Let Freedom Ring

Another Independence Day holiday weekend has come and is almost gone.

Lot's of food, family and friends...oh and fireworks of course!

Along with all that though, is the real reason we celebrate Independence Day in the first place in the good old USofA....our Freedom. I am a typical "proud American": proud of what our country was founded on - proud to live where I can make my own decisions - proud to have people who are willing to fight for all of it.

I wanted to reflect on a couple of verses that were referenced today at our church service, a service that celebrated those who have and are fighting for our country, a service that sang awesome patriotic hymns that give you goose bumps and tears just hearing the music, and a service that I am so blessed to be a part of.

"So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free." John 8:36
"So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1
and this one which is a real gem I think:
"For you have been called to live in freedom - not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love." Galatians 5:13

BTW, Chapter 5 in Galatians in my New Living Translation is titled: Freedom in Christ

Amazingly our country (the United States of America) was actually founded on Christian principles. Our associate pastor, Bro. Wes did an excellent job today with his sermon that he titled: "Free Indeed." He pointed out that many of our founding forefathers such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were true believers that our country should be based on such things as the Ten Commandments and the New Testament....GASP!!!!

Can you imagine the irony of today and those who want to tear that all down..."don't say 'Merry Christmas' say 'Happy Holidays' we don't want to offend anyone", "don't pray in school", take "In God We Trust" off our currency, oh, I love this one: take "Under God" out of our Pledge of Allegience! It truly makes me sick to think that there are those who want to change the basis and principles of what our great Country was formed off of.

Well, glad I got that off my chest! I really had no intention of going off on a tangent with this Independence Day post, but sometimes my soapbox needs to be dusted off and gotten on!

Now some beautiful photos from our 4th of July celebration...before the rain!

This hilarious picture of Alex is not some freaky interpretive dance...no...this is her bottle rocket launch-look.Here is Walker with some hand grenade smoke bomb thing.Molly with one of her numerous sparklers!Even in the silhouette you can see who the biggest kid of all is with the fireworks:
Brandy LOVES fireworks!
Photographing fireworks is loads of fun!
These next ones are just me playing around with different shutter speeds and such.
I'm digging these sparkler pictures!Happy Independence to all my American friends and family.
I pray that you have had time to reflect on your freedoms and how blessed you are to have them.

I have many more pictures from the rest of the long weekend, including some river pics, and of all things: muddin' pics! Oh yes, all the good redneck stuff!!! :)
something to look forward to tomorrow...hope you can sleep with all the anticipation.