Sacrifice . Thankfulness . Pride

Last week, my family and I were on vacation. We made it a “Staycation” where we would revisit some places we haven’t been for a while and discover some new sites near home.
On July 4th, we missed the Hero’s Parade in downtown Coeur d’Alene, but we spent a good part of the afternoon in City Park listening to the Army National Guard band from Boise play in the bandstand. It was refreshing to see people walk up to our police officers and our military to shake their hands and thank them for

Stephanie Rogge

their service. We even saw a man dressed in revolutionary costume carrying the flag which represented the original 13 colonies. Everyone seemed excited to be free to celebrate together that day.

The heat was keeping us from being outside more, so we decided to visit the Bird Aviation Museum at the Hayden Airport and the Museum at the Brig at Farragut State Park. Part of the display at the Bird Aviation Museum was a tribute to our military; there were exhibits of planes they used in various battles as they fought for our freedom. The Museum at the Brig surprised us because we were not aware that there once was a massive naval training base at the southeastern end of Lake Pend Oreille. This base trained over 293,000 recruits during WWII! We walked away reminded of the sacrifices that our military men and women made for the freedom of generations that followed them, and are proud of our family and friends who were part of this sacrifice.

Saturday, we watched the Post Falls Festival parade. I was thrilled to see the parade start with students from Post Falls High School proudly carrying a large version of the American flag on their shoulders. Although patriotism was not the main theme of the parade, the community cheered in support of our flag, our veterans, and our police. It was wonderful to see a community showing their thankfulness and pride for the freedoms we share as Americans. We only have these freedoms because of the sacrifices of others before us.

I’m proud to be called an American, but I am prouder yet to be called a Christian. I did not get this name because of anything that I did, but through Christ’s sacrifice. Because of His love, He gave his life to cover my sins and the sins of those He calls His own. His sacrifice has given me freedom from sin and the freedom to follow Him. This is a freedom that nobody can take away from me.  And because His sacrifice was motivated by love, I am thankful and proud to be called a Christian.
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John 15:12-13 NIV
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

In Christ,
Stephanie