A Country Built on Sacrifice
On the night of July 1st, 1776, a man named Caesar Rodney climbed onto his horse in Dover, Delaware, gravely ill with the cancer that had disfigured his face for years, and rode nearly eighty miles through a violent thunderstorm to reach Philadelphia.
Delaware's delegation was deadlocked on the vote for independence, and without Rodney, the colony's voice would be silent at the very moment it mattered most. He arrived at Independence Hall the next morning and cast the deciding vote. Rodney showed up, at great personal cost, because his country needed him to.
Nearly two centuries later, a Dutch watchmaker named Corrie ten Boom hid Jewish families in her home during the Second World War, was arrested for it, and endured the horror of a concentration camp. She survived to spend the rest of her life teaching that love and forgiveness are stronger than hatred.
Our American Heritage is composed of brave individuals who gave up comfort, safety, and sometimes their lives because they believed in the freedom and dignity of every person who would come after them.
Such stories of our heritage prompt the question, “What am I willing to lay down for someone else's good?”
In a culture that almost demands us to focus on political disagreements, it can distract us from the truth that unites us all: this country was built on sacrifice, on a desire for the common good, and on the conviction that freedom is a precious gift, not a given. That is something worth teaching our children, and worth living ourselves, no matter the political age we are in.
In our own homes, we have daily, ordinary chances to lay our own heart on the ground so someone else can walk on it: staying up with a sick child, giving up the last of our patience to answer one more question, setting aside our own plans for someone who needs us. This is the same sacrifice our founders and our heroes modeled.
If we want to raise children who understand gratitude for the freedoms they enjoy, we might start by living out sacrifice for one another at home, and showing them what it looks like to notice a need and fill a need.
"Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness."
— Corrie ten Boom
Living Out Sacrifice as a Family
The best classroom for learning heritage and sacrifice is our own home. Within our own four walls, we can find ways to honor those who came before us, and live out gratitude.
Here are some simple, concrete ways to put sacrifice into practice together this month:
Write Letters to Soldiers
Sit down as a family and write letters of encouragement to active-duty service members. There are a variety of ways to send encouragment to those who are deployed. Here are two organizations:
Through Soldiers Angels, you can not just write letters, but also become a virtual volunteer to support service members and their families, bake treats, ‘adopt’ a service member, or even send supplies to chaplains.
Support our Troops is an organization where you can make and address cards and letters to deployed soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen.
Clean a Gravesite
Visit a local cemetery and spend an afternoon tidying the graves of veterans, especially ones that look forgotten. Placing a small flag at a veteran's grave is a simple, quiet act of honor children will remember.
Give to a Food Bank
As a family, choose a food bank to support this month. Let the children help pick out and pack the items, so they see firsthand what it looks like to fill a need. You may also explore opportunities at your local food bank such as serving in the community kitchen, or organizing donations.
The heart of all of this is simple: if you see a need, you fill it. This is how we can honor sacrifice: not only by remembering it but by living it out, one small act at a time!
