Tell The Children, "Never Forget"

Memorial Day weekend has become more of an occasion for rest and relaxation than for reflection about our heroes and the values they died to preserve. This weekend, I hope and pray that we can learn to do both relax and remember. Let's go the ballgame, have that picnic, hug our kids and have some fun at the beach.

But let's also remind ourselves, and our children, about what happened at Concord Bridge, the fields of Antietam and the beaches of Normandy. Let's explain to them why there was a Berlin Wall, what happened at Okinawa and the price that was paid to stop fascism and Soviet communism. The same resolve that allowed us to persevere in those conflicts will be necessary if we are to overcome our current challenges.

In short, with America facing so many dangers internally and externally, let's take a moment this weekend to teach our children and grandchildren to love the things we love, and honor the things we honor. Finally, let's remind ourselves as well as our children that all liberty is a gift from God and that each generation has paid in flesh and blood to preserve it.



For those of you who want a place to start, try reading to your kids and grandkids these words from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here".

And ending your family activties with a prayer of thanksgiving for those who gave their lives for our freedoms.