What can you do for our country

recommended them to enlist. I have several young men from my youth group who are serving at this very moment. Still there’s countless classmates that I have that served after we graduated. My neighbor across the street did three tours in Vietnam. Service in our armed forces has been, and still is, a great opportunity for many.

There’s an equally sizeable sacrifice. There’s also many things that are less desirable about going into the service. The future is never certain for them. They all select from “jobs” that are offered to them according to their testing scores, but many times the jobs they really want aren’t available. In all cases they are separated from friends and family, sometimes for years. It’s a very honorable and noble thing for them to do. Not all veterans voluntarily served. Many were drafted into times of service. My dad had to leave my mom, to join the army, when my sister was a baby. He jokes that it took days to pull all of the splinters from his hands from where he was holding on to the front porch railing when they came to drag him away. Diane, the lady two houses down from me lost her husband, who was fighting the war in Vietnam.

Regardless of how or why they put their lives, as most of us know life, on hold, there’s a great respect and gratitude that we owe to them. Yet I believe we as a nation have failed miserably in doing so. Those of you who are under medical care, or have family that is, through VA hospitals and clinics know what I’m talking about. Some days as I stand for the pledge of allegiance in my classroom of 1- 11 students, I find my voice to be the only one lifted. Then there’s overpaid athletes that disrespectfully take a knee during the same ( yes, I said it).

It’s no wonder we citizens find our nation in such a disarray, compared to how it has been in the past. There’s a huge lack of thankfulness throughout it. We are given so much more than we deserve here in the U. S., by the faithfulness of veterans, and show so little gratitude for it.

Even more so, our thankfulness as citizens of Heaven is almost non-existent at times in our lives. My mind goes back to Luke 17: 11- 17, where Jesus healed ten lepers, and only one of them returned to praise him. There was a blessing from Jesus to all ten. However, while they all blessed Him in obedience, only one blessed Him by giving thanks for the healing he had received. With even greater response we should continually give appreciation to Christ in the lives we live today, for the eternal life we have with Him from this day forward.

Go out of your way to bless a veteran this Friday, in gratitude for what they’ve done.