I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day celebrating the 246th birthday of our country! 🇺🇸🗽🎇 Our weekend consisted of a fireworks show that a few of my siblings and I went to, watching my favorite 4th of July movie – A More Perfect Union, (here’s a short clip if you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48cMqWi4Vkc and the full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x74bilae_o&t=5654s) and enjoying a full day at the lake with friends and family – grilling, kayaking, volleyball, and getting sunburned. 😜
Throughout the Bible, God tells us to remember and not forget the works that He has done:
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not…Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” -Deuteronomy 8:2, 11-14
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.” -Deuteronomy 8:18
“Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.” -Isaiah 46:9
“Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.” -1 Chronicles 16:12
“I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.” -Psalm 77:11
As I think about the birth of our nation, I am so grateful for the Lord’s guiding hand throughout the history of our country – from bringing the Pilgrims here in pursuit of religious freedom to moving certain men to form a government that was built on God and His Word (which we have strayed so far from as a nation), and for the great sacrifice that our founding fathers made to secure, for all men, the rights we have from our Creator. May we never forget the works that the Lord has done in our country, and may we be diligent to “nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us” (John Hancock), all the while pointing people to the true King over the nations – Jesus Christ.
So, without further ado, here is my Fourth of July weekend in pictures + some of my favorite founding fathers quotes!
“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States.” – George Washington
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” -Thomas Jefferson
“[Governments] could not give the rights essential to happiness…We claim them from a higher source: from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.” -John Dickinson
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” -Thomas Paine
“You surely cannot, with such examples before your eyes…suffer your liberties to be ravished from you by lawless force, or cajoled away by flattery and fraud. The voice of your father’s blood cries to you from the ground, my sons, scorn to be slaves! Stain not the glory of your worthy ancestors, but like them resolve never to part with your birthright.” -Joseph Warren
“No free government, nor the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” -George Mason
“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” – John Hancock
“You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.” -John Adams
“Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, in matters spiritual and temporal is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as the laws of the nations and all well-grounded and municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.” – Samuel Adams
“The right of freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.” -Samuel Adams
“Such being the impressions…it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the council of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves.” -George Washington, First Inaugural Address.
“But where, say some, is the king of America? I’ll tell you, friend, He reigns above.” -Thomas Paine
sincerely-amanda.com 