Welcome to my eclectic journey of my life and delights. This year my theme is surrendering my writing pen to the true author, Jesus Christ, while looking forward to the future, reflecting on the past and dancing through my journey.




Thursday, May 12, 2011

Freedom and Liberty


Last Thursday my son and I attended our first National Day of Prayer on the Courthouse steps in Denton, Texas.  Although I have followed and prayed on this day since my children were little, this is the first time we have joined a group on the steps of our government.  As I walked up to the side of the court house my breath was caught by a humbling awe in my spirit.  What a privileged to live in the United States of America.  How easily I am taking this freedom to gather in public to pray for our Nation as something that is common.  These words started to ring in my memory.

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.


How easily I can forget, as my heart quietly said the Pledge of Alliance while bowing my head in prayers of agreement at this day of prayer, that I have the freedoms and liberty I enjoy.  We weren't afraid of being arrested, neither did we put our life at risk in order to petition God for our country.  





Over 30 local clergy made a line across the courthouse steps.  The Shofars were blown piercing the air in a call to prayer.  The Cherokee Nation,  just miles up the road,  was represented by an Apostle..  He began his prayer in his native language.  Messianic Synagogue, Nazarene, Bible Church, Non-denominational, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, and the Open Range Cowboy Churches prayed in unity.


The Excellency of Brotherly Unity.
A Song of Ascents, of David.
1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
         For brothers to dwell together in unity!
2It is like the precious oil upon the head,
         Coming down upon the beard,
         Even Aaron’s beard,
         Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
3It is like the dew of Hermon
         Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
         For there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever.

Prayers were prayed for

  • Peace of Jerusalem
  • International Relations
  • US Government Leaders
  • State Government Leaders
  • City and County Leaders
  • Armed Forces and Veterans
  • Businesses and Economy
  • Unity and Healing of the Earth
  • Media
  • Churches
  • Families
  • First Responders
  • Schools/Education
  • Missions/Jails/Hospitals
The crowd agreed with resounding Amens and applause.

This is only one day, only one time of prayer and we all know that our nation needs prayers everyday, and yet, this one event humbled this American-born-Christian 50-year-old-woman, who was just a little too comfortable in her freedom.

As the closing song (I Am Proud to be An American) was sung gentle tears streamed down my face.  Thank you God for our Nation...may we learn to Bless You!
* We also viewed "Taking Chance", which again reminded us of the sacrifices of our service people and their families.  This movie is very good for older children to see the actual cost of our freedom.


Somehow in the past few days blogger has had some problems and deleted my post, so this has been reposted and past comments were deleted....sorry for the repeat, but I did want it on my blog log.

20 Joining in with more words:

Mary said...

Janette thank you for sharing your experience with us...for reminding us, reminding me.

we are blessed with so much...i am blessed with so much that i take for granted...daily!!

xxoo

Cindy said...

What a great experience. The National Day of Prayer almost slipped by me this year. I agree with Mary. We are so blessed. Unfortunately, I think we take it for granted.

Debbie said...

What a wonderful experience for you and your kids. Your right, we ALL take our freedoms for granted everyday! We do need to wake up and appreciate more of what we've got. We need to pray EVERY day for this mighty nation! I can imagine I too would have been in tears at the end of that with that song playing. How blessed and proud we are! Hope you have a good day! HUGS

Leslie @ Farm Fresh Fun said...

Just what I needed. Thank you so much. And also for the link to movie I've added to my Amazon wish list and yummy caramel recipe that I copied! Neighbors indeed (I'll help you pack)! ;-)
xoxo
Leslie

no spring chicken said...

Such a moving post! You wrote it so well, and it's so important. I too am so thankful to be an American and awed by our countries origins. God's hand has surely been on us and we need to unite and pray for that continued blessing...

Good for you and I'll be on the courthouse steps next year. Thanks for the inspiration.

Blessings, Debbie

Bethany said...

Lovely, thanks for sharing.

A multi-dimensional life said...

Thank you for sharing this! What a beautiful reminder of the freedoms we take for granted! I was moved to tears at the subject matter of all of the prayers! I also pray that our heads will continue to bow before the Lord. May the sacrifice our men & women in uniform never be in vain.
Thanks again for this wonderful post!

Vee said...

What a blessing that must have been. This was the first year in many that the day went by without my even knowing that it was the National Day of Prayer. I hope that I am in a very small minority. Thank you for telling us about your day.

http://bitsandpieces-sonja.blogspot.com/ said...

What a beautiful post Janette. I am ashamed. I completely missed the National Day of Prayer. Thanks to you... I will NOT miss it next year.

Today and every day I am so thankful for the land we live in, for the hard won freedoms we enjoy, and how I pray that God will continue to bless America. Just like me forgetting the day of prayer... we do not deserve the way He has blessed me... us. This was very convicting.

xo

Gwen T said...

Beautiful, Janette - what a neat event to be a part of. Even though we too consider ourselves very patriotic and proud of our country, we need these reminders to not take it for granted!!

Finding Joy said...

Even though Amercian and Australia are very similar, in many ways we are also very different. This type of event would never happen in Australia in a unified manner as we have this strong separation of Church and State that puts a stop to it. I suppose ANZAC Day is the day that Australians say thank you formour freedom and peace as day of remembrance for our soldiers. We are not as patriotic as you are, perhaps this is our cultural roots.

Sharon said...

This was so inspiring, Janette. That must have been such a wonderful event to attend.

Yes, I do think that we take our freedom too much for granted. And one of those most treasured freedoms just has to be the free ability to pray in public!

The summer after September 11th, we visited the Grand Ole Opry. Lee Greenwood was there, and he sang "I Am Proud to be an American" - it was such a moving experience.

The whole audience spontaneously stood to their feet and held hands through the whole song. Blessed time...

Sometimes America really gets it right.

GOD BLESS!

Simple Home said...

We have so much to be thankful for here in our country, don't we? Such a great reminder of the many things we need to pray for too.

Not sure what happened on blogger. I didn't post over the past few days, but I did lose the comments that were made yesterday. I know they came because I got the email about them, but they disappeared from my blog.
I hope they have the problem worked out :-)
Enjoy your weekend!
Blessings,
Marcia

Rebecca said...

What a well-organized and thought assembly, Janette. I can imagine the sense of unity that was present.

We were a small group that met that evening in our church. We prayed for our national, state and local leaders quite specifically.

It was good for me to experience the blogger glitch. It helped me evaluate and adjust the time I've been spending this way! Interestingly, the book I read in the morning had quite an insightful paragraph about the effect of too much internet activity....

Cherie Hill said...

What a GREAT experience. We have no idea how blessed we are until we step into third world countries. Even as Jo said . . . Australia would not allow such an event. It's truly mind blowing! I am so thankful to live in America . . . although at times, I feel ashamed . . . I know God is in control and holds this country in the palm of His hands.
Blessings sister!
Cherie

Jeanette Levellie said...

How wonderful! I am always so grateful to live where we have the freedom to openly pray and worship God, and pray they will never be taken from us.

Blessings,
Jen

Sue said...

Your first time experience sounds like mine janette, I felt the same emotions! We are indeed blessed as a Nation to be able to assemble and pray publicly, without fear, My prayer is that we will always have this right, and privilege.
I read your post on Teacher Appreciation Day, an was so blessed, I am glad you got to participate and thank you for recognizing them here for all that they do, and for showing them too. I thank you for the recipe, I have been looking a caramel recipe.

Janette , what a wonderful job you are doing
teaching Benjamin on so many things. I think of him as a very fine southern gentleman.

Tell him Benji is really growing and that I have some photos I have been wanting to send him, but I discovered we have a problem, our little Benji turned out to be a girl, (LOL)and I want to know if he still wants us to call her Benji, or if he would prefer to rename her.... Turning out to be a girl was a very good thing as we will now be able to keep her.
Enjoy your weekend.
Hugs,
Sue

Tanna said...

Janette, I am so glad you perservered with your post. It is wonderful. Made tears stream down my face, too. Thank you. blessings ~ tanna

Marsha Young said...

Janette, This was beautiful. Just this evening our pastor talked about the fact that there are over 150 million believers being persecuted all over the world just because they are Christians.

What a fine testimony this was!
Marsha

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

What an awesome experience, Janette! An emotional and heartfelt time.

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