Friday, November 13, 2009

Belated or Not?


This post is in honor of all those who serve and have served our country. Because of you giving heart and your courage and bravery, I get to embrace freedom every day!
Let me show you what I mean.

Embracing Freedom Picture #1
I wake up and go through the same routine of dragging myself out of bed every morning and stumbling to the coffee pot. Sometimes, I am really good and get up early to have a quiet time and read my Bible. But, sometimes I walk around kicking myself because I don't. I'm just too tired to get up an extra 30 minutes early.

Those exhaustive mornings are usually because I stayed up too late the night before watching television, or going to a movie or dinner with a friend, or going to church with my kiddo and hanging around to visit with friends afterward. Bummer!

Embracing Freedom Picture #2
And then weekends roll around and I squeeze a million things into a 48 hour window, like shopping, haircuts, studying for my education and professional development, church activities, hanging out with friends, cooking delicious meals, blogging, taking Griffin to the gun range for skeet shooting (but first stopping by Academy to pick up some more ammunition because we are running low), running by the polls to cast a vote....you get the picture.

Embracing Freedom Picture #3
Before I know it, it is the dead of night and I am lying in my bed flipping through the channels and come across an infomercial with starving babies in a 3rd world country that can be fed for $34.00 a month. It crosses my mind for a brief moment, that I just dropped $200.00 at the grocery store for my son and I to eat for two weeks. I conveniently skip over the fact that we will probably eat out at least 3 meals during those two weeks. And then I roll over in the bed and just can't get comfortable. I blame it on the extra softness around my middle because I just didn't have time to get a workout in today. Of course, I start to ponder how nothing in my closet fits because of all of the stress eating I have been doing recently.

The portfolio is so large, there is no way I could fit it all in here. But, I bet you get the picture? My guess is that it's a familiar picture. It's the American way, after all!

On Veteran's Day, I caught glimpses of other people's blog posts, status updates, news stories, and the like about Veteran's Day. It's touching to hear personal stories of those who have served and given their lives for our country and freedom.

But something crossed my mind, "how is that we get so busy in our lives doing all of the things that are explicitly due to the liberty's we have, that we end up losing sight of the fact that they are, in fact, freedoms?" Even bigger than that, "how can I show my gratitude for the opportunities afforded to me in freedoms?"

"I thank my God every time I remember you." - Philippians 1:3

Exercising our rights is paramount to keeping our freedom. I'm pretty sure I have that part down, but here is the part I could use some work on. We absolutely must do our part to fight for those rights as citizen's of this great country. Not being in the military doesn't mean that we sit back and take on a spectator role. We must participate- standing up for the things we believe in and finding ways to take action.

When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.- Dorothy Thompson
As I have gotten older, I have begun to grasp the concept of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Noone better understands that price like our Veteran's. But, the glimpse of that price has allowed me to more fully appreciate the land in which I live and the great and fortunate oppurtunities that are available to me.

What about you? How do you show your gratitude? What do you do to keep from sitting complacently in the spectator's role? What keeps the cost of freedom in the forefront of your mind?

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