Memorial Day Weekend is here — the official unofficial beginning of summer.

The three-day weekend gives up plenty of opportunities to enjoy the freedoms we all have as Americans.

Many of us will spend the weekend having cookouts and get-togethers with family and friends or with get always to the beach or other destinations.

The weekend, however, is much more than just a holiday.

Memorial Day, which we will observe Monday, is a day to honor and pay tribute the American service men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation.

Throughout our great nation’s history from the revolutionary war to today’s ongoing war in Afghanistan, many brave men and women have served our nation when the time came.

Many of them paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” John 15:13 tells us.

Our nation’s fallen heroes more than meet the definition of that greatest love described in the Bible.

The least we can do is to take time out of our great three-day weekend to recall their sacrifices whether by turning out for an official event or by taking a moment of quiet reflection on what their sacrifices mean to us as Americans.

The debt is immeasurable.

We owe it to them to preserve our freedoms and honor their sacrifices.

Never forget!