God Bless America

Ginger Proffitt gave a wonderful lesson on the foundation of this nation on the 4th of July. (Turns out it is also her favorite holiday.)

Our founding father's were really more like children, in that they were relatively young and inexperienced in such matters as starting a new country. None of them had any prior experience in revolutions. How did they do it? It could only have been done through the grace of God. Each of them were God fearing men who knew they could not do what they were about to do without help from the Almighty.

Ginger said, "Our Constitution was written for a moral people. It will not survive a people who collectively lose their virtue. In other words, if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." James Madison said, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have stake the future...upon the capacity of each..of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God".

Even though there are struggles in America, we can do our part to help preserve this great nation. As we have seen throughout history, one person can make a difference. (Think of the likes of Noah and Queen Esther.) What is our part? What can we do? We must live with Integrity. Think of "Honest Abe" Lincoln, George Washington and men who lived as John Adams when he declared "I never swerved from any principle..to obtain a vote. I never sacrificed a friend or betrayed a trust." We must learn to be selfless. Selfless service has been core to our nation from the beginning. How benevolent, how generous, how quick to be one of the first responders in disaster is America? The people must individually and collectively continue to offer service. The most crucial service being rendered to preserve the family unit. Most importantly, we must live with devotion to God. Patrick Henry declared that "there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us." He would know since there was no other way a ragtag group of Colonists could have defeated the superior British army.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln called for a national day of fasting and prayer. "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven..but we have forgotten God..It behooves us..to humble ourselves before the offended power."

Each one of us, regardless of wealth or position, can make a difference. Every man, woman and child, uneducated, highly educated, rich or poor, born here or adopted into this nation, each one can do our part to live with integrity, offer selfless service and call upon God to help preserve this nation.