Right after I had my third son I set about worrying about the responsibility of raising three men, keeping them out of danger and ensuring they could lead productive, happy lives. Strange enough, in the middle of all that worry, I never thought once about my sons coming to age when our nation would be involved in a war on terror. It’s almost hard to remember now, our world, we Americans lived and though differently before those towers in New York came down. I certainly didn’t know that while Jake and John watched me nurse their very tow haired brother, the day would come when two of them would go to a foreign land as soldiers. As their mother, I have prayed and do pray for those two, their safety and their souls as they made or make life and death decisions and protect and serve, as they came and will come home, with different thoughts and, I pray and prayed for a better understanding of their place and the mission and plan God has for them, the whole time I have and do marvel at their willingness to serve. As it turned out, all three of my men love God and while the youngest and oldest chose to soldier in this earthly war, my middle son is a soldier as well, just one of a different sort, one that is fighting for those that seek Heaven. As a minister, he too is maturing in ways that only his own path would lead him to, and I pray for him daily. As different as God made those sons of mine, they each see their Father differently and for all my worry, for what paths I might have chosen, for what a different world I had planned for them, God gifted me with three men beyond my imaginings.
There are many mothers blessed and worrying over their sons and daughters; sons and daughters who are filled with faith and with the hearts of servants. As this world continues to turn, and wars and rumors of wars continue to be our fate, some of those will soldier as well.
I honor those today who have lost their lives in service to our country. These three listed here I know. I thought about you today; I thought about your families; I pray for you and yours. I honor you and I believe that in a time and space that those of us here on earth don’t understand, you each are in Heaven with Jake, celebrating that in the end, God is in charge. In my heart, the ones not listed here, but who have served and sacrificed, I honor you as well.
Capt David Fraser
1 Lt. Michael Adams
Staff Sgt Brian Craig
Quote of the day: “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Albert Pike
Song of the week:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
Julia M Howe, 1861
