When James first joined the Navy he was straight out of High School. He dreamed of becoming a Navy Seal, but the Lord had other things in store for him, such as going straight to the fleet and meeting an LDS family in Australia and subsequently learning about and joining the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints... and of course meeting me.
When his obligated service to the Navy was over in 2001, he opted to get out in order to serve a full time mission for the LDS church, wherein he was sent to the wonderful country of Japan to learn the language and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our brothers and sisters there. Two weeks after getting home from that mission he and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and so began our family. James always insisted that he did not want to return to military service... but sometimes the Lord has other plans for us then we have for our selves, and after lots of prayer and fasting, we finally came to the conclusion that He did indeed need James to go back into the Navy, for reasons yet unknown to us. And so in January 2005 James enlisted in the US Navy for his second time, this time with a wife, a son, and another one on the way.
When it became obvious that the time to either get out of the Navy again or reenlist was upon us, James and I did a lot of soul searching, pondering, talking, and of course Praying. We weighed the pro's and con's... my list had a lot more pro's then James list had, but I wasn't the one who would be doing the work, which in my mind made his list weightier... Ultimately we decided that nothing we could do or think made any difference if it wasn't what and where the Lord wanted us. So during a trip to the Temple, the Logan Temple this time... we both went in to the session in the Spirit of Humble Prayer and Supplication, and as a result, independantly of one another, we left the Temple that day with the clear understanding that the Lord wanted James to reenlist. He again did not reveal to us His reasons, but Hey, He doesn't have to, although we Must exercise Faith in Him continually.
And so on September 3 2008, on board the USS Halsey DDG 97, James Lawrence Bangert reenlisted in US Navy as an act of Faith in his Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ. As his best friend, wife and companion I have absolute, unwavering, faith in this decision, in fact I have a testimony that the Holy Ghost has directed this decision, I felt it and I know it... I am not unquestioning... certainly I have plenty of questions... but I know that this is where we are needed. And we know He will not lead us astray.
We will go and do as the Lord has commanded for we know that Lord giveth no commands unto His children except he prepare a way.
Choose ye this day whom ye will serve... but as for us and our house we will serve the Lord.
We will go where you want us to go dear Lord, we will do what you want us to do.
1 comment:
Such amazing faith! Thank you for sharing. Not so long ago Jon and I were faced with the possibility of military service. No matter how much neither one of us wanted Jon to join, Heavenly Father had other plans and who where we to argue? Jon's time serving in the Navy is very hard for both of us for many reasons, it is hard for our family and truth be told I long for the day that his enlistment ends and we can again return to civilian life however I feel we have been blessed tremendously for following the promptings of the Spirit, seeking answers to our prayers from our loving Father in Heaven and then doing as He would have us do.
Congrats on the reenlistment James!
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