I love Memorial Weekend, mainly because it’s signals
the start to summer! We usually kick off
this first weekend of the summer by taking in a little bit of the High School
Rodeo where we catch up with family and friends from around the state, then we
spend the remainder of the weekend at Lake DeSmet where the boys take in the
annual Lion’s Club Fishing Derby, and of course lots of barbeque action! Yes, I love all of the recreation that goes
along with this weekend, but this morning as I was driving downtown I caught
the beginning of the Memorial Day Service that is held every year at the
Veteran’s Memorial on Main Street. I
stopped for a minute and took it all in; the flags that lined the streets of
this town that I love, Veterans who visited with one another as they waited for
the Veterans parade to begin, children holding flags as they sat on their
mother’s laps. It brought tears to my
eyes and a flutter of emotion in my heart.
I realized that this is what Memorial Day is about, and I’m afraid that we’ve lost
the true sense of why we celebrate this weekend. I think that we’ve turned it into a
nationwide “Kick-Off To Summer” celebration instead of a time to honor and
remember those who have fought and died in order that we may have the kind of
life that we enjoy in this wonderful country.
We’ve taken for granted what has been given in exchange for our very
freedoms. And I don’t want to take for
granted what these men and women have suffered and endured, what their families
have sacrificed for me and for my family so that I can enjoy a beautiful summer
day in peace, without fear. I think of
the young men and women I have known through the years who have chosen to join
the military and go to places like Iraq and Afghanistan; I repeat, they have chosen to go, and I am humbled and just
a little bit shamed because I don’t think that I could do it. What an amazing thing they do for all of us,
and yet we go about our days, our summer, this weekend and we forget that those
who are serving right now don’t get to enjoy a long weekend with their family,
they aren’t recreating on a lake or in the mountains and eating a big juicy
hamburger. And the men and women who
have died, their families have a noticeable hole in their lives, a hole that
will never be filled again, because of what their sons and daughters, brothers
and sisters, moms and dads were willing to give up in order that we can live
the life we enjoy in the United States.
Again, I am humbled.
It’s such a picture of what
Jesus did for us and all that I can think as I sit here and type away is what
an incredible honor for these men and women to have the willingness to be a
picture of the sacrificial love that Christ has for each and every one of us. And like our Veterans and the men and women
who are now serving our country, I think that far too often we take for granted
what He gave so that we could all be free.
May we remember and honor what has been given to us, and may we not
waste those freedoms, but use them to build up our families, our communities,
our country on the premises of what they are fighting for, what they have died
for, what Jesus came for. Love and
honor, courage and respect. Let’s give a
little bit of ourselves instead of living as if we were entitled to all that we
have, let’s live beyond ourselves and not only remember, but honor those who
have given so much of themselves for us.
