Thursday, July 04, 2024

A glorious Independence Day to you!

  

This is pretty much a re-post from 2021, but my thoughts are still the same, so I am posting it again.)

I hope that each of you Americans reading this will have a glorious Fourth of July celebrating the birthday of our beloved country! Whether you celebrate with family, friends, or church family, whether you are here on US soil or elsewhere, whether you're enjoying a picnic, a parade, fireworks, or possibly even a meaningful visit to a cemetery, I hope that each of you will take a moment sometime throughout the day to thank God for the land He has blessed us to be able to live in. Our country has many serious problems and flaws, but it is still a wonderful place to live and we enjoy many blessings here which we often take for granted. The wonderful song "America the Beautiful" includes these powerful words:

"America! America!
God mend thine every flaw.
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!"


I've often been reminded -- and it happens again whenever we sing this song -- that truly, God is the only One who can mend our flaws.  But we have to want that to happen and we need to beseech God that it will happen. I've often thought, too,  how so many of our citizens are so confused concerning the balance between liberty and self-control. Our land offers us many freedoms, yet we take them for granted and many times do not see the need to exercise self-control or self-restraint in any area of life. We want what we want, when we want it, and then when we meet the inevitable consequences of our lack of self-control, we expect our government to take care of us.

 Our flaws have never been more obvious, it seems, and never have I been more aware of how fragile our liberties are and how easily they can be snatched away.  Let's take time today to beseech God to help us "mend our flaws" as a nation, and to thank Him for the privilege of living in this land.

Today I'm also sharing a few links to previous Fourth of July posts that might be fun or encouraging reads on this meaningful day.

From 2019: Independence Day Medley

From 2018: Praying for our country

From 2017: July 4 Hodgepodge

From 2016: This Land is Our Land

 And then there is this one: Faith Like Fireworks, by Rachel Wojo


Just one sentence from Rachel (but you'll want to read the whole post!): "As Christians, we must not be afraid to shine God’s light into the night sky, revealing the beauty of the Gospel to a dark world."

Hope you'll enjoy these thoughts!  Happy Fourth of July!

4 comments:

  1. Happy 4th of July to you and yours! I was thinking you might be at your cottage with the family! Wherever you are, I hope you are celebrating and enjoying the freedoms that we've been blessed to receive!

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    1. Thank you, Pam! I hope that you also had a very happy and blessed 4th of July. We were not at our cottage, but at a church picnic with friends. A very enjoyable time!

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  2. This was a worthy repost, Mrs. T. Eloquently written. I'm a day late reading this, but your words are applicable every day of the year. Thank you!

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  3. Thank you, Becki! I so appreciate your kind and thoughtful comments.

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