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In this country that we call the United States we think of Independence Day as a day of joy and celebration of Freedom and Liberties. It’s a time of getting together with families sharing meals, fireworks and most of all memories of those that have served our country. But to many of our veterans who fought for those freedoms it can be severe bondage of the mind and body. My nephew 32 years young was a Gulf war veteran and he was one of those that fought for our freedom that all of us enjoy today. He chose to confront his demons two years ago and end his suffering from his internal bondage after years of trying to adjust to life after war. He had a bright future ahead of him as an engineer and would have graduated from Kansas State.

There are so many questions and few answers in a situation like this. According to the Veterans Administration 22 Veterans a day commits suicide. That statistic doesn’t include those who never contact the Veteran’s Administration for help. I expect that the number far exceeds the 22 a day. It seems to me that we aren’t doing enough to help those veterans adjust to life after war. No one knows what these young men and women encountered in war whether it was the Civil War, Korean, WWI, WWII, Vietnam or the Gulf War only those that fought by their sides really know. We can never understand what they went through in battle, what they were thinking from day to day as they dealt with their internal struggles and physical wounds. There is a silent battle going on internally that they don’t talk about when they return home. One minute they are in combat with the enemy and then the next minute they are returning home expected to adjust to a life as they once knew it as if nothing had changed.

It reminds me of King David who was also a man of war and how he was told by God that he wouldn’t build His Temple for Him because of the blood that he had shed in war. King David also had Uriah sent to the front lines to be killed in battle so that he could have his wife Bathsheba in II Samuel 11. Yet King David was a man after God’s own heart because of the mercy he had shown to Saul and later to his own son Absalom who also wanted him dead. God forgave King David for all his sins, so could God not forgive my nephew as well? Do we limit God on what He will do for us? Do we put God in a box because scripture isn’t just black and white or clear to us. In I Cor. 13:12 it says we see in a mirror dimly.

Most religions teach that a person who commits murder against himself that they are just lost forever. The God I know isn’t like that. I believe in God’s Holy Word in the Bible which speaks about the Resurrection to Life and that we will ALL stand before our Lord and Savior and be judged each in his own order I Cor. 15:23. God isn’t finished with us as we still have so much more to learn about God’s Love for us. I know that the God that I serve is a Loving and Merciful God and in II Peter 3:9 it says The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. ALL will have that chance! That is the Belief, Life, Hope and Faith that I hold fast to.

For our family as the days, weeks and years go forward Independence Day will forever be stained with a constant reminder for us of the ugliness of war, the casualties that have been lost and the sacrifices that our veterans have made for us as well as their families while fighting for our Liberties and Freedom. I truly don’t think the younger generation has been taught what those sacrifices mean for each of us.

My husband and I also have two sons that are war veterans and I can’t even image the pain that my brother, his wife and other children have gone through the last two years. For me there are little words to comfort my brother’s family during this difficult transitional time. I find for me healing comes through writing even when it’s a subject like this.

All I can say is May God Bless all our veterans as well as their families as they continue to fight on a daily basis the internal bondage from the affects of war and may God heal all their spiritual and physical wounds. God speed “Thy Kingdom Come” when all will be made new and there is no more sorrow or tears of sadness only tears of Joy.