Tag: freedom

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)

Autonomy

Jennifred Jones

Why are you using such big words? What’s it mean anyway?

Breaking the word down backwards it says, ‘my auto”, and if it’s your car you can drive it wherever you want. But the Greek meaning is self-legislation, self-governance. This means you are to be in charge of your life, your actions, your decisions. Basically, you tell yourself what to do. (You drive your life where you want it to go.) You tell yourself what is best for you and do it. You don’t need other people telling you what they think you should say, do, think, where to go to school, who to marry, what to like, dislike, who to vote for etc, etc, etc.

Autonomy is a self-regulating freedom. As with any freedom and freedom to make your own decisions, we have guidelines in communities, cities, states, countries of what is allowed or not allowed, and our freedom must abide within those guidelines. But autonomy is a wonderful thing. Many countries in the world and over the centuries had no such freedoms. They were always told what to do and when.

But we have the freedom, ability, to decide if we want a better life we can go after it. We want a better relationship with our friends and family, no one can stop us. We want to give up a bad habit or two, we are able to direct our lives that way. There is no law preventing you from doing any good thing you want to do. We don’t tell other people what to do and conversely, we don’t let others tell us what to do.

We get to decide what’s good and beneficial for us and ours and move in that direction. We do not need permission from higher anybody to do the right thing.

Now what do I really want to do – to see happen in my life for good? How could I make it happen? The reins are in my hands.

Let’s get the ball rolling!

Hope

Jennifred Jones

A fixed mindset has no hope.  It has lost its hope.

“There can be no change; Things will always be this way; There’s nothing I can do about it; It’s too late; Things are too bad; It’s gone on too long to see anything different; They’ll never change…”

It has no hope of a different future, a different tomorrow, a different you!

Hope is the propeller on the airplane of life that pulls us forward. We can guide it wherever we want to go when the engine is running.

Hope is freedom; an optimistic view of a new and brighter future; of change; a better tomorrow; a different way of doing things; freedom from the ruts in life… in your life!

Hope is one thing God has given mankind that no matter how bad things become, no matter what has been done, God can fix it. He can cause new growth. He is in the restoration business. There is aways hope. If you only have an ounce of strength or courage, He will give you more. If you feel there’s only a tiny bit of life left in you, He will fan it into flame.

Ask Him to blow on you.