Our Remembrance Day Tradition

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How can I describe the joy that is in our hearts today?

Joy for our freedoms.

On Remembrance Day we honor those who have fought for our freedom: those young men and women who left their homes and family to fight a war to protect our land, our shores and our right to live and worship as we choose. Today we honor and remember those brave souls.




Last year we wondered what we could do to make a small contribution to others who don't have the freedoms that we have. What could we do that would honor the sacrifices of those who died on a battlefield to protect our lives?




We decided to make an annual Remembrance Day tradition by filling three shoeboxes (one from each child in our family) with gifts, hygiene items, candy and toys to give to those children in war torn or underdeveloped countries.

It's called Operation Christmas Child



We wish we could be there to see the joy on the children's faces as they receive their red and green Christmas box.  We can only hope that our small token of love and gesture of remembrance will bring a smile even half as wide as the little boy in this picture. 

These boxes may be filled with 'things' but mostly they are filled with love and joy.

Joy for the chance to make a child happy.

Joy for the opportunity to serve.

Joy for...well, pure joy.

A friend once told me that 'joy' stands for :


J = Jesus
O = Others
Y= You

How perfect is that?






Find J.O.Y in Remembrance...


Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey, we do Operation Christmas Child every year too! We usually end up filling our boxes in late November, but I love your idea of making it a Remembrance Day tradition. :) Can we steal your tradition? ~M~
November 13, 2009 at 6:19 PM
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