In the beginning of his deployment, SFC Jason Mannarino didn’t want to go on, but he did anyway. It wasn’t his own hardship that was on his mind, however. It was his family’s.
“I know Sonja and the kids had a tough time coping with the entire thing,” he said. “I told her, ‘There has to be a purpose. There’s got to be a reason that this is happening to us in this portion of our lives. God’s got a plan. I don’t know what it is, but he has a plan.’”
The hardest part for Jason, he said, was knowing that his wife and children were having an extremely difficult time. “I thought about them every minute of every day. They were my drive to come home. They are what I live for.”
Looking back on the deployment now, Sonja said the experience invigorated her marriage and brought them closer to each other and to God. “Before, we didn’t have the greatest marriage,” said Sonja. “We didn’t hate or yell at each other, we were just kind of far apart. I see now that there was a purpose for this deployment; God opened up my eyes to see that I can make it through difficult times if I rely on him. My faith just got stronger. Jason and I are closer now to each other, and we’re closer as a family.”
God may have had other purposes for Jason’s deployment that no one can see yet, but at present, Jason and Sonja say it’s enough that it brought them closer together.
We all walk through valleys at some point in our lives. Some of us will be blessed on the other side with the understanding of why God took us down that road and how he plans to use it in our lives, but not always. Regardless, we are called to follow him daily, even though we can’t see the big picture like he can.
Lord, help me follow you even when I can’t see your plan.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)