Freedoms forgotten....

On this cold and still morning, I got up early and headed out to the deer woods.  Before I left, just like I do every morning, I was checking Facebook to see the newest posts from my friends.  All over Facebook it was posted about all the veterans and the freedoms they fought tirelessly for.  I thought of my wife's grandfather who fought in the army.  One of the only men in his battalion to make it home alive.  I thought of the tears in his eyes when he talks about doing what needed to be done.  I remembered my step-grandfather Herschel.  He fought in the army as well.  I remember him talking about Korea and the stories he told me as a child.  I wondered how it must of felt to get the draft notice in the mail.  I wondered what it was like to leave their family and go to foreign soil, more than likely to kill someone they didn't even know.  I thought about the sacrifice they gave to their country without reservation.  I thought about the sacrifice their families had to make.  I thought about all the friends they made in the service that came home in a wooden box or were never brought home at all.  

Then it hit me.

We take for granted the simple freedoms we have on a daily basis.  We get to wake up in our own homes.  We get in our vehicles and drive wherever we want to in this country.  We take our kids to the school we want them to go to.  We show up to our jobs that we chose for ourselves.  We can pass by a number of churches with different names on the sign and we can walk into all of them and worship.  We can walk into any super market and pick out the items we want to purchase.  

Tonight, at dinner, we asked our children what freedom was.  They gave the typical answers they have been taught at school.  I asked them to explain their answers and they couldn't.  I began to tell them about their family members who had served and the battles they had been a part of.  I told them about Grandpa Walter being the only one in his group to be alive.  I was able to explain to them how freedom was something we take for granted.  I told them about countries that little girls still don't get to go to school.  I told them about places where you can't read the bible without fear of your life.  They just looked at me like I was crazy.  They don't understand how much their freedoms cost.  They don't think about the life they have as being a freedom.  They don't understand the costs of the men and women who served this country have paid for their freedom.

We have gotten very comfortable in our lives as we know them.  We have forgotten our basic freedoms that were fought for so many years ago. 

Thank you to all the men and women who have fought for me and my family to live in the greatest country on the planet.  Thank you for sacrificing and staying the course for us to be free.  Thank you for teaching us what a unified nation can do.  Thank you for serving that we may be free.