The Amercian Soldier!

I do love this country. Think of all the good things God has given to us. Like Lee Greenwood said, “I’m proud to be an American.” And I am. I’m proud of all the freedoms we have, and I’m proud of the brave men and women who have fought to defend us, and those who have died to give us that God-given right to be free. What Todd is about to do, is to go and assure that you and I remain free, that you remain free, so that America can remain the Land of the free and the home of the brave.

Someone has said we live in the land of the free because of the brave…and now the question is what do we do with this gift? Todd is fixing to leave his family and his friends behind here in Mississippi to go to some foreign land for us, and I wonder how many of us would be willing to do that same? How many would be willing to make that type of sacrifice? I think that’s what was behind the statement in the Private Ryan movie. He had been given the ultimate gift, and he wanted to make sure it wasn’t in vain. When you are given such a gift, you need to make the most of it.

I was watching a ball game last season, and Dick Vitale was commenting on how this point guard was slashing and dicing his way through these big men, putting his body in harm’s way, just to make an opportunity for his teammates to score…and then he said how depressing it was for that point guard when he did all that, sacrificing his body to get that guy his shot, and to have the guy miss the shot. He said, “all that work was simply wasted!”

So many people are not making the most out of the freedom we have been given. It’s a shame when that freedom is neglected or worse, when that freedom is misused, and then the question is asked was all that work wasted? When men have given their life so that we could have the freedom of speech, and to see that freedom used as an excuse to peddle pornography under the banner of free speech. When men and women around this world live under the tyranny of a dictator, and here we can’t even get half of our population to cast a vote. It’s a shame when that freedom given to us is neglected or when it is misused. Or even scorned.

To often there are those in our nation who despise the very thing that upholds them. They hate the military, yet if not for the military, if not for people like Todd, where would we be? For one, we would all be speaking German right now. Where would we be if brave young men and women didn’t risk giving all to preserve our rights, our freedoms, our great nation.

So often we take our freedoms for granted, not realizing the sacrifice made to keep those freedoms alive. Chuck Swindoll read a letter on the radio the other day, and it so moved me that I searched and searched until I found a copy of that letter, and I want to read it to you this morning. It’s about how one man’s opinion changed when his son joined the Marines.

"Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now, when I read of the war on terrorism, or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.