Weekend Thoughts: The Costly Barbeque

This weekend our family, like many across the country, will gather together, and after watching a small town parade, we’ll enjoy some barbeque and corn on the cob, and conclude the evening with a gorgeous fireworks display. 

Meanwhile, our troops are away from their friends and families.  They are not sipping lemonade on the back porch, while grilling up some burgers.   Tonight they will not be holding their children on their laps as they watch the fireworks burst in the air. 

As is quite often the case with many holidays, it is often easy to get so caught up in the celebrating…in buying those darling coordinating patriotic outfits,  making up the potato salad, purchasing the cookout foods, that we can forget why and what we are celebrating. 

I love the fourth of July.  Love the food.  Love the parades.  Love the fireworks.  Love the red, white, and blue everywhere you look.

But, the fourth of July is not about fireworks, cute outfits, or corn on the cob.  The fourth of July is our nation’s birthday party.  We are celebrating our country.  Our country which was founded to give us freedoms. 

And those freedoms that we enjoy are not free.  They were and are paid with the sacrifice of soldiers past and present.   As much as I love the family gathered together enjoying barbeque on my back deck, and snuggling to watch the fireworks over the waters of Annapolis, my favorite part of the day is the parade.   I love the parade because I am given the opportunity to say thank you to the men and women who have fought to defend the freedoms I enjoy daily.   As I wave my flag and give a standing ovation to the soldiers marching past, my heart fills with gratitude as tears spill down my cheeks.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to look these soldiers in the  eye and scream “thank you.”  Once a year is not nearly enough, but I am appreciative of this opportunity and the chance it gives me to teach my children the value of honoring our troops.  Because they deserve our gratitude and respect. 

The fireworks, friends, family, and food, are all fantastic.  But they aren’t free.  They cost our soldiers and their families quite a bit.  And I thank the Lord that I live in a country where I can enjoy these things free of fear.   

I encourage you today to spend some time in the midst of your celebration, to say thanks. 

What are you thinking about this week? Heard a song lyric that touched your heart?  Read something in a Bible study that got you thinking?  Why not use your last post of the week to highlight something a bit "deeper" then the average Momblog fair?  I’d love to read your thoughts.  Please feel free to write and link up a new post below, or to link up a thoughtful post from earlier in the week.