I have been working a lot the past few days. The stress of the extra time at work is hard on my family. It is hard on me, but I have the blessing of working with and for amazing people. We work on a lot of veterans in our office. I had a WWII veteran in the office yesterday that shared this story, and it was so great I wanted write it down so we can all have a reminder of what real sacrifice is and how blessed we are, even in our darkest hours.
I am going to write this in first person because it reads better like that.
"There were 40 men in my platoon. We saw more combat than any other platoon in Europe. We were at the battle of the bulge. We then joined Patton's 3rd infantry division and marched through the middle of Germany, 400 miles, and then met up with the Russians. That was an interesting experience. We didn't trust them, and they didn't trust us. We hit the Germans in the middle and then flanked them on either side. They didn't know what hit them. We lost most of our platoon. There were five of us left and we were in a forested area hiding from the enemy. Out of nowhere came and explosion and shrapnel rained down on us. Four of the men were badly injured. I made my way to a clearing and saw a farmhouse. I ran to the house and removed the door from the hinges and motioned for the people inside to come and help me. There was a young girl (probably about 15, and I was 18), her mother, grandmother and grandfather. We carried the wounded men on the door back to their farmhouse where they tended to them as best they could. Those women sat there and held the hands of those men for three days until they died. The grandfather went out back and cut a piece of pork (there was no refrigeration) and made soup with pork and potatoes. I hadn't eaten in three days and it smelled wonderful. They motioned for me to sit at the head of the table. We were all sitting and I quickly bowed my head to give thanks and was startled when they did the same. They were pouring out their hearts to God. As I watched them pray I was reminded of the 23 Psalm "Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies". God has been good to me, I have no regrets."
My cup runneth over. I run into a lot of people who don't hesitate to share with everyone their love of Jesus Christ and how he has restored their souls. They are a great example to me. The Lord is my Shepherd, I just get busy sometimes and forget that I need to let him lead me, and not the other way around.
Here is a link to the 23 Psalm, in case you need a refresher.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ps/23
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3 comments:
thanks for sharing, what an amazing story, maybe he knows Tim's grandfather, he was there in a platoon that got nearly wiped out at the battle of the bulge and at normandy. Wow.
Wow- what an amazing story. We are soo very blessed. (and lucky to have you at work too!) :)
thanks for sharing. that man is a true hero. that kind of good old fashioned sacrifice and devotion to God evokes the utmost reverence and respect from me. and it does cause me to reflect on the time i devote to being busy rather than the time i spend being grateful to the Lord and honoring Him.
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