When Jesse Whitlock was little, his mom Jill worried about whether he'd eat his vegetables, grow taller than his brothers, and a myriad of other concerns. As a parent I could easily relate. As co-authors Jill and I shared much, our dreams, aspirations for our Creation Science Study Guides and our family lives. Jill died suddenly in December 2007 and never got to see Jesse really grown up.

Back in November, Jesse asked for prayers when he embarked on his journey to South Carolina and the Marine training base. Just the other day during prayer time when I remembered him, I made a mental note to call his brothers to see how he was faring. The next day (I kid you not) he called and happily shared he was in town, and he wanted to stop by to thank me for helping him to find transcripts, etc. showing high school completion. Would you believe, by a God incident, Jill had backed up her entire hard drive of her lap top on one of my external hard drives? That is where we found records of Jesse's high school diploma, praise God!

Well, Jesse survived basic training with flying colors (or whatever they call it) and now will enter the next stage of his training. Don't ask me what or where. I was so amazed at the handsome young man standing before me and I began to recall little stories about our time together. Like when he was 4 years old and we were redeeming Pizza Hut coupons for the reading contests (read 10 books and get a kids pizza for free), and he asked where his utensils were....you mean fork? His vocabulary was always advanced. All of Jill's boys, Jacob and Jonathan are smart kids. But, for some reason they were never an area of great concern for her. I wish Jill was here now, she would have been very proud of the handsome, strong and Godly young man Jesse has turned out to be. I think I'm proud enough for the both of us! 

Please join me in remembering Jesse in your prayers and all of those who serve our country in some capacity in the armed forces.