As Proverbs 31 military wives, our best reliance when going through a permanent change of station (PCS) is God’s Word. But how many times have you struggled to know what to do during your quiet time, your alone time, or even all the time of waiting in the hotel/temporary lodging? I have (I’m writing this as we’re in temporary lodging waiting for a house, a car, our dogs, our stuff, etc.)! So I’ve taken some time to give you a handful of ways to be in God’s Word while PCSing (pre-PCS, in the midst of the move, and as you’re slowly getting settled).
Why it’s so important
These are the moments we will grow the most
Once we’re unable to go to our small groups or bible studies, it’s hard pushing ourselves to set aside time in the chaos of PCSing to be in God’s Word. But it’s SO important to! These are the moments we will grow the most. These are the times when our emotions will be stretched, when our trust in God will be tested, and when our enemy will seek to devour. Our best defense is to hold fast to our Lord and Savior and spend time in His Word.
We need a steady hand to walk us through this
Because we’re women, we seem to have 100x more emotions than our husbands. And friends, crying out (literally crying) to God about this move is one of the best remedies I have found for how to handle PCSing. God’s Word is FULL of beautiful prayers and psalms and wisdom and encouragement and guidance and comfort. When we’re all over the place with our emotions, God is here with His steady hand to walk us through this season He’s putting us in. So spending time in His Word will give us just what we need to keep moving forward.
5 ways to study your bible while PCSing
- Pick either Psalms or Proverbs and read through either 2-3 chapters of Psalms or 1 chapter of Proverbs every day, then re-read it how ever many times you want. The more you re-read it, the more you’ll start to notice and learn. (Feel free to re-read these 4 verses to help you through the stress of PCSing too!)
- Use a journal, like the Give Me Jesus journal from Well Watered Women (they also have other amazing journals too), to really dive deep into Psalms or any other book of the Bible.
- If you were in a Bible Study that hadn’t finished yet before you left, use this time to finish up that study.
- Go through the Psalms and as you’re reading, write down all the attributes of God that you find (there’s quite a bit in there). Camp on one or two of those attributes for the day, research it more, find other verses that talk about that attribute, and give thanks to the Lord for that attribute of His.
- Write a list of questions that you have in the Bible or topics that you’ve been interested in learning more about. Choose one and study it! Use your concordance in the back of your Bible, utilize soniclight.com for commentary help or study bibles, and find verses that have to do with the topic you chose.
Why Psalms?
You may have noticed that I mentioned Psalms a handful of times…but there’s a reason for that! The Psalms are full of “heart-pouring” words! When we military wives are PCSing, we will experience many heart-pouring moments, times when we need to just cry, when we need to let our burdens fall on Christ’s shoulder, when we want to speed talk through our anxious but joyous excitement. The Psalms are so beautiful at teaching us how to pour out our heart to God while also keeping our focus on Him.
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I encourage you to push yourself to spend time in God’s Word while you’re PCSing. There’s A LOT to do when moving, but it’s during these times when we are uprooting and becoming temporarily isolated that we need Him the most. Even if you’re mad at Him for moving you and your family again, talk to Him and read what He has to say. Pick one of the 5 ways to be in God’s Word while PCSing from above as a jumping point to clinging to Him and relying on Him during this move.
I would love to hear how you’ve spent time in God’s Word during previous PCS’s! Drop them in the comments below:)
