Let Freedom Ring

Dwight D. Eisenhower:
We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.

Yes, it is that time of the year!! We are all gearing up for the 4th of July! I personally have decided that the 4th of July needs to be changed to a more convenient time of the year. As a church, our men set up 56 of the actual wooden structure fireworks booths within about an hour from home, that was last week. This week, our church sales at 2 booths for 6 days, which takes a lot of man power, then next week, our men take all 56 booths back down again! It is a huge job for 2 1/2 weeks. A great fundraiser, though. I want it changed because smack dab in the middle of all of the work, is Adam and Misti's anniversary (last year it was the wedding!) and then 3 days later is Stephen's birthday. Plus, we sit in those booths, (I sit for 6 hours a day from 10-4) and it averages 98 to 105 degrees here right now!! So, my point is, if we could change to March or April, it would be more convenient!!!

Today, sitting in the booth, I was visiting with one of our dear ladies from the church and we were talking about having a relationship with God. That moved on to the financial situation in California right now, which we all know is a drastic situation, which led to the conversation of our government and the upcoming election, which of course led us to the "end time" and theories, etc. All of these things being an uncomfortable conversation because of the unknown. But it led me to the thought of freedoms and liberty. I had to think that no matter how difficult it may be for so many of us, we live in freedom. There was a group of Chinook helicopters, that's the ones with the double propellers, that came above above us. It was about 6 or 8 of them in formation, it was very noisy and quite impressive. We spoke then of the great freedom we have as a country. We didn't have to be concerned that they were going to drop troops, bombs, etc. We are safe and content here in our country. How many countries or people can say that? Can you imagine living in constant fear each minute for our lives! Thank you God the we live in the USA.

The greatest of the freedoms being the freedom to worship. There is nothing keeping us from gathering at the church tonight! To worship the one who gave us FREEDOM from our sins! We are truly a blessed people! When we consider all of these freedoms, I for one feel ashamed for worrying about the economy!

I pray that each of you have a wonderful July 4th filled with love, happiness, lots of food and fireworks (you can buy from our stands if you wish!!LOL) and most of all, a gratefulness for all of the freedoms that you can think of!