Land of Liberty

I have always loved the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence so much. These men were inspired, these weren’t ramblings from old men, these were real people with real stakes in America. The signers were merchants, clergymen, lawyers, plantation owners, inventors, brewers, scientists, etc. the average joes of the colonies. George Washington, barely a colonel when promoted to general in the American army, led an army of farm boys and shop apprentices, with little more than muskets and homemade uniforms, under a flag that was handsewn by a very young woman whose main business was upholstery. The American army consisted of a ragtag bunch that in all honesty shouldn’t have won. When they did, they shocked the world. A set of 13 colonies sent the world’s greatest army and navy of the time packing. It’s a wonder that we even lasted very long at all.

In the Book of Mormon, several times it talks about this land being a land of freedom as long as the people are righteous. “Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever. Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. … But behold, this land, said God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And I will fortify this land against all other nations. And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God. For he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words. … Wherefore, my beloved brethren, thus saith our God: I will afflict thy seed by the hand of the Gentiles; nevertheless, I will soften the hearts of the Gentiles, that they shall be like unto a father to them; wherefore, the Gentiles shall be blessed and numbered among the house of Israel. Wherefore, I will consecrate this land unto thy seed, and them who shall be numbered among thy seed, forever, for the land of their inheritance; for it is a choice land, saith God unto me, above all other lands, wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me, saith God.” (2 Nephi 1:7,9; 10:10-19)

I included the preamble of the Constitution and parts of the Declaration of Independence for very careful and humble reading. Many Americans have forgotten what we fought for in the beginning and our purpose. These I feel portray the original inspiration and thoughts of our Founding Fathers.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” (U.S. Constitution)

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. ...

“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

“Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (Declaration of Independence)

This land was made to be a land of freedom and liberty, one where the gospel could be planted and would flourish. One where “[the] work and glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” could begin. 

I bear my testimony that as long as we are following God's commandments we will remain free and that God prepared this land for the gospel to born. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

We need LOVE, we are blessed with LOVE, L. O. V. E.

One thing I love about my religion is that it is a religion of love. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” but it began before then. His love came from the beginning. He had Christ create this world, this beautiful and bountiful world, for our sake, that we may have this earthly experience. That earthly experience will prepare us for the Spirit World, which will prepare us for the Resurrection, which will then prepare us for Judgement, which will prepare us for the Celestial Kingdom, where we will have our own worlds, and we will be like unto God (D&C 135:20). Why would He do this? Why would He go through all this trouble and sacrifice? Why would He send his Son to earth? To suffer for our sins? To die for us? To then be resurrected so that we may do so also one day? Why? Because he LOVES us. He loves us more than any of us can know.

In the beginning, God created us, His spirit children. He created our spirits. He saw us for who we really are, before the world could corrupt us. He gave us two choices: follow Satan’s plan, which gave us no choice from then on out and we would automatically go back to our Heavenly Father; or follow Jesus’ plan, one where we may slip up but it would be our choice whether or not we wanted to return to Him (Moses 4:1-4). All of us on this earth chose Jesus’ plan (Isa. 14:12–20; Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:4–13; D&C 29:36–38; Moses 4:1–4). We chose LOVE. In order to know love, we need to know hurt and sadness. We wouldn’t have found that in Satan’s plan. God placed Adam and Eve on earth so that we may come to earth. I imagine putting Adam and Eve on earth must have been like sending your oldest child off to college. It must have been so hard to watch them eat the fruit off of the tree, but they HAD TO. Because they ate the fruit, we could come here. We wouldn’t have been able to gain bodies unless we had a mother and father to give them to us.

Now, back to LOVE. Sometimes you may wonder, “How could there be a loving God, if there’s so much hate and contention in this world? How could He allow awful things to happen to us? How could He let us hurt one another?”

With everything there is an opposition. Black and white, dog and cat, happiness and sadness, joy and anger, serious and play, loud and quiet, etc. Without one we wouldn’t know or appreciate the other. Without hunger, how would we know and love the sweet taste of warm food? Without hurt, how would we know how to love our friends and family? Without chocolate how would we know how awful vanilla is? (haha just kidding). He created us, but he gave us choice because He LOVES us. A good parent may do things for a child in the beginning, but after a while they begin to let their child make their own choices. Oftentimes, these choices are wrong and the child may get hurt, but they must learn in order to be prepared for the adult world. Oftentimes these choices are right and the parent rejoices and is thrilled. This is how our Heavenly Father feels when we make choices. He LOVES us so he gave us the ability to learn to love others.

He also gave us adversity because He loves us. I know, sometimes adversity sucks. Sometimes you wish that boy didn’t break up with you, that teacher didn’t give you so much homework, your addiction didn’t still bother you, or that broken leg didn’t hurt so much. He gives us rough patches, high and lows, to build us up and make us stronger. It may not seem like it, but you’ll know over time how, and sometimes why, you needed that experience. You must have needed to know that you aren’t ready for a steady relationship, that you shouldn’t procrastinate, that you need to be stronger than your addiction, or that you should have looked before crossing the street. How do you grow stronger? You have to learn yourself. He wants us to be stronger because he LOVES us.

“And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail— But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.” (Moroni 7:45-48) In order to become like our Heavenly Father, we must LOVE. We have to love our friends, family, enemies, people we don’t know, people we wish we didn’t know, EVERYBODY. In the words of Ingrid Michaelson, “Everybody wants to love, everybody wants to be loved.” We need to LOVE everybody. I know it's hard, but it’s so worth it. I’m not perfect in the least, but I know someone who is and He loves us all, enough to go through all that He went through in order to give me the ability to become like Him. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.