Do you remember when it was a matter of pride to say you are an American?
Do you remember being able to say, out loud, God bless America?
Do you remember when you didn’t have to worry about your religious rights being challenged?
Do you remember when patriotism was not a dirty word, and, in fact, was taught to children in school?
Do you remember when immigrants came here looking for a new life, an American life, not a freebie life handed out with nothing required of them?
Do you remember when government was of and for and by the people not just a handful of elitists with their fingers in the global pie?
Do you remember when it was an honor to be a soldier, serving proudly to preserve the rights and freedoms granted to the citizens of this county?
Do you remember that law-abiding, hard-working, tax paying citizens of this country could count on the laws to protect them first, before anyone else?
Do you remember when there was a United States of America, a democratic republic hard fought for, sacrificed for and a beacon of light for the rest of the world?
For some reason, I’m struggling to remember exactly what it was like to be an American, unashamed, who lived, head up, no fear, in the land of the free and home of the brave.
Time dims memory and things change, people forget who they are and why they are who they are. And then others, who can’t allow individuals to just be free find ways to subvert and distort and eventually destroy what was once about as good as it can get in a fallen world.
Happy 240th America. Eat, drink and be merry while you still can.
For Him,
Meema
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
THE PREAMBLE
It is heart breaking to see how sick our country has become. I thought it appropriate to share the lyrics of an old hymn I've been singing this week....
ReplyDeleteThe Battle Hymn of the Republic
1. Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord;
he is trampling out the vintage
where the grapes of wrath are stored;
he hath loosed the fateful lightning
of his terrible swift sword;
his truth is marching on.
Refrain:
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
2. I have seen him in the watchfires
of a hundred circling camps,
they have builded him an altar
in the evening dews and damps;
I can read his righteous sentence
by the dim and flaring lamps;
his day is marching on.
(Refrain)
3. He has sounded forth the trumpet
that shall never call retreat;
he is sifting out the hearts of men
before his judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer him;
be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Refrain)
4. In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
with a glory in his bosom
that transfigures you and me;
as he died to make men holy,
let us die to make men free,
while God is marching on.
(Refrain)
5. He is coming like the glory
of the morning on the wave,
he is wisdom to the mighty,
he is honor to the brave;
so the world shall be his footstool,
and the soul of wrong his slave.
Our God is marching on.
(Refrain)
What is sad to me is that this song has stood for the unity of America against all odds but is all but forgotten now - and possibly considered
Delete'racist' - because it stands for a people united under God.
If God be for us who can be against us? But if we forget God wants to be for us then we seal our own fate.
Thought I'd pass on this link to a blog I read. It answers the what very well, if not the why.
ReplyDeletehttp://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=7935#comments
"And then others, who can’t allow individuals to just be free find ways to subvert and distort and eventually destroy what was once about as good as it can get in a fallen world."
ReplyDeleteI think this is the part that gets me the most. Not only do they want - but they seem determined to deny my ability to choose otherwise.
Yes,there were times of in-equalities in this nation. But to have the pendulum swing in total opposition is not the answer. What happened to learning from prior mistakes? For example: "anything goes" is not the solution to "too strict."
I do remember.
Glory HalleluYah!
Hard to watch unfolding in real time, isn’t it? Sometimes it feels like a nightmare that I cannot wake up from. My sister and I were just talking the other day about living here in this moment and trying to determine what the actual thing will be that comes that we have to refuse, regardless the dire consequences. Discernment, wisdom and faith - three things we need now more than ever.
DeleteA nightmare that I cannot wake up from . . . pretty well sums it up. In the world but not of it has taken on a new perspective. Did God's people watching the plagues in Egypt sense a similar atmosphere of the "unknown?" We know how their situation turned out and we know the ultimate results for us. It's this in-between time that can be so draining some days. I frequently ponder: How do those outside of Christ cope?
DeleteThe in between time is what I refer to as the silence in Heaven for ‘about 30 minutes’. It’s the dark before the dawn, calm just before the storm. It is the opportunity to reload, to batten the hatches, to evaluate and ask just how strong our faith really is. Will we shrink away when the going gets really tough? When we aren't 'raptured' out of the trouble?
DeleteThe answer for me is pretty easy. I’m old with nothing to lose but young people need to be told there is a reaction that will determine life and death that has nothing to do with this moment, this flesh.