SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS

It is important that we keep alive the memory and sacrifices of those who served to honor them and give thanks for their service.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines memorial as “something that keeps remembrance alive.”

Memorial Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to our servicemen and women’s bravery.

It is also a time to support the reason for their sacrifice – principles worth defending – “One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

May our thanks be great to those who spent holidays separated from family and endured nights not knowing what the night or morning would require of them.

Let us salute the bravery of those who led and those who followed, trusting as they went deep into enemy lines.

May we remember and honor the medics, nurses, and doctors who cared for the wounded and whose mission it was to mend them.

Our prayers go out to those who still live with their injuries and the mental challenges incurred because of serving.

Thanks be to God, for many cherished relationships forged in those difficult times that helped to sustain and comfort those serving.

Many servicemen and women tell about the strength of these special relationship bonds and how comforting it is to know that, whenever needed, they are there for each other today.

Let us praise God’s love and protection, his miracles, and his answer to prayers during battle.

Our men and women speak of being saved by just missing a bullet or avoiding an explosion in the nick of time. And, they give thanks for how prayers and faith in God helped them and their families deal with the loss of those who did not make it.

Reports tell of how some who served believed they witnessed the work of God.

Through a series of perfectly time events that miraculously came together, their mission and rescues were successful.

Downed aircrews and others on the ground talk about owing their lives to “angels on earth” who hid them from the enemy, fed, clothed, sheltered them; and then, were brought to safety through heroic rescue missions.

May we keep alive the remembrance of those who served.

Let us give praise to God for the good in America and the freedom we have enjoyed because of their sacrifices.

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America’s beauty is recalled by Katherine Lee Bates in her poem, America the Beautiful, (1983) inspired by a trip to Pike’s Peak.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassioned stress,

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

An invitation to follow these links for all the verses and Ray Charles’ vocal rendition.

https://www.purpleheart.org/static/forms/AmericaTheBeautiful.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg