An Honored Heritage

I didn’t get the opportunity on Independence Day to share my patriotic thoughts with you so in honor of Pioneer Day (here in Utah) I thought I’d give it a shot…

I’m grateful for and support the President of the United States and stand behind the choices we, as a country, made.

I cannot express enough the admiration, respect, and support I have for the men and women of this country who fight daily for my freedoms and the freedoms of those who are unable to fight for themselves.

I’m grateful to live in a country where I have the right to say what I do and don’t like about my government or my President.

I’m thankful for the men who had the courage to form a more perfect union, and for the men and women who fought to maintain that decree.

I’m blessed to be able to worship according to the dictates of my own conscience.

I’m thankful for the man who had the courage to receive the keys of the priesthood and restore the gospel to the earth.

I’m humbled by the actions of my pioneer ancestors in showing their faith and hope in times of great trial, great need, great pain, and much grief in searching for a better life and following God’s prophet 161 years ago.

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?

And the Rockets’ red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,

O’er the Land of the free, and the home of the brave?

O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d home, and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv’d 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.

I am proud to be an American
In God is my trust.
And I pray we will always have the courage to be brave.