This is a hard post to write.

Happy Memorial Day? Somehow that doesn’t quite sound right to say. Unless “Memorial Day” is to you just a reason to get together with friends and have a barbeque.

The purpose of Memorial Day is to remember and honor those who have lost their lives in the service of our country. We who are alive and have never been in a position of defending our country no matter the cost, have a hard time grasping the full impact of what it takes to do that. Not only for the soldier who dies- but for their families. The children left behind. The spouses left to pick up the pieces and go on living and raising their children and functioning like they did before.

My heart is heavy writing this. I lost my husband in January- not because he was fighting for our country- but because he was fighting for his own life thanks to colon cancer.

When I got on my computer this morning and was confronted with “Memorial Day,” it brought back a wave of pain triggered by the word, “memorial.”

I’ve kept myself so busy trying to just keep functioning since losing my husband. But as I thought on all this today, I thought of how much worse the grief is of losing a spouse, or father or other family member in battle- When I lost my husband, I knew what he was experiencing, because I was with him daily- I saw his pain and hopelessness.

But when a person loses someone in the defense of our country- or on foreign soil, they don’t usually have the comfort of knowing that person wasn’t dying alone. They don’t get the chance to say goodbye. They are tormented by the unknown things- and they have little advance warning.

Even if you have not personally known anyone who has lost their life in this manner or is in a situation where they could- Please take a few minutes today to consider them- and pray for our soldiers wherever they may be, because they give up everything to protect us and our freedoms.

Don’t let their sacrifice be in vain.

– “The Can Opener”

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