Happy 4th of July

our house--dressed for festivities

At church on Sunday I was thinking about Ferris Brough.  He's a man who lived in the ward where I grew up.  He was affectionately called The Life Saver Man by all the children.  He had rolls of Life Savers in his jacket pockets and you had only to walk up to him and hold out your hand and he'd put a Life Saver in your palm.  He'd also greet you in a friendly manner and make you feel like he was the lucky one, because he got to give you a Life Saver.

Every July, he would bear his testimony.  He was a big man, synonymous with little more than good cheer and Life Savers in my young mind so I always paid attention when he'd speak in July, because he would cry.

He had served in World War II and he loved America.  He would get choked up in the telling of it.

I miss him and hearing his testimony.

So I was already feeling a little sentimental and then the closing song was "The Star Spangled Banner".  I cried.

Have you ever tried to sing/not cry during "The Star Spangled Banner"?  It's not easy.

Also, I remembered the beaches of Normandy and then I was a goner.

If I could go back and revisit just one thing in France it would be Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery in Normandy.

It was sacred ground and I felt overwhelming gratitude for the impossibly young and brave men that died there for the cause of freedom.

O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

 

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

It's hard to wrap your mind around the scope of what happened there.  I appreciate the beautiful and peaceful grounds and wish I could have stayed longer.

Seeing this picture of my girl, smiling and happy and free as a bird, on the beach in Normandy means a lot to me.

Because of the sacrifices of those that went before us, our children are growing up in a world where they have opportunity.  They live in a safe and secure place.  They can say whatever crazy thought that pops in their head.  They are free.

And I'm grateful.