{"id":476,"date":"2012-09-24T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T00:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2012-09-24T00:00:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T00:00:57","slug":"6-days-to-go-to-god-my-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=476","title":{"rendered":"6 days to go: To God & My Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Those who have attended previous Reed\u2019s Runs know of a special ritual that we have each year. \u00a0The ritual is the placing of 12 American flags at the beginning of the race course.\u00a0 Each flag is placed by a veteran\u00a0that has a special place in our family or in Reed\u2019s life.\u00a0\u00a0We have had every military skirmish since World War II represented in that flag line.\u00a0 Military operations, such as Black Hawk Down also known as the Battle of Mogadishu, and Desert Storm as well as Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq\/Afghanistan are represented.\u00a0 Seeing those 12 beautiful flags flying is one of the highlights of the day for this veteran\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

Most do not know the background behind the significance of that simple recognition and placing of those flags.\u00a0 Twelve flags \u2013 one for each year Reed lived \u2013 mark the path for the runners for the beginning and the finish of the race course.\u00a0 The decision to continue this tradition each year has been because of an oath that Reed pledged at Boy Scouts.<\/p>\n

The Boy Scout Oath<\/p>\n

On my honor I will do my best
\nTo do my duty to God and my country<\/em><\/strong>
\nand to obey the Scout Law;
\nTo help other people at all times;
\nTo keep myself physically strong,
\nmentally awake, and morally straight.<\/p>\n

Reed\u2019s faith is something that has been a core\u00a0memory at each run, but his love of country is lesser known.\u00a0 Reed was so proud of his dad, a veteran of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.\u00a0 He took pride in his dad\u2019s service, and he went out of his way to thank men and women in uniform.\u00a0 It\u2019s just something we do in this family.\u00a0 But he took his love a little bit farther than most his age.<\/p>\n

He was fully aware of some of the protests throughout our world, and he wasn\u2019t opposed to the right to assemble.\u00a0 He never minded when groups protested war, but it was a different story when people protested soldiers.\u00a0 Then it was personal.\u00a0 Reed was fully aware of the reception his adopted grandpa and football coach received when he returned from Vietnam.\u00a0 He was equally aware of how much of a sacrifice military personnel make for each of us.\u00a0 Protesting soldiers simply just made him mad.\u00a0 We once had to practically sit on him when we accidently drove in the midst of a protest in Mankato and we were jeered because we were in a vehicle with veteran\u2019s plates.\u00a0 After that moment, Reed simply asked us to avoid any protests because it was too upsetting.<\/p>\n

He wanted the whole world to understand that \u201cno greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his friends.\u201d John 15:13 (ISV) He knew that the bench that sits at Lakeview school on the way to the Memory Garden wasn\u2019t there to be pretty.\u00a0 It represented a real Lakeview Laker. A real soldier. A real man. A real husband. A real son.\u00a0 The bench is memory of Jason Timmerman.\u00a0 Reed followed the story in school of how the street in front of the armory in Marshall was to be changed from Armory Drive to Timmerman Drive.\u00a0 Every day, EVERY DAY, until I was almost exhausted from doing it, Reed begged and pleaded with us to drive by there until that sign was up.\u00a0 He just had to see it.\u00a0 When it finally changed, he was PROUD.<\/p>\n

It is so easy to take something for granted, especially something as insignificant as a piece of cloth.\u00a0 Not for those of us who understand that lives have been changed for that piece of cloth.\u00a0\u00a0A whole lot of love and sacrifice and honor and duty are wrapped up in her waving beauty.\u00a0 In one of his sweetest moments, Reed got down on his knee and explained to his baby sister when she was only\u00a02 years old\u00a0what a sea of flags represented at Mattke field.\u00a0 In reality, each flag represented a life lost in the Iraqi war.\u00a0 But in his own sweet way, he told Cloie that the flags were special because each one of them were about someone who loved her.\u00a0 I would have to say that he was right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those who have attended previous Reed\u2019s Runs know of a special ritual that we have each year. \u00a0The ritual is the placing of 12 American flags at the beginning of the race course.\u00a0 Each flag is placed by a veteran\u00a0that has a special place in our family or in Reed\u2019s life.\u00a0\u00a0We have had every military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[31,466,526,531],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}