Complimentary Story
Year End 2025My wife Terry and I just returned from a twelve day 3559-mile road trip to Hayden, Idaho and back to north central Wisconsin. The main reason was to visit family and watch two grandsons play high school football. The oldest boy came home from college to be with us for several days also. We learned that our grandsons are very talented and very good athletes. One division 1 game ended in a 43-0 victory and the other victory, 48-8.
The greatest lesson was observing the boys interact with each other and their parents. The depth of their character is built on the foundation of Biblical knowledge, morals, values and ethics. There were some in depth discussions at the dinner table concerning current politics and their knowledge of history was quite remarkable, but most impressive were the discussions concerning the relationships they have with peers that are not of the same persuasion, political or with faith in Jesus Christ. The boys maintain good relationships with others despite differing opinions and the door always remains open for further respectful discussion.
Where did they learn this? Mom and dad demonstrate the same discussions with each of the boys, one on one, and all together as a family. Each of the family have a faith in Jesus Christ and have been avid podcast followers of the late Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Ministries since the ministry began. 650,000 people financially support Turning point USA and since Charlie’s assassination, 120,000 young people have reached out to bring the ministry to their school. Their message of patriotism, of faith and of God’s merciful love has already reached millions and will continue to reach millions more. Some of them are our grandchildren. God bless this movement of God in our country.
One of our other stops was on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. We support a Christian K-12 school there and stopped to have a tour. We learned that faith in Jesus and historical traditions of the Native American can exist together. But the outstanding lesson is that education is the key to breaking impoverished traditional reservation mindsets. All the 300+ students at Saint Labre Indian School graduate high school and many go on to get college degrees.
Our stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota revealed a similar approach with education. On the campus of the memorial, there is a K-12 school and a college with over 1000 enrolled students. The memorial started in 1948 with a dream of six Native American chiefs that had fought in the battle of the Little Bighorn and the dream of an American sculptor the chiefs had solicited for the project. They wanted the white people to know and remember that the Native Americans have heroes too. All knew that none of them would see the finished project, but that it would take many lifetimes to complete the huge rock carving of the Chief and his horse called Crazy Horse. They just started one hard day at a time. The project continues with the children’s children and will continue until it is finished, one hard day at a time.
The master sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, spoke of an old legend, “When Legends die, Dreams End. And when Dreams End, there will be No More Greatness.” For myself, the memorial radiated a message, “Never Forget your Dreams.”
Another lesson on the road came as we listened to a news interview with a retired army officer. After 8 years of active duty, he spent the next 17 years in army office duty as a Lieutenant Colonel. At the same time, he had a very successful occupation as a stand-up comedian and actor. He worked 8 hours a day for the army and then evenings and weekends in comedy and acting. A question he is often asked is, “how can I get into acting?” His answer, “Desire to do something is not enough. It takes commitment and dedication to do the hard work even when you don’t want to. There are no short cuts, you have to do the hard work.”
Because of my own experience with surgery that required physical therapy to get full use of a leg and the hip it is attached to, I understand some of the “having to do the hard work,” even when you don’t want to. I was being reminded of what I saw years ago, as I watched a man snow ski down an expert hill with perfect slalom form, then come in the chalet and run up two flights of steps to get a hot chocolate. I just thought he was a good skier, in great physical condition. I later learned that he was a double leg amputee with artificial limbs. My brother-in-law, Jim, was the man who made and fitted the man with his artificial limbs. On that day, Jim asked the man what he wanted from his new legs. He responded that he wanted to do all the things he did with his natural legs. Like snow ski and waterski. Jim was also a ski instructor, so he gave his hours at the ski hill in the winter and invited him to his home every weekend in the summer to learn to water ski. How much snow and water that man ate or drank in his many falls, not to mention the bruises, God would only know. But he persisted, for years, until he learned to do, with artificial legs, what many cannot do with natural legs.
Dedication and commitment to do the hard work. We saw it in our grandchildren. They work hard at their grades in school, attend football practice, do the extra work in the weight room. Come prepared to give it all on the gridiron. Come home and sharpen their faith debating skills at the dinner table, then awake at 4:30 am to be at their weekend golf course jobs.
We saw it in the Indian students, studying hard so they can go to college. We saw it in the teachers who had graduated, went on to college and had returned to face the hardships of the reservation life, poor housing and a 2-hour drive just to get groceries. But they returned to the reservation to help other children dream and achieve those dreams.
We heard about it and read about it in Erica Kirk’s note to supporters. She wrote about the work of the evil people that took Charlie’s life and had threatened him for years, yet have no idea what they have done. They tried to silence him and the national movement he had begun. But Erica Kirk is firm in her commitment and dedication that “the movement my husband built will never be stopped. Charlie gave everything for this country. And I will never stop speaking his name. We will not let the light he lit go out. Not now. Not ever.”
We saw it in the workers up on the mountain carrying picks, shovels, jackhammers and rock saws, facing hard work and danger every day. One of the master sculptor’s sons tells a story of getting close to the edge and his bulldozer slid off and went down the side of the mountain. He bailed off and fortunately, landed on a ledge and was dusting himself off when his father looked over the edge, totally expecting that he had just lost a son. When he saw that his son was alive, he called over the edge, “you got it in there, you get it out,” and went back to running his jackhammer. Korczak’s family and others have been trekking up there, every day, for generations, chipping away at the rock to unveil the marvelous rendition of the Native American hero, Crazy Horse.
How many things do we give up on, because it’s just too hard or it takes too long? I believe I could fill pages with that answer. Lose weight, go for long walks, get a degree, go on the mission field for Jesus here at home or abroad. Tell my neighbor or a co-worker about the good news found in Jesus. Well, you know, you can write those pages too.
The take away lesson on our road trip: Never forget your dreams and commit yourself to the dedication, to the hard work of attaining them.
Lynn Fredrick is the author of “Stand Firm,” a recovery program to help transform your life by using the divine power of God’s Word.
LynnFredrick.com
