"I don't think I'm ever coming back."

"I don't think I'm ever coming back."

Even though I'm not a parent, I know that you wouldn't want to hear those words from your child. They're usually never good.

Maybe you hear that phrase when they are younger and really don't mean it over something silly like during a fight over not being able to have dessert. "Mom, I want those brownies now, not after I finish my vegetables." The child then storms out of the room while the parent frustratingly yells for their child to come back to them and the child replies, "I'm never coming back!"

Maybe you hear the same phrase when they are teenagers over some fight about their freedom from you. They storm out of the house making their way to their friend's house saying, "I'm not coming back!"

You might be fortunate enough to hear this phrase once again when your child is about to go to college and wants to make something of themselves and all the times hearing the phrase before doesn't matter so much anymore because you raised them well. "I'm not coming back...I'm too good for this town!"

However, it was disturbing to hear about my friend who is a mother who heard the same phrase from her adult son.

"I'm going to Afghanistan and I don't think I'm ever coming back."

I can only imagine how that moment of hearing her child say such a thing felt. Her son came to that conclusion from his experience being a new soldier in the army and hearing stories from other soldiers.

His mom, my friend, began telling me how she began to pray to God to protect her son and give him hope and something to live for while he is over there. God answered her prayers by starting a romance between her son and a girl he had known from school. They are now engaged and our soldier has a much more positive outlook. He needs to come back so he can make it to his wedding.

The saddest part for me was hearing that he wasn't even in Afghanistan yet and he, obviously a very brave individual to serve our country, wrote his story off already. I began to wonder how many of our soldiers at one time or another feel that way. "I'm never coming back."

I believe they all have something or someone to live for. Whether it is a mother who wants her son to come back home, a fiancé who wants to start a new life with their soulmate, or a dream that the soldier themself always had since childhood. How many don't realize their reason for living? I hope and pray that all of our soldiers know how courageous and loyal they are and never get that awful feeling.

Come back to your country for your families, supporters, and your own dreams. You are coming back.