Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day are here, and I, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, would like to pay homage to my comrades during the holidays.
It is not too difficult to stop for a moment and remember what it was like to face a holiday season far from home and my loved ones, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas or family reunions.
Sometimes, around the holidays, it's easy to feel down, to get the blues, and it is human nature to want to feel that you and your endeavors are being appreciated, needed, loved, and missed all in one.
Does that sound familiar? It does to me. I have a profound idea, because I spent 22 months in southeast Asia, away from my family. I lost a lot by not being with my beautiful little girl, Melody Denise, by not being able to watch her grow during those young years of her life.
In most parts of the world, as we know, the leaves have already fallen from the trees; summer's cool breeze and radiating sun are in hiding. Spring is yet a few months off.
We are now waiting on the snow to fall, so we can have that white Christmas we have all come to expect. We may be able to have our snowball fights, make snowmen statues, and have our loved ones make some snow ice cream after the second snow falls. Wonder what our service people will be doing?
It's easy to understand how young people sent to some far flung assignment in a place they've never heard of will begin to wonder why he or she is there.
I know I did. I'd heard of a Camn Rohn Bay, Saigon or a Midway Island, but I never dreamed I'd wake up at either place.
We here in the states are secure in our homes, as we prepare for the holiday season. But as we enter this period of Thanksgiving and religious feasts and celebration, let us remember that while we are enjoying a bountiful, comfortable holiday season, other Americans are standing guard on freedom's front line in some of the world's most isolated and remote outposts.
In many cases, there are turkey and dressing, trimmings, Virginia baked ham, sweet potato pie, Chew-Chew cake, fried chicken, and boiled custard that come from a C-ration can or box.
I appeal to each and every citizen to remember service people in your prayers and to guide them with appropriate Bible verses. If they are homesick, have them read Luke 15 or Matthew 12:50; when they have the blues and are down-hearted, remind them to read Psalms 34; and when they have to leave home for labor or travel, direct them to Psalms 121.
As we approach the coming of a new year, let us keep our focus on Jesus Christ, for he has surely been good to us all! Because in Him, we can find peace, love, hope, happiness, assurance, and our every need. Through him, every day is a day of thanksgiving.
Happy holidays!
Respectfully,
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