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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Letter to My Family

I write from Iraq to my dear wife and our wonderful children. As I scroll down the BLOG and smile and yearn to be with my wife and children. My boys Seth, Michael and Matthew standing in the hall acting pregnant and just being boys, my sweet Emma resting her head against her mother before final farewells and giving of her strength freely and warmly, and my oldest - the current man of the house - Adam standing tall ready to assume that responsibility for a year at an early age. With this I look back to those that preceed me in this great calling as a Soldier, no matter what flag flew in front of them and directed their course.

War has its physical, emotional, and mental hazards in and of itself, but that is something we all volunteered for and welcome. Some people are made for these responsibilities and risks and enjoy and excel at overcoming the challenges natural in our line of work. Our tasking is to enforce political will with the sword without public question. We are trained and disciplined to use various and appropriate levels of force to accomplish those ends as we are ordered to do so. We proudly wear our flag, from whatever nation, and serve our country with honor and dignity. Our blood, our sweat, our tears, our hearts, and our minds go into every tasking we are given because we know for whom our service is rendered.

We serve those little ones we leave behind. We served those whom we love. My wife and children can enjoy freedoms paid for by those who proceeded us and our future will continue to enjoy those freedoms by our current sacrifices. Sacrifices, which above anything what any insurgent or enemy combatant can dream of doing, include the temporary separation from loved ones.

My wife and kids can hold their heads high and say that they have served their country. They will go a year or more during this deployment and will continue to face many more months and years without their dad physically present in the course of military service. They must bear the true brunt of warfare as they are forming their impressions on the world and their character on how they will engaged that world. They are called to grow and mature more quickly then some and some much more quickly than others. Our future depends on sacrifices at both ends but more importantly the future depends on how our children glean the appropriate lessons from their sacrifices and incorporate into their character to make them leaders for good when they are at the helm.

I love each and every one of my children and the wonderful wife and mother who is taking each day with stride as the strippling mothers of old had to with their sons and daughters.

Signed

A Soldier

3 comments:

pcNut said...

Thank you for posting this! Powerful, poignant, and so heartfelt. God speed Soldier, fellow servicemen and supportive loving families!

Sarah Elliott

Mama Smith said...

During the Vietnam War...I personally know...of a young wife each week...who would anxiously wait for a letter...from her soldier husband...There wasn't email in those days and there were NO TELEPHONE CALLS that could be made...Their DAILY communications were set aside for a time...Their DAILY embrace...that DAILY kiss...that DAILY hug...could only be imagined or remembered from the past...Vietnam was NOT supported by many Americans at home...Our soldiers were spit upon...ridiculed...and worse...condemned for the work many did NOT choose to do...yet, honorable did their job...In those days, many were "drafted" into the war...However, the experience of this young wife...willing to stay behind...while supporting a CAUSE that was BIGGER than either her husband or herself...AMERICA has always stood for something ALL PEOPLE crave...and that state of being is called "FREEDOM"...a God-given RIGHT...to CHOOSE one's course in life...Very few nations have had that GIFT...yet, AMERICA was the ONE NATION...that gave people from all over the world...that HOPE that one day...they, too, could experience...this FREEDOM...

TODAY, the spirit of GOD, FAMILY, and COUNTRY...is being...threatened...and AMERICA is in DEEP TROUBLE...To my SOLDIER SON...You were raised in a home that the spirit of FREEDOM was part of your FAITH...for without FREEDOM...none of us could exercise our rights to CHOOSE our path in LIFE...

As a SOLDIER MOM...you are in our family prayers...as we, also, pray for your wife and children...My dream of the CHARACTER you would one day possess...is being realized...No mother could be more "well pleased" in her son...than I....You have grown to become a MAN....of GOD...a MAN of FREEDOM...and now stands along side of many of MY HEREOS...PATRIOTS...who were willing to give the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE...for a CAUSE to PROTECT what our Heavenly Father esteemed MOST IMPORTANT..."AGENCY"...

Thank you, son, for choosing to stand by and support this heavenly CAUSE ......."...the LORD has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to DEFEND themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their RIGHTS, and their RELIGION." (Alma 43:47) ... "They cried with one voice unto the Lord their God, for their liberty, ye, their freedom from bondage." (verse 49)

May we always be willing to LIFT UP THIS BANNER to ALL THE WORLD: "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children!" (Alma 46:12)

Garvin Smith said...

I thank God for those whoe provide my freedom. I pray specifically, daily for Josh, Holly, Adam, Emma, Seth, Michael, and Matthew.