Last year I started a new tradition of reading an early American history book or biography before July 4th. This year I read three. One was about the role women played in the revolutionary war, the second was about Abigail Adams. Both were good, but I returned them to my sister-in-law and don't remember the names. I then watched the John Adams series with Amazon Prime. Having the background of the Abigail Adams book, I loved it. I marveled at the sacrifice of comfort, money, home and family John and Abigail Adams gave. Now I'm almost done with Washington, A Life.
This book has been overwhelmingly inspiring and educational. It is thick and detailed and magnificently written. I am astonished at the character and overall integrity of George Washington. He was human, and with that comes imperfection and occasional bad judgement, but on the whole this man was a force. A power of good. His sacrifice, and his make-or-break influence on our newly-free country, is astounding. Those he led in the Revolutionary War suffered privations of every kind for long periods of time, soldiers and their families alike. The precariousness of our country in those days was more acute than I ever imagined, and I'm more grateful to God than ever before that through His grace it survived!
As I've read this book I've marveled at the historical fact that there is an opposition to freedom that exists, and always has, all over the world. Power is an age-old, sought-after quest for men on this earth. As a result, freedom has to be defended. Constantly. In our earliest history it was religious freedom, then it was political, and moved on to basic inalienable rights for ALL under our constitution. There is freedom of speech (and boy does that ever get out of hand at times, but we have it!), the freedom to bare arms, the freedom to prosper. Freedom to CHOOSE. It is for this cause of FREEDOM that millions have voluntarily sacrificed their lives, both to the point of death and often in simple safety, comforts and conveniences to serve in office, march for rights, proclaim truths, etc.
I have been wondering this past week what freedoms need defending now? What people need defending? What rights? What truths? And what am I going to do about it?
For starters, our younger generations are not taught about the founding principles of this nation, and some of the older generations have forgotten. I've been trying to instill a love of this country in my children. We listen to Wee Sing America, still, even now that the girls are older. We have two great books that visually teach the meaning of the Constitution and the beautiful story of The Star Bangled Banner.
We have flags in our plants indoors and out.
We make a flag cake and put out our patriotic dish towels. It isn't a huge hullabaloo (and maybe that is why I love it), just enough to REMEMBER.
But next I feel I need to be informed. Not from a biased news station or talk show, but really try to get an overall picture of issues. This sometimes has proven to take some digging, as many things are not talked about in the media. What are the pros and cons of issues. What do all sides feel about it, and why? And then my goal is to look for truth in all the confusing chaos. That TRUTH is what I want to defend. George Washington was defending the true principle of freedom. It did not exist as a political form before His time. It was a huge gamble, but he and many others believed it possible. He did not initially take sides but stood tall above the extreme partisanship (reminds me a lot of today, to tell the truth). He was blasted again and again, falsely, for all sorts of crazy ambitions, none of which were true. Defending truth is rarely popular or easy, but it is a clear purpose that has kept people going all throughout our American history and others.
May God continue to bless America, and may we be worthy defenders of that blessing!
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