Recently as I was waiting to board my flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas I had the privilege of witnessing something that was very sobering and caused a lot of reflection. A member of our armed forces walked and stood by me waiting for the same flight but he was not alone. He stood there with his wife and three daughters, I’m guessing ages 9, 6 and 4. The soldiers’ wife and children were there to see their husband and father leave for another tour in Iraq. I watched in silence as his daughters clung to their fathers’ leg giving him their last embrace, and taking their last photos together, for what would be a 12-18 month separation from his family. It touched my heart and I couldn’t help but offer a simple prayer that he would return home in safety and that his family would also be protected and strengthened in his absence.

When the boarding call came I made it a point to be the last person to board so that I could further expand the impression that this scene was having on me. As the soldier boarded the plane his three daughters waived to their dad for one last time and then stood there at the window with their mom waiting for the plane to taxi which must have seemed like an eternity for them.

After boarding the plane I thought of the drive home for this mother of three and what must have been going through her mind. I am sure that when she arrived home the silence there was deafening; after all she would be a single mom in many aspects for the next several months ahead. I don’t believe that this was the first time that her husband had been sent away but I also don’t believe that it gets easier with each deployment.

Since then I have had some time to reflect on what I was a witness too. I thought about me and the soldier; here was I boarding a plane to provide my family with a comfortable living while the soldier was boarding the same plane, to possibly be placed in harms way, while his wife and daughters living just became increasingly uncomfortable.

I have thought about what I am doing every day to honor this soldier along with countless others who have served and given their lives in the pursuit of freedom; not to mention the wives, widows and children whose sacrifice is greater in many ways. It led me to commit myself to live each day a little better, try a littler harder, smile a little longer, listen a little more empathetically, anonymously give a little more, hug a little tenderer, and shine a little brighter; to recognize that there is a bigger purpose to life that has little if nothing to do with my own agenda or ego.

On my eighth birthday my grandpa, Glen Stratton, gave me a framed quote, entitled Believers Creed, which I still have today. I suppose that he saw potential in me that was not limited to my age or circumstance.

Believers Creed: Today is the very first day of the rest of my life. This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it…or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, and not loss; good and not evil; success, and not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it. I will try just for today, for you never fail until you stop trying.

The question is then what can we do today to lift hands that hang low, bring a smile to a strangers face, reconcile a broken relationship, and just try a little harder, because true success doesn’t come from what we do for ourselves but what we can do for others.

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