THANK THEM for a freedom we should never take for granted…

I have read that…  If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million other people in the world.  If you can attend worship services at church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.  Kay Warren

Is the quote above true for you?

Have you ever stopped to thank those that make it possible for you to live the life you lead?

This weekend America will honor our Military Veterans.  People that have been willing to give everything they have so that people all across our world may experience Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness!

Veterans: Willing To Exchange Our Lives For YOUR Freedom

A Veteran, whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America, for an amount up to and including his or her own life. Unknown

This Saturday is Armed Forces Day.  In honor of the men and women that have written a blank check for their lives in exchange for our freedom I asked several friends to help us understand their choice…  Adonis Phillips, Joseph Pullen, David Groce and LaDine Roth Cravotta are Veterans, Cathy Herring is a mother of a Veteran.

Will you stand next to our veterans?

Today is October 11, 2012.  In one month our nation will celebrate Veterans Day in honor of those who have sacrificed precious time with their families, their physical safety and often their mental well-being, and so we can live in a free country.

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Over the past several weeks I have had many unexpected conversations with mothers of returning veterans, with spouses of returning veterans, and with people who provide services to veterans.  In every case they have emphasized the enormous struggles these men and women are facing: