The Patch on my Shoulder

I contemplate a lot about where I am and where I am going. I think of all the Lord has done, and I am so anxious to see what He will be doing in my life. I want people to know who I belong to, and I think about how one distinguishes that they are a part of something so much larger than themselves.

I think about my formation time in nursing school...the many many years that flew by so quickly. I think about how the formation we (as the students) received there would become a foundation so much larger than we could know at the time. I think of how I stayed up all night late, drank many gallons of coffee, and had constantly greasy hair paired with bags underneath my eyes.  But that's not really what demonstrated my oneness with being a nurse. It was patch on my shoulder. Every nursing school required white scrubs, but it was the patch on the should that stated specifically what nursing school one attended, and it proved my place within that organization.

And now, I've traded that in for a much more considerable patch-a military unit patch on my left shoulder. It signifies what words could never describe:

It's something larger than myself, and I wouldn't want it any less. It represents countless hours sacrificed, many patched wounds, training, and a mother's tears. It's built on sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. And in my everyday struggle for holiness I need to remember what that patch on my shoulder means. Because it's not about me, and my frustrations, but about a nation that was built on "God we trust". Broken though it may be this side of heaven, it represents a larger part of humanity that desperately needs grace. May God shed His grace on thee, and mend thy every flaw.