Tag: America

July 4th!

Jennifred Jones

Today is July 4th. I am an American. I celebrate July 4th. I am privileged to live here and partake of the many good things that have come about because of freedom in this country.

Centuries ago, in other lands our ancestors were persecuted for their faith in God – Jesus to be more specific. After lots of suffering, pain and loss, they came up with a plan, an idea to have their own land where they could worship God, live before Him, do their own work. own their own property and raise a family as they saw best – not as others tried to force them to. 

As a result, America was formed. The governance was well thought out by intelligent men who disagreed with each other, but their goal was the same. Provide a country ruled by the laws of the people, not by a king. This unique form of government is a republic – just (fair, honest) laws drafted by good men for the good of all. This was not a democracy where majority ruled, this was a set of principles where if you were the only one right, you could maintain your freedom and be safe. No majority rule could overpower that right. (Might help here to reread your Bill of Rights).

There will always be people clamoring for their truth, trying to force you into theirs, but not so in America. Each here has the freedom to live and express himself as a valuable person provided it is done within the confines of the law which takes into account the freedom of others and good of all.

The God and His laws which our country’s laws are patterned after is for our good. We need to continually keep our focus on how good God is, how He gave us this good land, kept us safe from others who’d try to do us harm. He is the true light who will overcome the darkness so we can live in freedom, light and truth with each other. 

“Our father’s God, to thee, Author of liberty, to thee we sing; Long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light, protect us by Thy might, Great God our King.” 4th verse of ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ by Samuel Francis Smith (1832)

We America

Jennifred Jones

We America, yes us in the land of the free and the home of the brave, living in the land God gave us, the beautiful land of freedom that most of the world wants to come live in because of her abundance, wealth and freedoms.

Many of us have lost our compass, not knowing right from wrong or wrong from right ‘It’s all relative anyway, whatever I want is the way it’s going to be…all for my comfort and satisfaction,’ some say.

We end up living our lives thinking pretty much only about ourselves and not others or the long-term effects of our thoughts and actions. I don’t think this has been intentional, it has crept upon, causing us not even to consider other peoples’ well-being on a personal level…maybe even our own well-being.

We may donate to charities, we may go to church, we may live in a nice house and have good kids, but are we setting a good example? Do we run people off the road when we’re in a hurry to get somewhere? Do we take out our frustration behind the wheel, intimidating others because of weaknesses in ourselves? This week in a parking lot a woman was almost run over at the crosswalk where she exited the store, by a driver who didn’t see the stop sign at the crosswalk. As we passed each other walking, she said, ‘I think people are so busy and distracted these days, they don’t even notice.’

This softened my heart. People – we – us – are trying to live our lives, keep up with family needs, and get out doing what we need to do.

I ask that we slow down and begin to see other human beings as like flesh and blood as ourselves. We all bleed the same.  People are not just another ‘face’. They have a family, they have work to do and places to go just like we do. Life is too precious. It goes by so fast and can be snuffed out quickly.

Today, I will not allow myself to be so preoccupied that I cannot look out for others, because I hope others will be looking out for me.

Amen.

A Citizen’s Response -ability

Jennifred Jones

I am a citizen of the United States of America. I was born here. I am granted full rights and responsibilities being an American citizen according to the US constitution.

We are governed by law through elected officials who are to have our best interests at heart, because they are one of us.

This places responsibility upon me to be watchful of my country, to live by its principles and to help my officials and representatives follow what we elected them for. We pay our taxes to have this done, and we want to make sure our hard-earned money is going to a profitable return.

I realize this comment may open a big can of worms, and I’m not going fishing!

Let me give a local example fresh from today. We’ve had multiple inches of rain where I live. One of the central parking lot drains at a nearby apartment complex doesn’t drain right. Many times water stands in the lot and comes halfway up car’s tires when they drive through. The mailbox unit was engulfed so the mailman didn’t stop -he couldn’t get to the boxes for all the water. It’s been over 6 hours and water is still there. Residents have literally waded in ankle deep water to reach their cars.

I felt it my responsibility to call the city and inquire about the drain since this has been repetitive. After several calls I reached the right person. They were unaware of the situation. The helpful official said he’d check out whose responsibility it was – the city or the apartment complex. I told him I felt bad for the residents living there, (including a man with a limp who had to walk all the way around the big ‘puddle’ to get to his car.) There was no other interest of my own…just noticing other’s wading through their difficulty.

How simple it was for me to call. Yes, it took time and effort, but I thought this is why we pay taxes – to have things run smoothly for the citizenry. I spoke with the city official as person to person, citizen to citizen – both working towards a common good.

What if every time something needed attention, we citizens did our responsible part and contacted whoever we needed to and didn’t think, ‘someone else will take care of it’. We are the someone else and we need to take care of it. How will our officials know what we need if we don’t tell them? This is how America works and how we keep a big country small and approachable.

I’m glad we live here and can help make things better!

What do you think?