Today marks the fourteenth anniversary of the day that changed America, for this generation at least.

As terrible as that day was, it was a day that went down in history of uniting Americans as never before. It seemed we had all gotten rather complacent in our lives. Until then.

For days, weeks and even months afterward, people gathered in homes, in schools, in hospitals, in any place they could find to talk, to pray, to try and understand what had happened. I know in our family it was a time of re-evaluating our relationships, of remembering what is important, and of appreciating what we have just a little more.

As I watched glimpses of the news today, I saw again the twin towers with smoke billowing from them. Now we no longer have those towers. I watched as loved ones paid tribute to the ones who are gone. I watched as America grieved again her lost innocence.

It makes me wonder, what will it take to bring this great nation to her knees? What will it take to cause us to realize how far we have strayed from the will of God? Will it take a national disaster of monumental proportions? Or will we simply go on doing what we want, living life the way we feel is right? Until it is too late.

And so tonight, as I sit at my computer pondering the things that have occurred since September 11, 2001 and now, I hope, no, I pray, that we learned something from that terrible day. I pray that we will put aside our differences, our prejudices, our hatred and our strife. I pray that we will learn to love our neighbor as ourselves and that we will be willing to lay down our life for another if need be.

May God be merciful to us all is my prayer.