I recently saw an image of someone waving a blank white flag and the statement attached was something to the gist, "we stand for nothing, we didn't want to offend anyone." This made my heart sad. I love and cherish the Stars and Stripes of this nation and what this country was built on. We are losing national pride and replacing it with "freedom pride." We are a blessed people to have SO much freedom. It is not common in this world we live in and should not be taken forgranted and misused. There is an overwhelming amount of "me-ism" in our society that makes individuals think that they are the center of the universe and all their needs, wants and desires should be met or exceeded (for free too!). We are losing touch wih foundational truths that make a society strong and successful.
I had the opportunity to sing the Star Spangled Banner recently in a meeting and loved that the words "in God we trust" are in there. Do we still trust in God? Do we still strive to be a nation founded on principles of faith, trust and reverence? Children no longer know the pledge of allegiance, why? There is much in this great nation of America that is good, so good, but I fear the overwhelming voice and opinions of the "me-ism" crowd is quite loud and listened to. They become the majority of thought when they are heeded above all other voices of reason.
For our recent Family Home Evening (a night we dedicate to being together and having a lesson and activity), we did clay creations. We then read this great talk on the potters clay in the scriptures. Link: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/01/the-potter-and-the-clay?lang=eng. It went along quite nicely to all I've been thinking about lately to. In this talk President Kimball concludes, "When a person is miserable, wretched, and unhappy in himself, put him in what circumstances you please, and he is wretched still. If a person is poor, and composes his mind, and calmly submits to the providences of God, he will feel cheerful and happy in all circumstances, if he continues to keep the commandments of God."
One of the great men of our day said, “We’re losing Christianity. It’s the worst thing that could happen to a nation. And we’ve got to find a way of rekindling it. Not only with the people we contact, but with the opportunity to reach out to others. We’ll see a deterioration in this nation unless we do. The conscience of the world depends on religious faith. And we’ve got to rebuild that confidence in the world for religious faith and just spread it throughout the people. And when they start seeing the contrast, the contrast between good and the bad way, then we’ll see a change.” - Elder L Tom Perry
I believe in God. I believe that as we live His precepts we become a happier and stronger people.
