*patriotic banner

The celebration of our July 4th is just around the corner so I have pulled out the patriotic banner that I made for Memorial Day and dressed up our mantle with it again.   This was really very very simple to make and if I can do it, so can you!

All you need is some assorted fabrics that are color appropriate for any given holiday.  I used my 45 degree quilting ruler and a nice sharp rotary cutter to cut the triangles before I began the sewing.  Since I have a serger I used it, but you can use your regular sewing machine for this project. After I serged the edges of each triangle I simply chain sewed each one across the bottom/top until I ended up with this long banner.  Voila!

If you do not have these tools you can simply trace a triangle shape onto several layers of fabric and use some nice sharp scissors to cut them out.

Were all dressed up and ready for a freedom celebration!

*the real American Idol's

Memorial Day, not just a weekend for cooking out and enjoying the beginning of the lazy summer days that await us.  May each of us remember the sacrifices that each valiant service member has given on their oath to protect and defend the very freedom that each of us enjoy as Americans.  Our way of living as we know it has been shaped and formed from the days of the founding fathers through men and women who put themselves in harms way in order to protect those very things. 

 

I am married to a soldier, I live in a fairly large military community and I love it. I love that I live among some of the most selfless, brave and patriotic people. It is easy for me to remember to be grateful to God for the defending that is done through our servicemen and women - it is my way of life.

Remember the ones who laid down their lives for our freedom.  Remember those who serve today, leaving family behind, going to dangerous places, returning home with debilitating injuries, emotional and physical scars and time lost.  Remember them in your prayers regularly. I know you don't know them all individually and personally, but God does. If you want to be specific, find a unit and pray specifically for that unit. Pray for their families who are left back home to hold down the fort. Pray for the children who watch their mother and fathers go into battle. Give honor to the valiant servicemen.

*the call

Traditionally this is the time of year that families draw closer together.  It is a time to "go home", or a time for new families to start their own family traditions.  This year our family will all be together, but not so for all the servicemen and women around the world.   We all have our individual lives and all that entails, but may I ask you to pray for the soldiers around the world who are once again apart from their loved ones.   Just imagine for a moment how it would effect you if your family member were over seas fighting and there was an empty chair at your table daily, or at the family gathering at Thanksgiving or perhaps not there to see the child like joy in the eyes of the one opening gifts.  It is the call of each serviceman so I am sure they are not taken by surprise by the call.  You be sure that they are proud to go, proud to stand and proud to fight.  Surely they would rather be with their family, but this is their call.

Our call back home is to intercede on their behalf, and their families. Mark your prayer journal. Will you answer the call?

*who could forget

Every where you look today, you are prompted to remember.. how could any of us forget?

Prayer by Colonel Henry Gariepy

Eternal God, "our help in ages past, our hope for years to come," we turn to you in this hour of crisis and pray for your guidance and strength.

We come to you on behalf of our country and our troubled world. We bring our hearts, with their concerns, with their fears, and with their anguish over those things that must grieve your heart as well.

We come and pray for our beloved country, that we may be true to our spiritual heritage and become truly "one nation, under God."

We pray for your guidance of our president, vice-president, secretary of state, the senate, congress, and all those entrusted with national and world leadership. Help them to know what is right and to seek your guidance in the pursuit of righteousness, freedom and security.

Grant to them we pray wisdom amid the perplexing issues, conviction in the battle with falsehood, courage in the face of danger, and compassion for those who suffer.

We pray for forgiveness where our nation has forgotten You, where we have strayed far from your commandments and moral standards. Save us from ourselves - from our pride, from our lust, from our godlessness, from our obsessions with the temporal over the eternal.

For our men and women who place themselves in harm's way for the cause of freedom and justice, we pray for them to have courage in duty, a new awareness of your salvation, and safe return to home and loved ones.

God bless America with righteousness, which alone exalts a nation.

God bless America with compassion, to reach out to those who suffer.

God bless America with a firm faith, that we may know above all else your will and strength to confront the dangers, both physical and moral, that beset our nation and world.

In this hour we reaffirm our trust in You as "our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble."

We pray in the name of the One who is the Prince of Peace.

freedom isn't free - show gratitude

Gratitude. Surely that is the thought or feeling that most Americans have when thinking of those who defend our freedom. Sadly, it is not. How does a soldier handle this? How must he or she feel? Many service members, along with other citizens may not agree with the orders given to them, but they must act honorable by following them out. God has created each of us with a special task at hand to be carried out.

Isn't it easy to get caught up in your own world and loose site of the fact that there are men and women all over this country who do what it takes to defend freedom as we know it today? I am a wife to a soldier and I know I do not give much thought to it. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to God for using men and women throughout history to establish and defend our great country.

You know most of these great men and women are simply doing their jobs as best they know how. To them, they do not see themselves as doing anything great. They do not see themselves as doing anything that deserves any more gratitude than a nurse at the local hospital. It is in their very being, the way God wired them, to step up in this manner. They do not know how to do anything different. This, to me, makes each of them a hero. I think the Gratitude Campaign, that Scott Truitt started, is a fantastic way to give a visual display of our gratitude for their service, for their sacrifice.

Ronald Reagan once said "No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." This is our US Military and their families as well.