Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day!

It is an amazing blessing to be a citizen of The United States of America. I am so happy to have been born here and to have the freedom that I do. Thank you so much to all who have given their lives defending that freedom, and to those who are fighting to defend it right now.

I often wonder how many citizens of the USA remember that this country was founded on faith in God, and that it will only continue to be free as long as we put our trust in Him. The founding fathers of our country knew this very well, and it is even reflected in our national anthem. We all know the first verse of Francis Scott Key's poem, but read through the whole thing and pay special attention to the last verse:


O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


We are truly a Heaven-rescued land, and it is God's power that has made and preserved us a nation. May we always fight for those causes that are just and forever keep as our motto: In God is our trust. Happy Independence Day everyone and remember who has made it possible to have this blessed nation exist! :)

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