A Day of Remembrance

Yesterday was a day to think about our country. To think about our families and to hold them a little closer. Last night at PTA our Assistant Principal made the comment that the kids in our elementary schools don't remember the events of September 11th. They were too young, for them it is simply history.
How true that is, as I look at my own children. Zach was 19 months old. I clearly remember going into the bank that morning as I was off to start my errands for the day. Setting him up on the counter to do my banking and the teller surprised at my good mood. "Don't you know what just happened?" she asked. Having a little one I hadn't had the news on, or even the radio on the way to the bank. I was telling him about our day and what we were going. Quickly that changed. I spent the morning trying to catch bits and pieces of information, but not wanting to turn the tv on so that he wouldn't be exposed to the pictures. The day before I had found out I was expecting our second child. The world had dropped out and I remember wondering why we were bringing a child into a world that was in trouble.
Yesterday, dressed in red, white and blue we walked to the bus stop. We talked about the bad people who had made a bad decision that day. We talked about the many families that were missing their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers and we prayed for them to feel peace as they go forward each year. I know Katie didn't quite understand all we were talking about, she couldn't believe that airplanes could be taken into buildings, and Zach was amazed that someone would want to do that. So we prayed that God would not allow this to happen again.
I'm so thankful that even with recalling those events and talking about it with the kids that I was able to give them a message again that God is in control. Sometimes bad things happen, and sometimes we won't know why they have happened. But we love and serve a God that is bigger then all of that.
September 11th will always be a day of Remembrance. We should never forget those that lost their lives, but we should also never forget the way the country came together. 7 years later, it's hard to say if the US still feels connected to one another. My prayer as I write this today is that it won't take another act of violence for the people of our country to open their eyes to the world around them and start to make a change in how we live.