Preserved Us a Nation

Never before have I publicized a piece of my personal journal on my public blog for the world to see... but I felt I needed to do so today. In light of the Independence Day festivities coming up, I want the world to know what I truly feel about my blessed country.

My apologies to those who do not share my faith, since most of what I feel for my nation is deeply rooted in my beliefs. I refuse to abridge that which I have written, so please, if you have questions or confusion I can do my best to answer them. (Please note that I will respond to nothing that might be hateful towards my faith.) I ask you, please, to still read on and recognize what you have in this nation. I ask you to read on and recognize the lives given to bring you all that you now have.

We had a wonderful lesson today from a member of the stake bishopric – he’s a funny man, a seminary teacher, and an American History scholar. He went into detail today about things relating to the upcoming 4th of July celebrations. He talked about when Wilford Woodruff was approached by the signers of the constitution, and many other significant American heroes (Christopher Columbus, early presidents, etc.) wanting to get their endowments and sealings taken care of. When that occurred, the SL temple was yet under construction, and there was a temporary endowment building set up where the North Visitors Center currently is on Temple Square.

The founders of our country went there, to speak to the prophet. They are all high priests now. They are all sealed to their wives. I wish I had the ability to go into more detail of how strongly I feel about that right now. I want to go there this Saturday… I want to sit in the North Visitor’s Center, and just think about what occurred there.

I’m amazed at what this country has. Most people in the world, even those in wonderful and secure areas, would trade places with me. The home I live in. The education I have access to. The freedom I possess and the opportunities that lie before me.

I adore my country. It is so easy to forget what we have, especially in the turmoil of the modern day. With president Obama, and problems in the economy, and bills and voting on schools and religion and gay marriage, and wars, and rumors of wars… it is so easy to forget what we are blessed with. Even as the country falls just as Rome of old, as I believe it will over time, I hold a respect and awe for this nation. I stand amazed at the constitution of this country. I am humbled and shaken to my core with the number of lives given for the establishment of this choice land.

So often forgotten is the final verse of the Star Spangled Banner, in this nation trying so desperately to renounce their God and His glory:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
My Savior established this constitution. He raised wise men for its purpose alone, and for the strength of this people. Never in the history of mankind have such men come together, and in relation to the population at that time – an obscure and minute fraction compared to what it is now – it was a truly divine miracle brought forth for the liberty of mankind. Through their work a nation came together in which the true and living gospel could be restored to the earth, even through the artillery and death that followed it, and to this day seeks its destruction.

I pray that I remember, with the following festivities and fireworks, what it symbolizes. It symbolizes the artillery of the enemy in 1814, over which Francis Scott Key saw the tattered but strong majesty of the stars and stripes billowing in the air in the light of the morning. It symbolizes the artillery we face in the modern day, from every angle thundering through this dark night. But just as that banner stood, and just as it still waves over this nation, I know that I will be standing strong and firm in the wind when the sun comes.

When the Son comes.

“In God We Trust” by Jon McNaughtonPicture discovered via Ordinary Miracles