We Need A New Motto… Hello to my weekend readers. I was working toward a devotion for this weekend and then I remembered that June 6 is D-Day. My mind wandered back to the many years I would call my father on this day and thank him for getting off that boat at Normandy. For him, it wasn’t easy, he was a terrible swimmer! My Dad was and still is my hero, as are so many others that left their jobs and homes to stop the Nazi regime, and the never-ending wars we have today.

When my dad would talk about that landing, which he didn’t do a lot of, he always came up with some of the motto’s the soldiers had. Here’s a few he shared with us many times:

*Loose lips sink ships. (Navy slang)
*The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
*If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking. (General Patton, my dad served under him. They heard this every morning after Reveille!)
*We Can… We Will… We Must!
*“I Want YOU!” (The Uncle Sam flyers encouraging men to enlist)
*Enlist Your Skills for Victory (Companies helping the war effort put these out)
*We Can DO IT!
*We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender! These words from Winston Churchill were my dad’s favorite!

Here are some interesting posters that were used in WWII. In the days leading up to the war with Germany, both the British and American governments commissioned a series of uplifting and encouraging posters. The first poster was distributed in September of 1939: Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory. Soon a second poster was produced: Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might. And a third poster surprisingly, was never released to the public, but was held in reserve for an extreme crisis, such as the invasion into Germany, which on D-Day came true. Yet, it was never seen until nearly sixty years later! It read: Keep Calm and Carry On. That motto has been used now for every situation where American soldiers and our Allies are needed.

I don’t know about you, but just learning from my dad about WWII and what a soldier went through, I don’t think that I could “Keep Calm and Carry On” with any length of time! Yet, that is exactly what we need as we live this life on earth until Jesus takes us home. In our society today, it is hard to find ‘calm people’ as it seems things are upside down and twirling around. From dangerous weather to vitriolic politics to daily shootings and so much more, how does one even embrace being calm? Let’s face it, we have an angry society these days.

I think the life of my father, who was able to be calm under horrible circumstances, gave me the courage to practice being calm and giving up the things I cannot control. Being calm and trying to make it through each day of our lives takes a lot of practice! I can’t count the times I’ve bit my lip and tried not to shout out at anyone around me. It can be madness!

When I think of trying to get calm or to be calmed, I turn my thoughts to some favorite Scriptures: Psalm 46:10 [NLT] where God tells me in no uncertain words, “Be still and know that I AM GOD.” (Being still is not one of my abilities!)

And another one is Psalm 4:8 [NLT]: “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.” (I’m an insomniac and I have to practice these words often!)

In our lives today, as it has been since the Garden of Eden, we have responsibilities as we live on this earth. But walking the path that God has given us is sometimes hard. Some folks arn’t nice, some days stink, and some days we’re out of steam—we’re pooped! But let’s remind ourselves that God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibilities. Think of what our soldiers have done in all those wars, their responsibilities took many of their lives but they “soldiered on.” God’s sovereignty empowers us and encourages us. We can trust God to do what we can’t. We need to obey God, and do what we can. We have all kinds of mottos, but I think we need a new one that is actually an old one: Keep Calm and Carry On! AMEN. (thanks dad)