Happy 4th of July!
July is my favorite month,
and I was doing a little reflecting today
and wrote down some thoughts about
the 4th of July, and about America, that I thought I'd share with you.
I hope you don't mind if I read it; I wrote it down.
Many ideas underpinning how our government
works were floating around before the Founding
Fathers strung them together.
What is so remarkable is that they incorporated
many of these ideas together to strike an
uncommon and miraculous balance.
The fledgling nation dovetailed together idealism
and pragmatism: a noble yearning of the human
heart toward liberty, justice and freedom;
and the necessary day-to-day operations that
have, gradually, brought our country closer
and closer to those ideals.
The Constitution provides an adaptive framework—a
vehicle—for citizens to progressively structure
their own collective lives to approach their
aspirations.
It does this despite, and even by means of,
the wonderful variety of souls and opinions
with which we live, and on top of the sacrifices
of countless brave souls.
And it has lasted now for over 230 years.
What’s also notable to me, as a believer,
is the clear timeliness of the rise of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heavenly Father felt that the time was right
to bring back His Son’s church, and now
there emerged a nation with the requisite
environment.
Joseph Smith, the prophet who was instructed
to restore the church and to whom was given
the priesthood authority from heavenly messengers,
was born in 1805, a paltry 18 years after
the Constitution was signed.
For those of us who believe that God has an
active hand in inspiring noble women and men
across the earth, it is not difficult to believe
that our great nation was brought about by
Him.
Undoubtedly we have our challenges as a country,
brought on by ourselves and from sources outside
of our control.
But I am optimistic.
Let’s look for the good today, because it
is all around us, while we continue to leverage
the divinely inspired, pragmatic framework
of the Constitution and the Amendments to
work towards an even brighter tomorrow.
The future is as bright as our faith.
Happy 4th of July!
