No greater love...

I (kate) read this on a friend's blog earlier today and I felt the need to share it with all of our faithful readers out there...

Just as there is no one alive today who can point with living memory to the name of a fallen Civil War soldier, so also a hundred years from now there will be no one who can personally recall the fallen man or woman of our own time, tearfully running their finger across the engraved name on a tomb stone. Our commemoration today is a partial payment for the debt we owe to them all. It is also our gift to future generations, instructing them in the ritual of remembrance so that every generation of Americans knows that freedom and liberty, rightly understood, are a great stewardship, won by terrible sacrifice, and kept only by vigilance.

Thanks be to God for all who served, who serve today, and especially for those who perished in their service. No greater love has any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Having family who has served in the military and also having grown up in a military town...then now being married to a man who will be joining the ranks of those who protect our freedom, this day has come to mean a great deal to me personally. And I just wanted to take a moment to say "thank you" to all of you out there who have served or are currently serving in the military, and then I also want to say a special "thank you" to those who have lost a loved one because of their dilgience and sacrifice while in service to our country.

Grateful for my freedom ~ kate