So, it is Memorial Day weekend, and while prepared to support those who have lost their live in service to our country, we also remember our ancestors, family, and friends who've passed before us. I was realizing this is the first Memorial Day that my Grandpa Bob was gone and I was trying to determine a good way to honor his memory. I remember going with him and Grandma Donna to decorate graves as part of our Memorial Day remembrances. I also went with Grammy Hellie and Papa Joe. I did not always know who's all grave we were visiting, but they would tel me and I would listen.
However, I was not prepared for the loss of a beautiful young life. The Harris family lost their Bradley Michael today. All I know was that he and his father, Craig, were involved in a motorcycle crash, and Michael, he didn't make it. I think after we came back, I was able to watch Michael once, maybe... But I was a nanny to his older siblings, Brian, Brooke, Lynnie, and Brianna. I love these kids, they aren't so little anymore and now a portion of them has been ripped away from them. I am trying to be more positive about things, like Michael's mission in this life was over and Heavenly Father has something important for him to do on the other side, but he was 14, turning 15 in June... He was so young, was there really stuff more important, couldn't he have stayed with us just a bit longer? I have to remember the Lord knows His plan, and we have to abide by His plan, not the other way around. Someday we may comprehend, but sometimes I struggle to go by faith.
As I sit here, pondering Michael's passing, watching music videos that are patriotic and especially supportive of our military men and women, I am still uncertain... I do feel the need to express gratitude.
I am grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life, and while I may stumble from time to time, I am certain it is truth. I am also grateful to a Savior who is there to help me when I do stumble. I am grateful the Harris family also has the Gospel and they are sealed for time and all eternity. They are an eternal family and will be together again someday. I am grateful for the many men and women who offer themselves in the name of our country, too many have paid the ultimate price, and too few of us express our thanks. I am grateful for ancestors who sacrificed, who lived, who made this a great country. I am thankful for parents, grandparents, and other family members who have been an example to me. My words will never be enough. I am especially grateful to a brother in the Army, a brother in law enforcement, an almost-brother in the Air Force, and for a husband who has shown me the importance of willingness to serve and how important service men and women are. To my examples, to my family, to my Lord, I am grateful.
I ask that thoughts and prayers be with the Harris family at their time of loss. I ask that we all remember our military, to thank them for their service, both in the past, currently and in the future. I ask that we thank God everyday that we live in these United States and we do our best to uphold His virtues and remain united.
America the Beautiful
Melody by Samuel Ward
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
