I think everyone's hearts are full of pain, sadness and grief this Memorial Day weekend. The war, the state of the nation, the terror alerts, the deaths, the estrangement from family members, the never ending news on tv and newspaper that fill our minds with disgust, horror and repulsion. It's gotten so bad that some people are going to see the movie THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW wishing that the movie would really happen and wipe us all out. Some dear friends have gotten bad news from the doctors this week, some are home sick and missing out on holiday activities. Some are staying home alone cause they don't have any family to celebrate with and being around people who do just make them depressed. Some parents are going through hell on earth with the children they gave birth to. Some don't know if their babies are dead or alive and some, sadly, think that they'd be better off if they were. The families of America are being attacked, the Church is being attacked, the country of America is being attacked, our way of life, our freedoms, our beliefs, our alliances, our faith and hope. We're used to seeing other nations go through this systematic degradation and loss of freedoms down through the years but now it's here in our own backyards and we don't know what to do about it. Most of us have raised our children in the faith of God and in church and taught them how to live righteously and lovingly. But peer pressure is a powerful thing. Drugs are a powerful tool of the enemy of our souls. Forbidden loves, danger, rebellion, escaping from small town ideologies and cutting the apron strings call out to our children with voices much louder than ours. They drown out the still small voice of God with the crash of a heavy metal guitar. Oh, yeah, we all had our little rebellions and cutting of ties but the things we did now seem so innocent compared to the out right in-your-face-who-are-you &%#*%people who brought me into the world to tell me what to do?! Just this morning alone, I read in the paper of so many cases of kids killing their mothers and fathers it was sickening. To be fair, there were also several of parents killing their kids too. Families have become disposable. Not just something to walk away from but to completely destroy and annihilate and Kill. I, for one, am sick of it. There is no loyalty anymore,  not to home, God or country. What am I trying to say this Memorial Day weekend? I'm not quite sure. Maybe I'm just venting. Maybe I'm just lonely cause I'm one of the ones sitting here alone when just a few short years ago, every weekend and holiday was filled to the hilt with family activities and fun and traveling and exploring and just being together. Now, it's just once or twice a year if I'm lucky, we've got better things to do than be with the "family." And it hurts. Really bad. But I know there are parents way worse off than me and I feel for them. Some are burying their sons and daughters this weekend, sent home from overseas in boxes. Some are getting phone calls from the police telling them their kids have been shot, have overdosed, hit by cars, been in brutal fights or killed themselves. Some are lying in hospitals recovering from attacks perpetrated on them by their own children and dealing with a hell that I have no idea how you would deal with. In the midst of all of this despair, I am trying to comfort myself with the scripture that informs us that soon and very soon, the Lord is coming back for His people and that before He does, He is going to turn the hearts of the children back to their parents and vice versa. I am living for that day. I know this is Memorial Day and a time to remember our military people who have fought and died for our country and God knows I am grateful, especially for my uncle in Tennessee and for every family member who has served this country. But what is it that they have been fighting for? Our Families!!! So why are Our Families so segregated and distant from one another? Why are we so at odds with one another and thus so weakened when we should be standing with one another and holding one another up in our times of trials? I have never understood this because family has always been the most important thing in my life and my heart to me. If it's worth dying for, shouldn't it be worth living for? Didn't Jesus die for the family of man? So why aren't we acting like a family? Why aren't we loving one another and being together and supporting one another? When you think about it, Memorial Day is a day of REMEMBERING and honoring what this country stands for, where it's come from, how it has progressed due to intense fighting for the right to exist and believe as we believe. But look what we have come to. Just look. For every step forward we make, we are taking two steps backward in terms of what is important. If there is a word that would describe the homes, families, jobs, entertainments, relationships, past times and way of life that has permeated the very fiber of the American way of life it is ISOLATION. We have become hermits in our own communities, cities and families. We have progressed scientifically to the point that we have everything we need but we're all dying of loneliness. We have forgotten what it feels like to be HUGGED. God have mercy on us all. I especially pray for my own family, close and extended and that on this patriotic weekend of festivals, swimming pools and cook outs, that You would reach down from your great Outpost in the sky and watch over every member and every wayward child and every hurting parent and somehow, somehow, O Lord, bring us all back together as only You can do. Let us know Your love and Your grace and reknit us back into the fabric of life, love, family, country and church that You intended for us to be in when You allowed us so graciously to be born into the greatest nation in the world. Today, I REMEMBER and though things look bad to my natural eyes, I can see in the Spirit, that You have it all under control and You are moving to answer the cries of our hearts because the things that are important to us are important to You.