The Missouri National Guard's new Resiliency Center embodies its purpose.
Its purpose is to help military members and their families meet and overcome the mental health challenges associated with military service.
Its construction represents a resilient commitment to persevere despite a lack of government funding.
During Saturday's dedication of the new facility, Missouri Adjutant Gen. Steve Danner said, "the facility will assist not only those service members with their difficulties, but also the collateral difficulties that families face when a service member has traumatic stress syndrome."
Modern medicine, thankfully, has focused greater attention on mental health issues, including issues faced by service members who may be deployed far from home, in an environment where sustained conflict requires constant vigilance.
Col. Gary Gilmore, the Army National Guard's senior chaplain, told the audience the building's six-column portico symbolizes the pillars of resilience - social, emotional, spiritual, financial, family and physical.
"Resilience," Gilmore said, "is our inner fortitude and strength to face life's challenges, to learn how to grow through adversity."
Creation of the facility also required an exercise in resilience. Because government funding was not available, the Missouri National Guard Foundation worked with private donors to finance construction.
The center and its chapel are a result of generous contributions from a range of area businesses and individuals.
Danner acknowledged the enlightened approach that has raised the profile of mental health issues. "I know that medical advances," he said, "and quite frankly, the media spotlight on it, has helped tremendously in bringing this to the fore, when it might have been swept under the rug, again.
"But now," he continued, we really try to pay attention to the medical piece of traumatic stress syndrome and its collateral effects on the family."
The men and women who serve our country deserve access to the support and resources necessary to heal - not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spirituality.
Everyone involved with the Resiliency Center has helped make that a reality.