Happy Fourth of July

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Happy Fourth of July WordPress World!

 For many today will be a day of spending time with family and friends, eating bbq, and watching fireworks.  For me today is a day of remembrance.  Today I will remember the reason why we celebrate the day. Our independence. Our independence would not have been possible without the bravery of our soldiers. In 1776 we had a rag tag militia, now we have highly trained men and women who serve our country.

I would like to say thank you. Thank you to those men and women who every single day fight for people that they will never meet. They fight for people who don’t agree what they do. They fight so that we will not again know the terror we felt after September 11.  Our soldiers fight in other countries so that the children in those countries don’t have to go to bed scared. In this country, we have no clue what real terror is. We can walk out of our front door, bash our president, drive across the country and unless we get caught speeding we don’t generally have to worry about being stopped by the police. We have a freedom that a lot of people only dream about. We have that, thanks to our soldiers.

This freedom comes at a cost. It costs us the lives of our soldiers. They are our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers. They are dads who don’t get to come home at Christmas, they are moms who cant be there for birthdays. It also costs the lives of those who love them back home. It costs the wives who go to bed each night praying that tomorrow they will hear from their husband and trying desperately hard to remember that no news is good news.  It costs the children who don’t get to have mom there when they play the swan in Swan Lake, or kick the winning goal in soccer.

And yet, even after all that cost, so many of them would go back. They would again fight for not just this country, but for the men and women who never got to make it home. For them its not about the living, its about honoring the dead. How can they not fight for their fallen brother? The man who gave his life while fighting to protect the man next to him.

I never want to forget the soldiers who have gave everything so that I could be free. I don’t want to forget the soldiers who were taken as a POW, or those who are MIA. I never want to forget the families of the soldiers. My heart goes out to them.

Today, while you are celebrating, please, remember these men and women. So many of them do what they do, and never hear a thank you. Some of them don’t do it to hear a thank you. They will tell you “its their job”. I firmly believe it while it may be their job to protect me, its my job to not let them feel forgotten.

To all my soldiers, known and unknown to me, thank you.

And tonight I pray…

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When I came home I saw on the news that a mother and her two sons had been strangled in a town not far from mine. I also listened to a report about a young boy who has been kidnapped from his home in Madison Co. Missouri. There was a report of a lawnmower that was stolen from a Little Leauge organization run by volunteers.  All over the news are stories of soldiers being killed, homes being foreclosed upon, and the latest, swine flu.

Tonight as I lay here in front of my laptop, I can look around my space, lit by candlelight, and feel utterly blessed. My family is not suffering like the families of the murdered mother and sons, or of the missing young boy. We have not contracted swine flu and our home is paid for. Don’t get me wrong, I have my worries. There are friends I want safe and family I want healthy. All in all though, I feel like I have truly been blessed.

Tonight I will pray for the families who have lost their loved ones due to sickness, murder, or war. I will pray that God touches them and helps them to find comfort. I will pray for the sick, the missing, and the serving. I will pray that God keeps them safe and blesses them. My prayers will also include a statement of a different kind. A statement of thanks to let God know that I truly am grateful for the  people and opportunities I have in my life.  Life, I feel must be a continual balance between light and dark. Prayer is no different, with the dark must come light.