I love what the 4th of July stands for. Our freedom, our ability to be free from tyranny. So many men and women helped us get there and continue to fight for us each each day. My family particularly has generations of men in the military going all the way back to the American Revolution. I’m so proud of this. I’m so proud of anyone that takes that courage and chance to go and fight for our freedom.

To me, I think about fireworks on this day. It is not only a beautiful way to celebrate, but it’s a statement. It’s an honor to those men and women who have given their lives and service for us. So that makes the day all about family for me.

We started our own traditions of eating barbecue, hamburgers and s’mores each year and then off to see the fireworks. It’s a day JUST for family. We get a blanket and get there early to get a good spot. The kids get to play in the field while the sun goes down and we wait. Now the last couple of years have changed a little since we’ve spent in with family, but we always do the same things. We incourage the tradition. It’s something we enjoy and we’re happy to involve our extended family in it.

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.
Proverbs 24: 3,4

I just love this verse.  I believe the valuables God talks about are our lives, our children, our families. It’s about the time spent with them and how we live our lives. He wants us to keep our focus on not only raising our children up to live in grace, but to be the graceful ones ourselves.
It also says to me so much about what God expects from my husband and I for our home. I think it’s important that in our home we help our children realize that their lives are really about what’s been given to us by the Lord. That the Lord Jesus fought for us those thousands of years ago. Jesus fought for his freedom and for God’s word. He made the ultimate sacrifice for us. We can never do anything to repay him. That is true sacrifice.
We must be honorable and live as much like Christ so that we show him how much we love him, appreciate his sacrifice, and be thankful for his gift of Life.

Do you think that it’s possible for us to understand true sacrifice and love?

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide,

how long, how high and how deep his love is.
Ephesians 3: 18

I’m not sure we’ll ever understand the true sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But I do know that the soldiers that go out there and fight for us have a sense of what true love and sacrifice is all about.
I know that if we are in God’s word, if we truly study it then we can live it. It shines through us and out of us in all ways. I can tell when I’m talking to a follower of Jesus just by the way they illuminate his word. It’s not neccessarily the words they are speaking but the way the love pours out of them.

I truly hope to be lucky enough to have God’s word in my heart at all times. I want to remember the sacrifices made by others and to live in a way that I can just illuminate with God’s love.

Have you made sacrifices for others through God’s love? How does that make you feel?

By Leigh- the Funky Faith Girl

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