Thank you for your service

The VOICE of Inspiration

By: Don Lindsey

Later today, my wife and I will be going up to Jacksonville for a retirement party for one of my best friends. He recently retired after 20 years in the Navy and as I sat and thought about it this morning, I realized that I’ve never thanked him for his service to our country.

I’ll have that chance later and will, but his retirement and the recent observance of D-Day has had me thinking a lot about what these people and their family's sacrifice. We’re not talking only about the time that the families lose with their loved one, but at any given moment, these fine folks may be called on to go into a hostile situation in which their lives are at risk. Now, this isn’t news to a lot of us, we have all heard heroic stories of U.S women and men fighting for our freedom, about the lives lost in the name of our country and the values we have represented as a nation. However, as I started to try and see things from their perspective, I realized that we wouldn’t have a lot of the privileges we do without their sacrifices.

For instance, we may not have freedom of religion, political affiliations or freedom of speech along with so many other luxuries we are blessed with, and the more I thought about it, I started to realize that I probably wouldn’t deal that well with the challenges dealt to our service members and their families. Can you imagine walking into a warzone and not know if you would be walking out? Can you imagine having the fear that a son or daughter might not be coming back home? I can’t, and thanks to our military, I don’t have to.

Someday, one of my children may decide to join a branch of the service. If that happens, I’ll be very proud of them. What concerns me is that I won’t be able to handle the stress and constant worry that so many military families face. The world is a very turbulent place these days and we never know when our armed forces will be called on. That thought alone would probably have me constantly worried, and heaven forbid they would go into a hostile situation, I’d probably go insane with worry.

After spending a bit of time thinking about these things, I found myself becoming more and more grateful. Thanks to our armed forces, there haven’t been too many times that I felt unsafe in our country. With our nation so divided maybe taking some time to think about what these folks go through would help unite us under an umbrella of gratitude. A lot of them won’t be coming home for Christmas, because they’re serving overseas, protecting us. To those fine people currently serving, for those who have served, I thank you for your service. God bless.

Don Lindsey is a follower of Christ, son, husband, father, and a survivor. Originally from Dayton Ohio, and resident of Apopka for six years, Don sees his life as a dedication to his wife, parents, children, and community.