FAMILY FORUM 🚖

They put a price tag on a hero’s life today: $40. That was the clearance fee to take home the most decorated officer in our county. He sat behind bars, labeled "defective" because his hips hurt and his muzzle had turned gray.

My name is Sarah. I am fifty-two years old. Three weeks ago, on a Tuesday morning, a twenty-something HR representative from corporate handed me a cardboard box. After twenty years of missing my kids' soccer games, working late nights, and giving my soul to the company, they told me my position was being "eliminated due to restructuring." They didn’t say I was too old. They didn’t say I was too expensive compared to the fresh college grads. They just said: "We’re going in a different direction."

I walked out of that glass building feeling like I had vanished. I wasn’t a Director of Operations anymore. I was just…

Just in case our modern world has made us too jaded to believe that there are many believers who work outside of a church setting, my 30-year-old coworker (not using names here) is marrying the woman of his dreams tomorrow.

He is a vibrant Christian who went through UVa and deployments to the Middle East with the USAF with his faith intact. We have worked together for about three years and have prayed together on several occasions when military situations were a little tense. I even tried to play matchmaker between him and a Tab girl a couple of years ago! He has survived the shocked faces of coworkers upon learning he is marrying someone without ever having lived with her. I am praying for every happiness for them, and for several beautiful children, too.

Then we just found out he got promoted and is being moved to a different building…

It looks like my dog Buddy is skipping church again.

I spent most of the day with my step father. He’s a retired preacher and will be 94 in November.