Veteran's Serve

By John Foldberg –
AFTERCARE MANAGER
USMC Infantry Officer
Desert Storm Veteran- Bronze Star with Valor 
DoD Contractor in Iraq / DoD Employee Afghanistan

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As we celebrate Veteran’s Day this year, it is good for us to remember that at the core of what Veterans do is to serve. We serve our country in peace, in war, in humanitarian efforts, and we serve other countries by providing security and stability. This call to service is something that our savior Jesus Christ modeled. He came to serve others, to the point of death. He describes the greatest expression of love as giving one’s life for another. One of the principles of Mighty Oaks is to serve others. That’s how Mighty Oaks came about; it was the desire of one man and his bride (Chad and Kathy) to serve Veterans by sharing the hope, peace, joy they have in a living, growing, and vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the principles we teach during our Legacy Program is to pass this gift Christ has given us to others, to share the hope we have, to serve others, to take the focus off ourselves and put it on others. Jesus summed the law up in two main points: love God, love others. One of the best expressions of love is to serve.
Veteran’s Day was started to remember the end of the first World War. The war ended at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month. That was to start a time of peace for the world, however in just a few short years the world plunged back into war. On this Veteran’s Day, let this herald the start of something different. Let this be the start of Veterans, all 20.4 million of us, to reenergize, to recommit, to serve. Let us start by serving in our families, our spouses and children (if married and with children), and to expand that by serving others in our churches and in our communities. If just 10% of this population of 20.4 million Veterans used the leadership skills they were taught wouldn’t the result in our country be incredible? It would be an amazing transformation for our country to have these men and women who have been trained to selflessly serve others model this “other focus” to the rest of our fellow Americans.
If we follow Christ’s example of loving God and loving others, we will serve them, we will help the poor, the disadvantaged, the weak and fainthearted, and help them to their feet. We can do this; start small. Start with your family (if you have one). Start with your neighborhood; help the single parent, the fatherless or motherless. Help those closest to you and then move outward. It doesn’t have to be grand and glorious, it just needs to be a humble approach and desire to serve others. And when you do it, don’t take a selfie to show others that you’re doing it, just do it to care for the other person.