Land of the Free because of the Brave

Happy Veterans Day to all! Today we honor all those, past and present, who have served our country in the armed forces, although we should recognize them every day of the year.  My heart is full of humility, gratitude, and respect to God and our service men and women.  Our country is amazing and we are so blessed to have it!

Our Heavenly Father guided our founding fathers to create this great nation, and as the most prominent, powerful and free nation in the world, we do (no matter what all those liberals say) have a responsibility to help serve and protect the rest of the world from dictatorship, oppression and other forms of evil.  Those who serve in our military take that to the front lines, and many sacrifice dearly for it.

Men and women who are in the military are expected to conform to a higher standard than the rest of us "civies", and with good reason. I have a friend in the military and have learned a lot from him about how and why they do what they do. It's sure been an interesting education! If they were not pushed to the brink and broken down, they would not be mentally equipped to deal with the circumstances of combat.  And they do push them far. Reallllly far.  I don't agree with all the training tactics they use, but for the others I understand why they are necessary to prepare troops for whatever may come in the field. 

My respect for our service men and women has increased ten-fold and I feel eternally grateful for their service and their sacrifice. And their sacrifices are great; physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, vocationally, and in their family life. General Douglas MacArthur said, "The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." They develop struggles from the things they see and experience, and some may lose part of themselves.  They come home to a world that is much different than it was to them before, and living in that world is very challenging.  These are some of the sacrifices they make, and they make them for the intent to serve, defend and protect the citizens of not just the United States, but the world.  They are not "war junkies".  They do it for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.

President Deiter F., Uchtdorf of the LDS Church explained the purpose of the Military this way: 

"I served six years in the military. I was trained well in forms of combat, survival and leadership. But only after having actually served as a soldier during the Cold War in Europe did I realize that our role as a well-trained and highly motivated military force was to keep and bring peace to a troubled world. Bringing and keeping peace is a significant part of the healers art."

The Healers art, I like that. Though the military uses weapons and force when needed to complete their missions and protect others, they are just another army of God, trying to keep and bring peace to the world He created. 

So please, thank all service men and women, past and present, for their service and sacrifice for you, for me, for every one of God's children. And please remember that,

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."  

~Elmer Davis

God bless America, and God bless our troops!

You Can Make Your Dreams Come True

This Halloween was one for the history books.  I know it's kinda cliche to say, "Dreams come true", but it is true!!! Life is tough and sometimes when it gets us down, we let it take us down farther and think we'll never accomplish anything.  I've been having a harder time health-wise as of late and sometimes when that happens I just sink down and think there's no way I can enjoy life or reach my aspirations, so I don't try. But the truth is that when that happens, we need to act upon and follow our dreams and also create moments of joy that will just help us have fun!
At times we also may be so busy in life that we think we can't devote time to recreation because our focus should be elsewhere on matters more important. But I recall a statement from President Thomas S. Monson when he said of spending our time in worthy causes that part of that must be recreation and having fun. The prophet told us that we must have some play time! (Remember that Y'all.) Well, in this year of transitions, troubles and changes, I decided to let that all go and pull out all the stops for Halloween. I hadn't done something like this in years and, darn it all, I needed to do something fun for me!! I realized that I had power to make one of my dreams come true.
Now I've never been the biggest Halloween fan. As a child I didn't care much about candy and disliked Trick-or-treating in the chilled October night. Dressing up was fun but lost it's appeal as I got older.  My sister and I have talked since high school about dressing up as Glinda and Elphaba from the musical "Wicked" and after seeing it for the first time this year decided we were finally going to do it. Unfortunately Alisha couldn't do her costume this year-which was so sad!-but she gave me her blessing and told me to do it anyway.
I decided money was no object, because if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. I wanted  let worries and cares go and just have fun. I looked and looked for dresses at discount and thrift store but couldn't find a thing. But finally on the eve of Halloween I saw the ABSOLUTE PERFECT dress at a store and within minutes was skipping out the sliding glass doors to my car. Seriously. This dress could not be more perfect. It was blue and somewhat puffy, which is what Glinda's dress is all about! Overall it took me 3 stores and 50 bucks, but I put together a costume I'll remember the rest of my life.

But it's not the costume that matters most here; it's the memories I had while in it that I will treasure.  Hangin with two of my best gal pals, Rose and Kira, and enjoying an evening of fun and friends was just what I needed, and the memories will bring joy to me not just now, but the rest of my days.  I fulfilled a long lost dream and gained a boatload of goodness at the same time.

Kira (an 80's aerobics girl), Rose (a glow-in-the-dark stickwoman) and  me (Ms. Glinda, of course!)

So no matter how hard life gets, never let go of your dreams. Dream big and follow them with all of your heart!

Cheers,
Robyn