Remember [carefully] the former things.—Isaiah 46:9 (AMP)

“Be careful,” Randy says as we stand together by the flagpole in front of our house. He attaches the line to the grommets in the flag I hold. “Don’t let it touch the ground when I raise it.”

My husband served four years in the Air Force straight out of high school. Although it was wartime and Randy had a draft number, he joined before it was drawn. He patrolled military bases as a law enforcement specialist. He says he enlisted to find direction in his life. All these years later, he still removes his hat and stands taller whenever the national anthem is played. I’ve watched him blink back tears when the honor guard presented him with a folded flag for his father and his younger brother at their funerals.

I wasn’t in the military. I don’t have firsthand knowledge of what it takes to serve my country, to defend her principles and her resources. But as I observe the quiet reverence Randy continues to pay this nation in so many ways, I have grown to respect our veterans all the more.

The Red, White, and Blue ascends the pole. Together we watch the colors unfurl.

What began as Decoration Day in 1868 as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of war dead with flowers, Memorial Day today seems more about barbecues and less about honoring those who sacrificed for us. But this moment, standing beside him, my heart fills. This is a memory I’ll never forget.