently, Monday was the day.

So I got to work. As FRG leader, I pretty muchly have zippo for a budget, so my goal was to make something close to free-ish. I rummaged through my box of random, leftover craft supplies. Talk about a box of craziness. Ribbon, acrylic paint, puff paint, super glue, fake googly eyes, felt, toy army soldiers, scraps of material, pipe cleaners… You name it.

It took a little while to figure out how I was going to make them all a legitimate copy of the Drill Sergeant Spouse’s creed for little to no moolah. (Plus it was late in the afternoon and I wanted to avoid the store if at all possible.)

I found cream colored and silver shiny cardstock leftover from our wedding invites. I was out of black printer ink (naturally) so printed in blue. But I wanted this little project to look “army-ish” and last I checked, “cream” wasn’t exactly an army color. I dug around in my paint… Had green acrylic paint… Only brown puff paint…. but no black. Sigh.

Fortunately I remembered my elementary art days that black paint comes from mixing random colors together… So I grabbed the brown, green, red, blue and yellow in hopes of creatively achieving my mission.

I wanted to give the background paper a camo look. Sponge painting. But we didn’t have a sponge. (Seriously– this is how my “craft” projects usually go.) I dug around under the sink and found a green SOS pad. I chopped off an end, went to work mixing and dipping paint.

Then… I didn’t have glue. (Super prepared, can’t you tell?) I had used all of my rubber cement on the last crazy project but failed to replenish my supply. I made a frantic phone call to a neighbor asking about the glue situation. She was confused, but said yes, she could solve my adhesive issue. (Whatever happened to just borrowing a cup of sugar?)

Long story still long, I was able to create this makeshift masterpiece, thanks to the laminating efforts of my husband and his buddy. (Apparently army guys are experts at hand laminating stuff… They got really excited about helping me finish this project until my husband’s friend stopped mid-lamination and mumbled something about doing arts and crafts. I sweetly reminded him that they were drinking beer as they laminated, so it was still very manly. Problem solved.)

The final project wasn’t perfect. But they were made for my Foxtrot girls with love… It made me think about how God made us– we aren’t perfect  but we are made with love. I am so thankful that God made me creatively crafty.

Thankful for Miscellaneous craft boxes,

SGK

“Live creatively, friends…” -Galatians 6:1 (MSG) 

PS: Have you done anything super creative or crafty with limited resources lately? Share it here! Maybe it will be my next “project.”

Categories: accomplishment, army, challenge, creation, Drill Sergeant, joy | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

My Love Story: We March (Guest Blogging at Suite T)

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Sharita

Holy cheese and crackers, world.  God is working overtime this week– hardcore.  Not only has He equipped me to launch my personal ministry this week, but I was invited to guest post at Suite T Southern Writers Magazine blog…

Can you say EXCITED?!?! AMERICA!

Click HERE to pop over to Suite T and read about my ruck marching feet, marriage and military adventures in Christ! It’s quite a story, if I do say so myself. (But hey… I’m a little biased.)

Oh, and don’t be shy about leaving comments here or there. I l-o-v-e to read your response!

Praising God from Whom all blessings flow,

SGK

“God, mark us with grace and blessing! Smile! The whole country will see how you work,  all the godless nations see how you save.” Psalm 67:1-2 (MSG)  

Southern Writers Suite T button

Categories: adventure, army, Drill Sergeant, encouragement, Love, marriage | 8 Comments

Be the Bread

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Sharita

Motivation is such a b-e-a-utiful thing.

I know that being gung-ho can come in different stages/proportions. I’ve been through enough finals weeks that I definitely understand the motivation/procrastination cycle. But it kind of makes me laugh when God sends motivation in VERY unexpected ways… and it ends up being for his glory.

All semester during my “Contemporary Evangelism” class, we have been drilled on what it means to be servant leaders and share the gospel by both our words and actions. At 10:03am yesterday, I submitted my final paper for this finals week (WHEW!) My little brain assumed that I was done being “productive” for the next 10 or so days til my next semester begins. But for those of you who know me (and know our God), that wasn’t the most accurate conclusion.

Almost past the point of no return…

I wrapped up my paper, took the dog for a walk and was preparing to head into work for a few hours. As I was getting ready to leave, I was doing some quick “power cleaning” of the kitchen and noticed some overly-ripe bananas sitting on the counter. My husband and I try not to be wasteful, but he is the banana eater in the house– seriously, if he is in a banana phase, he will polish off a large bunch of bananas in a couple of days. Me, on the other hand– I might eat one or two out of the bunch. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a “phase” and these bananas were past the point of “enjoyable eating.”

As I reached over to grab the bunch of bananas to toss them in the trash, I paused. “Wait a minute… If bananas got too ripe back home, Mama would make banana bread.” Oh boy. The seed of motivation had been planted. I wondered if I had a recipe for banana bread. I grabbed my Lacey Family Cookbook that mom gave me at college graduation and banana bread was the first recipe in the book. Funny how I never noticed that til then. Coincidence? I think not.

Ok, ok… so I had the extra-ripe bananas and recipe. Did I have all the other ingredients? I scanned the list and yep, had everything already except for lemon juice. I was going to the store after work anyways, so that was easy enough. Did I have appropriate bread loaf pans? Not really, but I did have muffin tins…

Justus LOVES when I cook… because I am messy and waits

expectantly for me to drop something awesome.

Although I think he wants me to stop cooking breads

and strawberry pretzel dessert and make something that

involves lots of red meat.

And as my motivation grew, I decided I could make a couple of batches of this banana bread and send it to work with Brandon to feed the men of Foxtrot company (I really don’t need two batches of banana muffins at my house… because I would eat them… all… and let’s be honest, that can be a wee bit counterproductive.) So individual muffins would be perfect. Oh, and did I mention that as I made the muffins, the seven over-ripe bananas added up the exact two cups of mashed bananas needed. Again, coincidence? Negative.

God planted all these seeds of motivation and laid this out– and did it with a purpose to show the love and share the life with the Drill Sergeants of Foxtrot company. After the muffins were baked last night, I wanted to stick a note with at least one smiley face on the muffins  (don’t judge me) for the Foxtrot team to enjoy today. Suddenly, the scripture about Jesus being the bread of life came to mind.

I argued with myself for about 20 minutes deciding if I would have the courage to put Scripture on the bag of 24 muffins (ok, 22 at that point– Brandon and I had already eaten one each). Then I thought– I am doing this in the name of God for HIS glory, not to win friends or be a well-liked FRG leader. It’s for HIM.  So I did it. I placed the following Scripture on the muffins.

“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” –John 6:35


God allowed me an opportunity to show the love and share the life through 22 banana muffins. Small acts of kindness can not only feed the stomach but also the heart and soul.

Om nom nom… Here’s to being the bread!

Take a moment and consider: are you “being the bread” per Jesus’ example in your life? Open a door, make cookies for a neighbor, watch a friends kids as a favor to them… the possibilities are endless! As I thought about my own opportunity to “Be the Bread” in the name of Jesus, I considered making this a “Foxtrot Friday…” Maybe I will do this one Friday a month? Who knows… with God, all things are possible.

Shaking and Baking (Banana Bread),

SGK

“Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’” –John 6:32-33

Categories: Drill Sergeant, encouragement, Factor of 7 | Leave a comment

The Enemy Doesn’t Wear Combat Boots

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Sharita

We are all fighting a battle. Some of us more than one. As an army wife (specifically: Infantryman/current Drill Sergeant’s wife), it sometimes seems like the battles are never-ending. I battle with maintaining patience, changing schedules, miscommunication, all while attempting to continually support my Beloved Husband in his quest to defend this mighty country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But whether you are an army spouse, doctor’s spouse, farmer’s spouse or any son or daughter of Christ,  we are all fighting the same spiritual Enemy.

The Enemy (Satan) is a big dumb jerkface. But man, he is unfortunately good at his job to wreak havoc in our lives. He is always in our grill, waiting for those blessed challenges that God presents in our lives so that he can sneak attack us with those whispers: “You aren’t good enough. You can’t do this. You deserve better.” AHHHH! Just typing those words made my stomach flop. Those dang whispers can invoke feelings of self-pity, selfishness, depression, doubt etc… which all lead to sin and subsequently distract our eyes from heaven.

But dear friend, do not despair! There is hope! God doesn’t leave us unequipped– he gives us the tools and attire to combat this enemy. His love and word are the best weapons. I had this thought during my CRAVE time at church the other day. Have you ever snuck up on somebody when they were standing up and thwacked them in the back of the knee? What happened? That’s right, their knees buckled. I think the enemy does this too– he sneaks up, thwacks us in the back of the knees, and we fall forward… to the ground… on our knees.

When he knocks us to our knees, we have two choices: fall face down, roll over to his advances and give up… or engage in spiritual warfare via prayer. I once saw a quote: “When I fall on my knees, I can stand up to anything.” Amen to that. Sometimes when we are knocked down, it might take us a few moments (minutes? days? months?) to recover and get back in combat prayer position. A few (dozen) tears, kleenexes, foot stomps, fist hits and pieces of chocolate might be involved before that point– but we get there. Thank God.

One of the ways that I put on my “combat boots” to ward off those dreaded whispers is to read the Drill Sergeant Spouse’s creed every morning OUT LOUD after my quiet time with the Lord. It reminds me WHY and HOW God called me here… And it reminds the enemy that God has called me to this, God IS faithful and help me fight to do it!

I AM A DRILL SERGEANT SPOUSE. 

I understand the important mission of the Drill Sergeant and will assist and support my spouse in each effort to train highly motivated, well disciplined, physically and mentally fit soldiers, who will be the guardians of liberty for my country, my family and myself. 

I recognize that the many hours away from family are spent in training soldiers to survive. I understand that my spouse’s temporary separations from me result in trained and disciplined soldiers, ensuring that they will not be separated from their families by needless death or preventable casualty. 

I strive to be patient when I am treated like a trainee, when dinners are missed and special occasions slip by unnoticed. I gently remind my spouse of family obligations and the fact that we are friends and companions with common goals for a shared future. 

I will not allow my Drill Sergeant to quit. I will encourage my spouse to carry on with assigned duties in the face of exacting regulations, the continual stress of long hours and the extraordinary physical demands of Drill Sergeant Duty. 

I believe that by loving my spouse now, through selfless service, tender patience and expressions of understanding support, we will succeed, our lives will be blessed and at the end of the trail, we will find greater love and deeper caring for us to celebrate together.

But first, last and always, I am a military spouse, duty bound by the highest traditions of the Army and honor bound by the sacred marriage oath to support and sustain my spouse through sickness or health, for richer or poorer, whether together or separated by calls of duty, so long as we both shall live. 

I AM A DRILL SERGEANT SPOUSE. 

I don’t know what your combat boots look like. Maybe its a prayer, a piece of jewelry, a picture, a tattoo, a person or something written in dry-erase on your bathroom mirror.  But I do know that we could all use that eventual pick-me-up when the devil knocks us off our feet. That comes through prayer and strength through Christ. We  are all engaged in combat… and we have to give the enemy the BOOT.

The Enemy doesn’t wear combat boots– or at least not the ones issued by God. Because The Lord loves us so much, He issues each us our own special, personalized pair to combat this terrible enemy. We might struggle today, but the victory is already won!!

Fighting for Him,

SGK

“God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” –Ephesians 6:10-12 (MSG)


Categories: Battle, Boots, Combat, Drill Sergeant, Enemy, God | 1 Comment

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