It’s very late at night. I should be sleeping to prepare for the 5k I’m running in the morning, but I found myself thinking about Independence Day and the sacrifices so many men and women have made for the freedom that I enjoy and I started feeling small.

It seems, on some days at least, like I have contributed so little to the world at large. I’m a mere fly-speck in the grand scheme of things. I have raised six children who contribute good to society and they have all married people who also contribute good to society. They speak out when they see injustice, and extend mercy and forgiveness to others. Still, I have done no heroic deeds, or risked my life for another, but I love God, my family, and my neighbors.

I read these Book of Mormon verses tonight and I marveled at the intense stamina it takes to fight such fierce battles in hand-to-hand combat. This is killing up close and brutal. How could these soldiers endure it? To continue to fight day after grueling day, how? What was so powerful to motivate them to continue?

And then I read – it was people like me. Wives, mothers, children, people who worshipped God and tried most of the time to be kind to their neighbors. They fought for those who couldn’t.

And then I realized – it’s still true today. Those who volunteer to fight for our country – they are fighting for the same thing. They have fought and are fighting for people like me who have done nothing of great or notable significance so that we can continue to live our lives in ways that allow us to worship God, love our families, and try to help our neighbors through their daily struggles.

I may feel ordinary and insignificant, but apparently I’m worth fighting really hard for. What a debt of gratitude I owe. I’ll be thinking about all those who have sacrificed so much for my opportunity to live an unremarkable life with every step I run tomorrow.

Thank you all who have sacrificed for my freedom. I’m insignificant, but you have given me the world.

“48 And it came to pass that when the men of Moroni saw the fierceness and the anger of the Lamanites, they were about to shrink and flee from them. And Moroni, perceiving their intent, sent forth and inspired their hearts with these thoughts—yea, the thoughts of their lands, their liberty, yea, their freedom from bondage. 49 And it came to pass that they turned upon the Lamanites, and they cried with one voice unto the Lord their God, for their liberty and their freedom from bondage. 50 And they began to stand against the Lamanites with power; and in that selfsame hour that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Lamanites began to flee before them; and they fled even to the waters of Sidon.” Alma 43:48–50 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/43?verse=48-50&lang=eng#p48