What Are You Fighting For?

Today we remember those who’ve fought for us in the United States military. They knew and know what they were or are fighting for: their country, its freedom and prosperity. Their mission is clear, and how valiantly they’ve completed it.

It makes me wonder: what am I fighting for? We fight every day. We fight for people, beliefs, principles, dreams, goals. For some of these fight-worthy aspects of our lives, we would even allow the claws to come out. These are the pieces of us we may not even realize we fight so hard to maintain or achieve. We wage daily battle and keep at the ready for who knows when something will hit you from behind and you’ll lose your grip on that…what is it? For you?

What are you fighting for? I would like to say I fight for my faith, but let’s be honest, I live in the heart of the Bible Belt, my faith is just not challenged by others very often. I would also like to say I fight for the poor and less fortunate, but my community service days are few and far between lately. I would like to say I fight for social justice, when really I yearn for it from afar when I hear about children dying of preventable diseases. Yearning and fighting—not synonymous.

I’ll tell you some things I do fight for:

my youth–as if by wringing its neck I’ll hold it in my grip forever

my confidence—anyone else give themselves regular pep talks? “I can do this…I can figure this out…I am capable…That expensive education is certainly paying off…”

my opinion—this one I fight for too hard. It would do me good to surrender my opinion on occasion rather than determine it’s the best one.

If I kept going, I fear the list of “my”s would continue to an embarrassing length. If I’m going to be spending all of this energy fighting every day, maybe it should be for something or someone other than myself.

A sincere thank you to those who have daily fought for their country instead of themselves. We are indebted to you.