Happy Memorial Day!

Today I wanted to reflect on all that we have because of the strength and bravery that our soldiers, our brothers and sisters, have given toward the belief in Freedom and Peace. Their sacrifices have given us the ability to enjoy the Freedom of choice, speech and Faith! Without their open hearts and love for our country and strong belief in Freedom, where would we be today? What kind of a life would we be living? I don't want to know a world that doesn't have Faith, Love and Hope. So I am sharing with you a poem that conveys a soldiers prayer, and as you read this poem, please say a prayer for those who are still giving their lives and fighting for Peace and Freedom!

A COMBAT SOLDIER'S PRAYER

by Gary Jacobson © 1999

This combat soldier's prayer,

Who has served his time in Hell,

Is may we learn the lessons of war well,

That we not doom future generations,

The same old tales of horror to tell,

To endure what in youth they see mistakenly as glory.

Oh God, do not let our children

Repeat the same old story.

Make it so that America's babies live to grow old

In this land of the free and the bold.

Help us throw off the shackles of hate that bind

And grow old in a life of a peaceful kind.

Teach us that there is no glory in war,

Nor honor there that brave men should not abhor.

Teach us instead, one for another our brothers to love.

Shower us with thine Celestial message from above,

That we plant seeds of peace evermore

And make war-no-more!

But if I should die on some far, far away battlefiel,

Know I answered the call

For a grand principle of freedom to yield.

My fervent prayer is that death

May not have been in vain

Fighting for peace and right for the world to attain.

My brothers, American roses standing by my side

On alien soil dying

In the summer of my youthful pride

All the leaves around me falling,

Now I’m lying here still,

in sunshine and in shadow,

Longing to hear, “brother next door, I love you so."

For moldering in the soft ground below,

I feel you living and loving in the world above me

Standing tall because I fought that you might be...

Oh look ye down now,

And tell me you still think of me

Honor my red blood, spilt that others might stand free.

Tell me that I did not give my all for you in vain

That brothers and sisters do not look upon my sacrifice

With hateful,Or even worse,Uncaring disdain.

Do not forget me when my valley’s hushed

And white with snow,Grass growing green in the summer of my meadow

Help me see the peace I lived and died for grow.

Make my lonely grave richer,

Sweeter be...Make this truly,

"The land of the freeAnd the home of the brave,"

I gave my life to save

That I might too, lie eternally,

Forever free...