I look at the calendar each year and know it’s coming. A day bearing so much heartache and the weight of thousands of fallen heroes. I think of the open seats left at dinner tables and the mothers looking into the framed pictures of sons and daughters who are never coming home.
And I say – I remember.
And I do. I remember hearing of an attack. I remember watching buildings fall and the first time I felt like real life wasn’t real.
All the tears. Then all the hugs. All the arms stretched wide to embrace a bleeding nation and commit to bandaging it back up. Standing together instead of apart.
But I’ll never remember – like they do.
The families who named and knew all of those taken away that gray, September morning.
The men and women who still put on uniform every day to protect and rescue and defend.
And they are the heroes we want to teach our children about.
Today, I’m inspired to put my heart into action, too. I encourage you to consider some simple ways to join me.
Appreciate
If you ask my boys what they want to be when they grow up, the answers are sure to include: police officer, fire fighter; they know who real heroes are. And I know it, and we want them to know it, too. So after school pick-up, make a pit-stop at the doughnut shop and take over some goodies to the local police station or firehouse. Watch small acts of appreciation multiply in mighty ways, and teach lessons that books never can.
If a doctor’s appointment is scheduled, take an extra moment to let the physicians and nurses and staff know how grateful you are for all they’ve been trained to do. If you’re eating lunch next to military men and women, treat them or thank them. Either way, acknowledge that the path they’ve chosen is not one walked alone or forgotten.
Communicate
I’m proud to know several families who have chosen to give their lives to protecting and defending our freedoms. Likely, you do, too. Take a few minutes to reach out to them today. Pray for them. Let them know that they also have an army of support behind them.
In addition to our friends, look for those who you might not yet know, who need a smile or door held open or an affirmation that we are a community, neighbors, brothers and sisters. Remind friends of different nationalities that they are appreciated for who they are, and we are still stronger and better together. We need each other.
Donate
It only takes turning on the news to see the threats still attacking this world today. Look for ways to participate in sending relief – be it financial or pledging time or other resources to spreading awareness and joining the rescue. We are here to do something.
And we won’t let it stop at sunset. We will continue to carry the commitment to bring love and hope and healing to a world lost without it. We can bring light to the darkness. We can be superheroes, too.
Love,
Mommy
Grateful for a rescue that will never fail us. Ever. THIS is the reason – THIS is the redemption. Light has come. “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:9-14
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