I can't let the 4th of July go by without giving it tribute! Everyone who knows me knows how much I love this country, the land of promise. Every since we studied American History in the 5th Grade I have been just facsinated by all aspects of it. I would secretly read my history book during the other boring subjects of school.



This portrait was a valentine's day gift from Danny to me several years ago; it is called "Prayer at Valley Forge." Of course it is of George Washington kneeling in prayer before the big battle at Valley Forge that changed the whole course of the Revolutionary War. I can sit and look for long periods of time at this picture. I never can look at it without tearing up and feeling such immense gratitude in my heart for the founding fathers of this nation.



The birth of this nation truly was an act of God. Historians are always amazed at how so many brilliant free thinking and forward thinking political minds were together in the same place at the same time. They marvel at the wonderful Declaration they made and then the founding of such a marvellous Constitution from which most every other democracy in the world has since based their own polictical deomcracy on. Reading history after history I know that these men felt inspired of God. They truly were religious men who felt compelled to do what they were doing by God and had the courage and fortitude to risk EVERYTHING to do so.



President Woodruff's account of the founding fathers appearing to him in the St. George Temple solidifies to me the divinity of the birth of this nation:

Think of it, the Founding Fathers of this nation, those great men, appeared within those sacred walls (of the St. George Temple) and had their vicarious work done for them. President Wilford Woodruff spoke of it in these words:
“Before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, ‘You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.’
“These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. …
“I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men.” 3
These noble spirits came there with divine permission—evidence that this work of salvation goes forward on both sides of the veil.
At a later conference, in April 1898, after he became President of the Church, President Woodruff declared that “those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits … [and] were inspired of the Lord.” 4 We honor those men today. We are the grateful beneficiaries of their noble work.

This particuliar exerpt was taken from a talk that Ezra Taft Benson related in a BYU conference address. It just gives me chills.



I also have to acknowlege all of those brave and noble soles who served in the ranks of the battlefields to fight for the freedom of this country. I can not imagine what they had to endure; brutality of human nature at its worst, starvation, sickness, inadequate supplies, no shoes or coats in those frigid conditions (especially at Valley Forge). My dad has told me stories of my own ancestors who gave up all to fight for the freedom they felt they, and their posterity (me), deserved. One was even hung when captured by the British. Yes, I feel immense gratitude for them. Who can deny that God must of had a hand in the biggest underdog victory in the history of the world.

And all of this why? So after over a thousand years, the people of this earth living in spiritual darkness, could prepare a place where the gospel could be restored. The United States of America where less than 50 years later a 14 year old boy would be free to ask the question to find the truth and it could be restored.

Yes, I am so GRATEFUL to live in this land of liberty and freedom to worship the Lord how, I may because it is my unalieable right! However, I do recognize the fact that freedom isn't free. I am truly, utterly, grateful to live in this land of Liberty! May God Bless the USA as we all remember that it is God in whom we should place all trust!