From Deseret News archives:
Keep service personnel in our prayers
For me, and maybe for others of my generation and our parents, showers were a luxury. As kids, the only showers we had were at the Pioneer Park swimming pool, and they were cold. In those days, a "Saturday night special" was being first to take a bath in the tin bathtub. First, because for all the other kids in the family that were next, the water became cooler and cooler, and you could tell the number of baths by the rings around the tub.
I am in awe of the "toys" today's children receive on Christmas and wonder if they have the opportunity to realize how fortunate they are to have the good life their parents have created for them. I often wonder if they appreciate them as much as we did growing up thinking we had gone to heaven when we woke up on Christmas day to find the wind-up tin toys, with sharp edges and loose parts that the Consumer Product Safety Commission would ban today. Toys that you wound up with small keys and that traveled two feet and died; and then you looked forever for the key lost in the pile of ribbon and wrapping paper.
If we were really lucky and good, Santa would drop off an electric Lionel train that had tracks and a transformer that you could work to make the train run forward and backward and even control the speed. That was high tech!
As I turn on my warm shower every morning, I am reminded of all the blessings I have and think of all the servicemen and women sacrificing their lives to keep us free. I also think and pray for their families and the sacrifices they, too, make. Especially on Christmas Day, I think of the empty chair at the table of the families whose loved one is away and the pain they might be enduring.
Today, as we bask in this day glowing with the love, warmth and the joy of Christmas, it gives parents an opportunity to help children understand the meaning of Christmas — of giving, loving and how fortunate we are to live in a society where we are free to live our lives as want; that we have men and women, and their families, willing to sacrifice their lives so we may enjoy the life we have.
Throughout the day, whether it is picking up the wrapping paper, watching the children claim their territory for their gifts, or sitting at the dinner table, each provides an opportunity for parents to help children learn and appreciate what the day represents.
And at the close of the day when the lights are about to be switched off, maybe the greatest gift is to offer a special prayer for the men and women in uniform that they may be safe and soon be home with their loved ones so they can relish the joy of a warm shower and warm hearts. For it is they who will help bring peace on Earth as this day is meant to do.
Utah native John Florez has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations, served on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch and on more than 45 state, local and volunteer boards. He also has been deputy assistant secretary of labor. E-mail: jdflorez@comcast.net
