Veterans, we thank you!

A forest of clouds pass over the cresent moon struggling to light my darkness. The radio fails to distract my thoughts as I wander through a quaint neighborhood alone.

The sweat finds its way onto my brow from beneath my USMC headband. I ponder another life far from what I know and realize finally that the age of 29 years 11 months and 15 days is precisely when time and change demand that I open my hands and release my longsuffering ambition to be a bona fide United States marine.

One year later, teetering on the precipice of age 31, I've less than a week until I fulfill my dream for one day by running the Marine Corps marathon on October 31, 2010.

Still I contemplate whether I could actually achieve so high a goal – to serve my country and live for the welfare of others. My body still allows me to run outlandish distances but feels noticably more tired and beaten than she did in earlier times and places. Nevertheless, physcially I’m confident, willing and certainly able for the task if it were set before me. And the sacrifice – the sacrifice of my freedom for others is one I desire – even long to make – but that sacrifice touches not the one I’m unwilling to make for the corps. No, no, there is a bigger price at stake in exchange for the prize here – one I’m unwilling to pay.

My writing is interrupted by three tiny voices needing help down the stairs. “How ironic,” I think to myself. They need help using the potty and they are hungry. They want me to watch a cartoon about farm animals with them so I sit and type in between the E-I-E-I-O’s. I am their whole life.

Several years ago I presented myself to a marine recruiter. As he began asking all the preliminary questions he said, "Why do you want to be a marine?" I thought for a minute and replied with wide eyes and a less than jaded 25 year old passion, "Because it's best the job I could have. It's the highest calling I can think of aside from following Christ. It means something to be a marine and I want my life to matter."

The recruiter looked down and paused from his hurried questioning. I remember seeing tears in his otherwise dark and distant eyes when he looked up and seemed to be abruptly finished with his inquiries.

You see, when you’ve decided to pour out your life for someone else, it’s a commitment you simply cannot renege on. I guess the Lord chooses who our lives will be given to – not us. My sacrifice – my freedom to choose what I will – what I desire – has been removed from all ambitions out of love for my Savior, my husband, my children and my mother. His sacrifice, along with every other service man and woman in this country is given for the greater good of each and every one of us. Their ambitions and what they desire have been removed by their love and sacrifice for all of their brothers and sisters in America. What a gift! What amazing people must our soldiers and sailors be! They have sacrificed what I am not willing to sacrifice and much more than that. The tie that binds us together is the same, though. The weight of our sacrifice lifts off the second we realize how blessed we are to have something or someone we love enough to sacrifice for.

Thank you soldiers and sailors for considering me and sacrificing for me. Thank you for my protection, my freedom, and my country. You are they who make this country worth sacrificing for. You do not sacrifice in vain. We who watch your courage desire to live as you do with all heart, no fear and constant sacrifice. You lead by example everyday of your lives.

So, am I the best example of sacrificial giving? Certainly not. Am I true to the core and “ever faithful"? Most definetely! I am striving to become more like those who've considered others to be of more importance than themselves. When my freedom is sacrificed for others, even in small ways, I have succeeded. Semper Fi.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." ~John 15:12-14

~Written by Lori Rodeheaver. Lori is the mother of three preschoolers and attends our Cherry Tree MOPS group!