This Independence Day we celebrate our Nation’s 248th birthday. As this holiday weekend approaches and we enjoy parades, picnics and fireworks, I hope we also take a moment to remember the generations of Americans who have safeguarded our independence.

Today, there are more than 400,000 uniformed American men and women deployed in harm’s way, protecting us. Their steady lives of dedication remind us that our Nation’s promise must be tended to everyday. I won’t forget the gifts of their service far away from home or the sacrifices of the families who wait for their return.

Another way we tend to America’s promise is through our care and acknowledgment of our wounded warriors, their families, and the families of our fallen and our missing in action. For many, their healing will last a lifetime, and our commitment to them should be equally enduring.

President Dwight Eisenhower once observed that freedom resides in “the hearts, the actions and the spirit” of our people. Today, especially, we celebrate everything that Americans do – in both action and in spirit – to render that freedom inviolate.

It would challenge and benefit us to read and meditate on our country’s Declaration of Independence.  It would make you and I appreciate the sacrifices that go into keeping us free.

A section of the earliest part goes like, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,…”

www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Appreciating our Freedom today, Pastor Larry