Thanks to the US Military

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”- Psalm 100:4-5


I’m a day late in expressing my personal thanks to the men and women in the US military. I was thinking of many of them yesterday as I spent the day with family minus a son who is in the Air Force and stationed across the country. He was with extended family members so that made the absence a little easier. My daughter is also living across the country but was able to spend time with her grandpa for Thanksgiving.

But for those in the military who were separated from their families for Thanksgiving and may have to be separated for Christmas, please know my family and nearly all of the people at my church and in my Midwestern community support you and your efforts to bring peace and stability to so many areas of the world.

We know you’re not perfect, but you are willing to go places most of us would be afraid to venture to and you’re willing to give up time with families which most of us don’t want to do.

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for your courage and strength and willingness to help. You are a tremendous asset to our nation.

God bless. We’re praying for you.

Getting Ready to Graduate

I try every day to send my kids a scripture verse. I usually pull it from www.biblegateway.com. I copy their verse for the day and paste it into the email. Then I try to give them a brief application of how that verse works in our lives. It is always a good reminder about the importance of God in our lives.

Today’s note is special because we are just about ready to see two of our three kids graduate. Our youngest daughter will graduate from high school. She has done extremely well, pushing herself to achieve great grades, while being a cheerleader and then a member of the marching band color guard. She is graceful, thoughtful of others, loves people, and a hard worker. She plans to attend college to major in business. We know she will carry her Christian principles she has been taught with her.

Our son graduates from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He has been accepted into the pilot training program and will begin in 2008. He has had some challenging times in this rigorous environment, but he has made it and we are proud of him for that. He will be home with us most of the summer and we’re looking forward to seeing his feet on the table and dirty dishes in the sink. Kidding! (I have all kinds of tasks ready for him when he gets home—he just doesn’t know it yet!)

Here’s my note to them. Warning – it’s a tear jerker, at least to me:

This is one of the last days before we're all together again for 2 months! Wow! We have not had that in 4 years.

Here's today's verse:
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”- Romans 12:10

We'll be honoring each other in different ways in the next few weeks, helping each other with tasks and recognizing achievements. We are SO proud of all of you. We said in Sunday School last week that our lives are so much better with all of you. We would not have wanted to go through life without you as our children.

We love you and look forward to a busy, noisy house this summer! Love, Mom