Happy Independence Day!

As we look forward to this day at the beginning of summer, it is easy to get lost in the vacation plans and the picnics and family and friends before we stop and realize what this day actually means. Over the course of our Country's history, there have been multiple battles over our freedom, neigh wars, that have torn brothers and sister's from each other's arms and damaged families ultimately leaving a heavy weight on those affected; which is all of us. We take for granted the fact that we can walk to the store unharmed, that we can weild guns freely in this wonderful country of ours and that we can work where we will to. We take for granted the ability to marry who we want and what school we attend. We take our freedom for granted.

So as I sit here awaiting tomorrow morning and our long awaited vacation, I can't help but ponder this mystery. Why do we take for granted so much in our lives that is such a blessing? The fact that I can be a Christian without being stoned or shot or kidnapped for my faith is taken for granted by ME. I take my freedom's for granted because they aren't being taken away from me. They are too visible and too readily available for me to treasure them and that is sad. 

This 4th of July I will remember why I have this freedom. Because of the men and women who have fought tooth and nail for me to sit here. The one's who have fallen in battle, but not in vain; no. It is so more great men and women can follow and do what is right in the eye's of God and man. To be heroes. 

God Bless America!

As a proper end to this blog post:

The Star-Spangled Banner

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Oh, 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, thro' 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.
Oh, 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, thro' 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 on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner: oh, 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 wash'd out their foul footstep's 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.

Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that has made and preserved us as a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause 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.

Tune: Anacreon in Heaven

Written by Francis Scott Key on September 14th,1814.