Dear Friends of the Family,

Tomorrow is November 11, Veterans Day. Most people will take time tomorrow to thank the veterans in their lives for their service to our nation. Veterans Day has its roots in Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. With Memorial Day being a time to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, Veterans Day is for honoring those who have served and continue to serve.

However, November 11 has more significance. It was on November 11, 1620, on the Mayflower anchored off the coast of Cape Cod, that the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact. For the first time in recorded history, free men covenanted together to form a civil government with the authority to enact laws that the people promised to obey.

Before leaving the Netherlands, the Pilgrims had knelt on the dock to ask God’s blessing on their voyage. Blown off course by storms, they landed at Cape Cod instead of Virginia and William Bradford recorded, “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven.”

So tomorrow, as we honor our veterans for defending our great nation, let us also remember the Pilgrims who, in spite of all the hardships they experience, stood on the Judeo-Christian values they believed in to form the government and the community that became the model for our great nation.

For our families,