How can we not remember and pray for our Veterans today, those who have served and those who are currently serving?  Sometimes the pictures that flash across the TV screen cause me to turn my head – too painful to look at and yet, these women and men are living these horrors each day.  Children themselves, many of them, having to see first hand what children should never have to see.  Being forced into making split second life decisions, and then having those decisions haunt them for years to come.  Being separated from their families, their spouses, their own children.  Having to live in far away lands, under conditions which are sometimes harsh and extreme.  And, if they are fortunate enough to come home, many return hurt, injured, broken.

I can’t truly know or experience what these women and men live through each day.  But, I can offer my thoughts, my compassion, my gratitude and my prayers.  Today is a day when we honor, we salute, we humble ourselves before our Veterans…let us never forget the sacrifices that they make and the memories that they live with.  Let us remember them today and tomorrow. We ask that God blesses them and heals them and brings them all home soon.  We pray for peace.