“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Today is Memorial Day. I’m going to go get some flags and put them on any soldier’s grave in a little cemetery near our house. Before both of my parents died, I made a point to call my dad and my mom and tell them that I appreciated the sacrifices they made during World War II. They were both in the Army.
My dad served with Patton’s Third Army in many famous battles like the Battle of the Bulge. He was in Normandy about a month after that first awful invasion. My mother was an Army nurse who took care of those injured in the fighting.
The desire to be free is one of the undefeatable desires of all mankind. Human beings embody that innate desire to be able to make choices about their own lives. Many have died through the centuries either preserving someone else’s freedoms or defending their own.
We can’t take our own freedom for granted. We are free so that we can choose to love and choose to be better and choose the high road. Freedom takes responsibility and determination and character. If we use our freedom for harm or for selfish purposes, we don’t deserve it.
And now, because of (or in spite of) our divorce, we as individual women have a new kind of freedom to choose what our life with be like in the future. Like the quote above, freedom is not for the weak and timid. It is for all of us who bravely do what it takes to shape our lives into something wonderful and good.
We can each personally embrace the freedom to live boldly with courage and confidence. Remember, love always wins. In a love-driven life, there is always the possibility that you’ll get hurt. But a strong, love-filled life is a wonderfully free and wildly full life …. even if others are using their freedom in ways that hurt others.
Choose the true freedom of love always. Enjoy and appreciate this day that we honor those who have loved enough to give their lives in service to us all.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.” Galatians 5:13-15 (The Message)
