Random Acts Of Kindness: Week #3

This week's random act of kindness is to thank a service member. I suppose this is easy for me, considering I live with one and there's thousands more on post just a few miles away, but that doesn't mean my thanks means any less than anyone else's. For those who aren't close to a service member I'd suggest looking for a Facebook group. There are hundreds out there. Just place a nice thank you note on their wall and be done with it. Or, if you want to go the distance, look up a service member within the group and send them a message to thank them.

And there's always websites where you can send care packages to soldiers if you want to be extra giving this week. I used to want to write to an anonymous soldier in another part of the country, but at the time I was sixteen and most of those sites require you to be eighteen or older. So if you are a good penpal or just want to leave a lasting impression, see if you can't find someone's day to brighten with a quick note.

I can't say that I like war. What's there to like? Parts of our precious world get destroyed, people lose friends and family, we become a target of somebody else's hate. So when I say thank a service member, I'm not saying you have to like what they do to appreciate them. I love my husband, but I worry about him every day. He has his first deployment next year, just a few short months after our child is born. When he joined the military he didn't know that his job meant he would spend nine months in Afghanistan looking for bombs, rendering them harmless and possibly dying in the process. He said that if he knew that was job description, he'd have chosen something safer. He wanted to volunteer for his country, not die before twenty two.

Now I suppose my opinion is biased no matter how you look at it. My grandfathers, father, uncle, brother, nephew, mother-in-law and step-father-in-law were all in various branches of the military. I even tried to join when I was seventeen. So never will you hear me saying that I hate the armed forces for what they're doing. I don't think the answer to our problem is to destroy our enemies, but I know we can't just sit back and hope all the animosity will fade.

Service members are the people who make it possible for us to write hubs expressing our opinions. They fight for our freedom, our amendments and our rights. They don't have to and they're not forced to. They all enter the service knowing there's a good possibility they might die. They know their relationships will be strained. They know they won't see their friends or family as often as they'd like. But most of the soldiers in the armed forces have joined because they believe in what they're fighting for. They believe in our country no matter how messed up it is. They believe that they can make a difference.

I thank my service members because they do what I can't. They fight where I cannot fight. And for that I am grateful beyond words. I firmly believe that if you can't stand behind our armed forces, then you can stand in front of them. Because my husband is out there protecting your rights and your world. If you don't like it, that's fine, but don't hate him for what he does. He doesn't go around saying civilians are useless because they don't risk their lives for him. He does what he has to when it comes to protecting his country, just like millions of other men and women out there.

You don't have to like the military to respect them for doing what you and I can't or won't.

Kindness Act Week #1: Helping Out The Homeless
Kindness Act Week #2: Someone Who Made A Difference In Your Life