Posted on 11/04/2008 6:36:49 PM PST by joanie-f
When I was a very young child, maybe two or three years old, my Dad hung the painting pictured above on the wall at the head of my bed. Through the years as I grew, I decorated my room with many photos, pennants, pictures, and the like, but that small painting always remained in place.
Many years later, for our tenth anniversary, my husband, Rick, had it re-framed for me (the frame had come to know its share of bumps and bruises over the years), and now, thirty-one years hence, it still hangs on the wall at the head of our bed.
My Dad passed away seven years ago last month. I miss him terribly, but I am thankful that he has not had to witness the devastation of his beloved country that has occurred since his passing. His heart would be heavy with grief and mourning.
Somehow, despite its long nearly sixty-year history, and the loving memories that history rekindles, the message that my Dad's painting portrays -- of the power of prayer, and the need to turn to His Word for guidance and direction -- has intensified in significance for us over the past few months.
Heavenly Father, forgive us for what we have done.
You have prospered our nation for more than two centuries. You have strengthened us when we were weak, provided for us when we were without provision, directed us when we were willing to follow your guidance, blessed us when we were undeserving of blessings.
We have walked far from the path you laid out for us. We have betrayed those who sacrificed so dearly for our benefit. We have become lazy, allowing ourselves to be easily ensnared by carefully-crafted words and empty promises, delivered by men who worship self, who seek to oppress and control their fellow man, and who place no value in truth and goodness.
We have transformed prosperity into decadence; allegiance and duty into indulgence and complacency.
We have taken the gifts that only you can bestow (Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you ... 2 Tim 1:14) and placed them in the hands of men whose will is arbitrary and whose agenda is tyranny. The road ahead is dark, and steep, and fraught with danger –- made intentionally so by those who intend to ‘lead’ us, deceptively, through the fog they have created, and over the minefields they have laid.
Help us to continue to have faith in our own individualism, to insulate ourselves from the cacophony that surrounds us, and to listen for your gentle whispers. For we know that it is in heeding those whispers that our future security lies.
We cling to the knowledge that you work in miracles, when it is your will to do so. We pray that, if it not be praying against that will, you would help us to acknowledge what we have lost, muster the courage to reclaim it, and look to you once again in that endeavor for the strength, wisdom, and guidance and that only you can provide.
Amen.
BTTT ~ now more than ever, this thread needs to stay at the top!
Joined in prayer, joined in battle.
Yes, they have — and so let us count our blessings! Strangely, this election cycle wasn't a totally unmitigated disaster: Three states will now amend their constitutions to recognize marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
Here in Massachusetts, by a plurality of one vote on the Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams' Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — according to David McCullough, writing in his masterful biography of Adams, the longest-lived, still functioning constitution on the planet, older even than the federal Constitution — was tortured into saying that any one man–one woman definition of marriage discriminates against the equal rights of gay people (and quite possibly the equal rights of other persons offended by such a definition). I feel sure Adams himself would have found the Court's reading incomprehensible and moreover scandalous, a sure means of undermining the most fundamental social unit of society, the family.
To me this election marks the victory of an infantilized, deracinated American public who, by a margin of 6% of the popular vote, bought into Mr. Wizard's Second Reality. But at least the people of three states have demonstrated that they haven't completely lost their minds.
Be grateful for blessings received!
And then let's get to work! I'm sure under Mr. Wizard's presidency, there will be quite a lot for us to do....
May God's Will be done in all things, on earth as it is in heaven. And may He continue to bless America!
Thanks so very much, Jeff, for your outstanding essay-post!
Thanks.
Like..... recruit and organize an under ground..
This was the last moderately honest election in America..
Some(like me) have doubts about this one(election)..
We often joked in the past about Free republic becoming hamstringed or inhibited in unknown ways..
This could become all our realitys soon..
Micheal Savage and Rush Limbaugh and others could become "handled" if not outlawed..
PLANS should be made NOW... by "US" in the best conservative website of all.. "WE" conservatives need to hang together or we may hang separately, alone, and marginalized....
If I'm reading Mr. Wizard right (that would be BHO), a very bad scenario in regard to basic human liberty may well play out in our future sooner or later. First will come the "Fairness Doctrine." Then perhaps some further fine-tuning of election law and immigration law. I imagine Second Amendment rights will not survive the socially corrosive effects of hard-left progressive, "activist," thinking. Plus the future condition thus direction of the Supreme Court seems most uncertain at this time.
People who want to defend their rights under the Constitution had better start paying attention: We have a "sorcerer" as CIC and head of the national government, effective next January.
Many people I've been speaking with lately think that BHO will drag us into a sort of European-style socialism.
Jeepers, I've actually had an even worse thought than that: That BHO will drag America into a state of Third-World-style, fascist tribalism. Already we have Chavez in Venezuela (not to mention hostile elements in the Middle East) crowing about that expected eventuality.
But then, maybe I just have a hyperactive imagination. Certainly I believe it would be better to be proved wrong than right in this particular speculation.
Maybe this masterful wizard of second reality who we have just elected president actually can effectively govern in First Reality. This, however, remains to be seen.
My prayers for you and me and our nation continue....
Anger was my first response, but it is not the answer here.
I pray for all of us, too, that we would all be given patience in this time of adversity. God is good, and nothing takes Him by surprise.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f9ee215bc49131d0caf3
“OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD”
#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doiiH2FkIO8
“HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD”
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