Freedom Isn't Free

This week we celebrate Memorial Day.  The holiday was originally called Decoration Day and dates back to the days following the Civil War. It was established three years after the end of the Civil War on May 5, 1868 when Union General John A. Logan designated a day when the graves of war dead would be  decorated with flowers.  It was not until the end of World War I that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.  In 1971, Memorial Day was named a national holiday and people were urged to pause for a moment of silence at 3:00 p.m. to pay tribute to the men and women who died during military service fighting to protect and defend our freedom.

We enjoy a lot of freedom in our country. We are free to attend church and worship, we are free to choose where we want to live, we are free to choose most of the things that affect our daily lives. We enjoy our freedom, but we also know that our freedom wasn't free. Many courageous men and women gave their lives to pay the price for the freedom that you and I enjoy.  These are the ones that we honor this week as we celebrate Memorial Day.

The greatest freedom that we have is the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul writes, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)  We have been set free because Jesus was willing to pay the penalty. Jesus died on the cross to set us free from the penalty of our sin. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36) Instead of death, we have been given eternal life. This freedom wasn't free, Jesus paid the price.

This week as we celebrate Memorial Day, let us remember to stop and give thanks for those who have paid the price for our freedom. Let us also remember to thank God for Jesus, who has set us free from the penalty for sin, because he was willing to pay the price.

Father, we give thanks for the freedom that we enjoy. We are thankful for those who paid the price for that freedom, but even more important, we thank you for the freedom we have because Jesus was willing to pay the penalty for our sin.

Why? Because She Loved Me!

This coming Sunday is Mothers Day.  My mother passed from this life on August 30, 1996, but Mother's day will still be filled with thoughts of my mother and the impact she had upon my life.  I keep a copy of her obituary in my Bible marking Lamentations 3:22 — that great passage about God's great love and faithfulness.  Like our Heavenly Father, my mother's love and faithfulness was unfailing.  She reared her three children faithful to the teachings of God's Word and with a heart filled with love and compassion.

There are things that I see around our house each day that bring back childhood memories of my mother and her parenting techniques.  Perhaps they will bring back memories of your own mother.

Oatmeal! My mother always insisted that I eat a well-rounded breakfast. Now, my idea of a well-rounded breakfast was a chocolate covered doughnut, but my mother did not agree! I always had to eat something like oatmeal, toast, and orange juice.  Why?  Because my mother loved me and wanted me to grow up to be strong and healthy.

Books! Some of my friends went home after school and watched cartoons on TV, but not me! My mom always insisted that I do my homework before I watched any TV. Why ? Because my mother loved me and she knew that a good education was one of the best things she could give me.

Clocks! I am reminded of my mother by a clock because she always insisted on knowing where I was every minute of the day. If I wanted to go to a friend's house after school, I always had to call my mom and ask for her permission and tell her where I was going to be and what I was going to be doing. Why? Because she loved me and wanted me to be safe.

Dish washing detergent! I guess my mom never heard about child labor laws. She had this idea that every member of the family should chip in and help with the chores around the house. I had special jobs to do and I was expected to do them without being told. Why? Because my mother loved me and wanted me to learn that a happy family is one where everyone works together.

As previously mentioned, mother isn't here anymore. She's in heaven and I imagine that she probably has the angels dusting the pearly gates and sweeping the golden streets! My mother was like that! Sometimes I thought I was being mistreated, but I wasn't. Why did my mother do all these things? Everything she did was done because she loved me and wanted what was best for me.

Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics?  It is a service offered by Google that collects data about visitors to a web site.  Now, don't worry!  It doesn't collect any personal information about you.  It merely tells a web site owner things like how many people visit the web site, how they found the site, what country and city they are in, how many pages they view, how long they stay on the web site, and what operating system and  browser they use.  It is a tool that can be very helpful to a web site owner in tailoring the content of the site to better suit the needs of those who use it.  In the case of Sermons4Kids, it is also a good indicator of how well we are doing in spreading the Gospel.  In this post, I will share some interesting facts about traffic on the Sermons4Kids web site for the first quarter of this year.

The first thing that catches your eye when you view the Google statistics is that there were 975,045 visits to the web site in the first quarter of 2013.  Of that total, 489,248 were unique visitors and they viewed a total of 2,759,006 pages.  These visitors came from 208 different countries and territories.  Here is a list of the top ten.

•     United States (698,974)
•     United Kingdom (87,529)
•     Canada (40,422)
•     Australia (26,527)
•     Mexico (12,739)
•     Philippines (7,834)
•     South Africa (5,831)
•     Colombia (5,483)
•     New Zealand (5,144)
•     Puerto Rico (4,437) 

When you look at a graph depicting our daily web site traffic, every week looks almost identical.  The highest traffic day, by far, is Saturday.  The second busiest day of the week is Wednesday.
   
One thing that surprised me was that we had 131,573 visitors to the web site during the first quarter who were using a mobile device.  As you might expect, the iPad was the leader of the pack followed by the iPhone.  Other devices included the Samsung Galaxy S3, Google Nexus, and the Motorola Droid Razr.  Perhaps we need to investigate the possibility of developing a Sermons4Kids App.

When I launched the Sermons4Kids web site, I never imagined that it would reach "the uttermost parts of the earth."  There is a great temptation to look at all the Google Analytic statistics and say, "Wow, we are doing a great job." But the true measure of our success is not what Google says, the true measure of our success is what God says.  Hopefully, one day we will hear him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."