happy memorial day

[ManOfWord]

Here are the two prayers that I prayed as a part of our township's Memorial Day celebration:


Father, in all your creation and in your making the world we live in, you’ve given us resources to so that we may enjoy our short journey here. But the most valuable resource in all of your creation is the life you have given each of us to live and the ability to choose what we do with those lives.
Today, Father, we remember those who for the cause of freedom and against tyranny and injustice have laid down their lives. Whether it was taking a beach head, flying a strategic mission, or protecting the seas, these men and women made a choice with their lives that ultimately cost them their lives. They fought in wars they did not ignite. Some fought in battles they did not win and others were captured and tortured. Still others returned from the battles and are standing here with us today.
May the memory of their lives and of their deeds never be forgotten. May we who have not fought the battles these have faced never take for granted the price that was paid. May the choices they made never fade from our memory and may we be ever thankful.
For, Father, with the lives and choices You gave, they planted them and from those seeds of sacrifice grew the freedom we enjoy in this great country of the United States of America. We thank you for those in the graves and for those standing here. May Your blessing ever rest upon them and their families. Amen.



Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for these festivities and times of remembrance. We remember all too well the wars that claimed these lives. And we pray that wars over the matters of men would cease. We also pray that if the need for war arises once more, that it would be for the freedom of those you have made. If the need for war ever arises, we pray that there would be men and women as courageous as these we remember today that would rise to the occasion until victory rings in freedom.
Just as you fought a war for freedom for all mankind on a cross at Calvary, laid down your life to purchase eternal life for us, let us never forget that freedom is not free and peace has a price. Thank You, once again, for these men and women who also paid that price. May they rest in peace. May they rest in Your arms. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

[DividedThigh]

great prayers mow, might have to borrow one some day, dt