Looking for a way to bless military families this holiday season?

The holiday season is one that can be especially difficult for military families. From the absence of a deployed spouse to the first holiday away from family and friends; the most wonderful time of the year can be just plain tough for military families. As an active duty military family for 15 years, we spent our fair share of time apart during the holidays due to combat tours and training.

And let us tell you, it was not easy. We believe that many people have no idea what military families actually need or are going through if they are not directly connected to this unique lifestyle and we’re here to help bridge that gap.

As we walk soon embark into the season of celebrating of our Savior’s birth, we’d like to share with you 5 ways to bless military families this holiday season. We hope that these five tips will give you the insight you need to serve our nation’s military families this holiday season.

5 Ways to Bless Military Families During the Holidays

Be Present

Often times just the presence of another person during the holiday season is a blessing to a military family. Conversations filled with uplifting words that allow military families to share their hopes, fears, and dreams with you is a big help during this time. By simply being present shows military families they are loved and valued beyond their inner-circle and can bring a great source of comfort and joy.

Don’t Assume

We’ve found one of the biggest mistakes that our civilian counterparts have made during the holiday season is assume that we are going to be celebrating with family. We were actually only able to go home once in 15 years during the holiday season due to how expensive it is to travel with a family our size.

More often than not we found ourselves alone in a new place tempted to feel sad and missing our loved ones. If you are feeling led to serve a military family during the holidays, it’s always a good idea to ask them whether or not they will be celebrating with family rather than assuming.

Our family has spent many holidays apart and it isn’t easy being alone (as the solider nor as the family members left behind). Every ounce of hospitality and grace we’ve experienced during these hard times meant more than words could ever express.

Don’t Ask, Just Serve

It’s as simple as that. Rather than asking if the family needs help, just serve. We know from experience that we’ve turned down help in the past because we didn’t want to inconvenience others. Over the years we’ve learned to accept help; however the truth is if there is a need it’s better to just fill it.

Military families are under a different type of day-to-day pressure so they aren’t always thinking clearly when it comes to outside help. Please, if you feel led to serve, just do so.

Fill in the Gaps

Filling in the gaps can be anything from saturating the military family in prayer to practical needs. From the family side, one ministry that blessed our family tremendously during time of deployment was when people would randomly stop by and bless us with meals.

From the solider side it was always a huge blessing to receive a card or care package. Bottom line: if you see a need that you can fill for a military family this holiday season, do it. They will appreciate it more than you know.

Love Them

This is the very best gift you can give to any military family during the holiday season, guaranteed. We all have different ways of showing love and this is the beauty of the way God designed each one of us. Pray and ask God for different ways you can show practical love to a military family using your personal love language and then act on it. We believe that your love and effort will be well received.

Serving military families is a great way to carry out God’s will to love one another upon the earth. Make it a priority today to bless a local military family or organization benefiting military families. Take it from this military family – your act of love won’t go unnoticed and will likely spur on some much needed holiday cheer!

This post first appeared on KirkCameron.com.

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