INDEPENDANCE DAY!!!- July 4th

SHADOWS OF TODAY'S

FREEDOMS

By: Tyararr J. Jones

We stand today in the shadows of yesterday's heroes and today's present guardians. We are the benefactors of freedoms paid for by the sacrifice of unamed and known protectors of this country. What we experience each day as a way of life, comes as the expense of courage, commitment, sacrifice, loyalty, love, respect, bereavement, hope, expectations, and honor. These are a few of the attributes of the men and women that face the enemy daily that seeks to sour our taste of daily freedom. May they not become the short thoughts of our reflections; but the present utterances of our prayers. They are not strangers, but the representatives and defenders of the truths and principles at the foundation of our forefather's purpose for this nation. Beware of becoming a glutton to the feast of freedoms we partake of daily. Abstain from the ignorance that all is well in this country in which we dwell. do not be controlled by fear; but trust in the God in which our motto reads: "IN GOD WE TRUST". We focus so much on our own selfish rights that we forget that they are actually privileges at the expense of the lives of others. Are you a criticizer or a conscientious citizen? Are you a supporter or a selfish sympathizer of your own wants? Are you loyal to this blessed country or loyal to the almighty dollar?

Dear citizens, take heart in the freedoms that have been sacrificially bestowed upon this country. The shadows of those who have died and those who presently defend us; shade us with courage, determination, freedom, a way of life, hope, protection, and an expectation of the future. How do you honor them? How shall we honor them? In the midst of our diversity, may we stand united as one nation under God. May this not become a faded phrase of a pledge, but the fundamental truth by which we live our lives. We have fallen prey as a people to our wants that we have forgotten our greatest need.

What is our greatest need as a nation? Our greatest need is to not only acknowledge God in time of loss or major catastrophe; but to turn to God each day of our temporal lives. What happened to the biblical principles in which this country was founded? What has happened to the God in which we as a nation are to trust? We have pushed God out of our way of life and made him a shadow to that which we experience daily.

As we pause to reflect on our freedoms and independence, may we realize that our future is not our own. May we realize that all that we have experienced and will experience is temporal. The freedoms we enjoy are temporal. Our way of life here in America is temporal. Today, may we as a people turn back to God with a submissive heart. Today, mae we focus on God our Creator and true Giver of the freedoms and way of life we enjoy today.