" This is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
                                                                                                                    --Jesus (John 15:12,13)
 
What does Memorial Day have to do with my marriage? Lots! You see, marriage is based on a commitment to love. Those who have given their lives exemplify that love. They gave everything that you and I might know freedom -even their lives!

We can learn from them. I spent four years in the Air Force during the Viet Nam War. We were married only eight months when I had to leave to go overseas, not to return to my new bride for 13 months. God kept me safe in Korea, but I lost friends in Viet Nam.

Honoring them reminds me of the real nature of love. It's not a feeling or having someone in my life to meets all my needs or wants. It's giving all that I have without any guarantee, or expectation of getting anything in return.

When I enlisted some were running off to Canada because they weren't prepared to give -to love.  Today, in the same way, many husbands and wives run off to their own places of escape to avoid giving their reasonable service because it calls for sacrifice. We need to be men and women of courage. We need to be prepared to give no matter the cost.

When we look at the flag let the red stripes remind us of the blood that flowed to win our freedom, not just on the battlefields of war, but also the blood that flowed down Calvary's hill to win our freedom from sin, hell, death and the grave. We are free to love, because of those who went before us, loving us, purchasing our freedom with their lives, including, and especially, the Son of God. 

Let's remember and commit to carrying on the tradition of loving no matter the cost. We can do no less.

QUESTION FOR THE BOTH OF US:  Do we really appreciate the sacrifice that others have made for our liberty, especially the sacrifice God made in giving His only Son?  Are we prepared to give of ourselves for each other? Does it show?

PRAYER FOR THE BOTH OF US: Lord, help us to remember those who gave their lives for us, and help us to honor them by giving our lives for you and each other, beginning in our marriage.