We Honour Those Who Gave Their Lives For Our Freedom

There is nothing we can say or do to comfort anyone who has lost a loved one in the effort to preserve freedom.

Having lost my son-in-law Tedd Woodworth, I can at least understand a small fraction of their loss. They died by offering their lives; Tedd had no such choice as Hodgkins disease took him from my youngest daughter, a widow at 26. She lost her love, her husband, a father to unborn children, her ministry alongside him. She felt like a teenager again. No friend to share her day with, to rejoice in goodness with, to cry in sadness with. Even good friends can never replace a lost beloved.  


But God in his infinite wisdom, providing we actually believe there may be a higher wisdom than ours, took him and within 2 years gave her a new husband and a new life. Once I get my JoyfulMourning.com website back up you can read more about it from my point of view. 


Until then please check out the website of Rebecca and her new husband Scott at www.brokenclay.net to hear about it from their point of view.

I will NEVER know what the spouses of service-men and service-women feel but at least I have a very small glimpse. So what can we do if  I know any of them?

• I can be a friend to them
• I can be there for them
• I can allow them to cry on my shoulder without trivial comments
• I can be a silent friend until they want me to say something even if NEVER is their decision
• I can NOT give them advice unless they specifically ask for it
• I can show my love
• I can make sure I do NOT confuse them by discussing whether I think war is okay or not
• I can pay the love of THEIR loved ones FORWARD to someone else to keep that love flowing
• Let it never stop
• Let freedom ring along the seashores of our 1000's of miles of coast
• Let it ring in the lofty mountains as they reach upward to their creator
• Let it ring all along the flat prairies, our food banks for us and much of the world
• Let it ring in the darkness of the Arctic night
• Let it shine when the northern night finally ends!
• Let it ring in our cities and in the country, on ocean vessels and fishing boats, in foreign fields, in the air and on the water, in our forests and in the depths of space
• Let it ring in every heart that those who died to preserve our freedom would not turn their face in shame and weep to see it being taken from even the youngest AND the oldest among us.

-Charles Pedley
-Remembrance Day 2010
-U.S. Veteran's Day 2010


Two Slideshow Versions With Song "A Soldier Cries"


To my grandsons, Nathanael and Andrew Guinn, remember YOUR Grandfather Guinn who gave his life and God gave it back to him and he came home. 


He came home so he and your Grandmother Guinn could have your Dad, Jonathan Guinn and so that Jon could meet my daughter, Ann, at Elim Bible Institute and would marry him so that ....


YOU WOULD BE BORN!


Be thankful for him! I was honoured to meet and know him a bit. When I first met him, it was like we were old friends. We shared the early-morning muffin run. [Ask your Dad if you do not understand this one (:-) I miss seeing him every time I come to visit you.]


May we be ever thankful to the freedom that allows us to believe as we wish, to worship in freedom or not as we see fit. There will never be a red or yellow tag which discounts the price of those who gave their life to preserve .... FREEDOM!


God gave us the freedom to acknowledge Him or not. Men gave their lives for an absolute. The absolute value of living free! Many countries around our world DO NOT have this freedom. These videos challenge us to remember that sacrifice.  

Lost a Job?

This doesn't make the necessary grieving process any easier but it might make it more meaningful.

I am sure you already know this but when God allows hard times, it is always because he has something better for you to do.

Psalm 139 became so real to me after the loss of my daughter's first husband to Hodgkins. [See JoyfulMourning and BrokenClay ]

"13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. NIV

Notice especially V 16 ... How could God "ordain" ALL MY DAYS before ONE of them came to be?. I know He can do anything but if you add up all the people in the world and multiply by 365 ... and that is only one year.... All I can say is that He must have a massively good computer to keep track of all those days!

But the biggest wonder is how he cares even for our DAYS. If you as a female live to the average age of 84, that gives you, I hesitate to say, ONLY 30,660 days of life. If that doesn't seem very long, then try seeing how much of MY life is left according to stats. Only 5475 days left! Yipes!

And yet God cares about every too-short one of them! And even has a plan for EVERY one of them!

God bless you!