Emphasis Preaching Journal

When Norman was seven years old, his father left to serve in the Army in World War II. He was given the responsibility, as so many were, of having to be the man of the house in his father's absence. His father made a ceremony of it. In the ceremony, he gave his son a possession the family thought of as sacred, and imbued the gift with a meaning beyond the meaning it already had. The gift was the sword he had had since his graduation from West Point, and it was a constant reminder of the West Point motto, "Duty, Honor, Country." Father and son shared a commitment to this creed.