Good morning friends.
This weekend, I attended a patriotic church celebration outside at a local church. Songs were sang, the Baptist preacher – PREACHED, the orchestra played. What an incredible service. Afterward, we had hot dogs, hamburgers, and chips. The all American lunch!!
A couple posts ago, I asked what made you cry and I told you some things that made me cry. Well, a service like this is another tear jerker, for many reasons:
1) Before the service started, the Prelude was a Country song entitled “Have You Forgotten” – Never heard of it? Look it up on iTunes and download it. It is worth the 99 cents. Tear starter!!
2) When How Great is our God played, I was taken back to when my oldest son was baptized and how I cried uncontrollably at the responsibility and the love I had for him. As he sat by me and sang, yesterday (at 11 years old!), I realized just how blessed I am. Tears welled up… then…
3) The orchestra played and the choir sang America the Beautiful. As I looked around the over 2,000 in attendance at the local high school football field, a few stood out. There was a group of 20 in the front of the bleachers that stood and sang AS THEY SIGNED!!! You see, they were deaf. They couldn’t ‘hear’ the music, but their passion was incredible…Tears flowed
3) Then, How Great Thou Art played…Can anyone listen to this song sung by an incredible choir and orchestra and NOT have tears well up??
4) And to top it all off, the National Anthem played as service men marched across the field from our armed forces. Four of the servicemen came across the field with the Flag and posed with a rendering of Iwo Jima flag raising.
To not cry simply would have been un-American!!
We live in the greatest country in the world. Whether you are republican or democrat, Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish, Italian, Irish, or German, war supporter or not, etc. Where else in this world could you go where you can sing your beliefs, gather with others, express your viewpoints, and live the life we lead? Nowhere. And we have so many people to be thankful for giving us that right.
There are too many in our country that forget this. They view our Bill of Rights as their right to say whatever they want & criticize yet not act, abuse the system. There are those that feel they have the right to act however they wish, but they forget their RESPONSIBILITIES as well. For them, their should also be a Bill of Responsibilities!!!!!!
So, as we celebrate our independence this week, please take the opportunity to thank someone you know who served and protected our land, and continues to protect our land today!
And, if you hear someone who complains and bickers, someone who wouldn’t be happy if you handed everything to them on a silver platter (they would want Platinum), rebuke them as well!
I hope you all have a blessed week and a safe, happy 4th of July!!
