Red, white, and blue

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. We are so blessed to live in such a great nation, despite all of her flaws. I love celebrating with fireworks, cookouts, and getting to spend time with family. I love seeing red, white, and blue everywhere you look and I love patriotic music. I saw a quote earlier on someone's Facebook status that I really liked. It said something along the lines that its pretty cool that we live in a country that celebrates its Independence Day with family, fireworks, etc. rather than showing our military might and force by parading our missiles in front of our leaders. I think that just shows what makes America special. Whether you're a democrat or republican, black or white, celebrating our freedom is something that we can all do together.

I'm especially grateful for our armed forces. I have the utmost respect for the men and women of our military who are willing to put their lives on the line, here and abroad, just to defend the freedoms that make America great. I think back to all of the wars that America has fought, and its the men and women who fought, died, and still serve that make me proud to be an American. In fact, one of my best friends is in ROTC and the National Guard and will most likely later serve in the Army- Tyler Brown, I'm proud of you and have nothing but respect and appreciation for you...love you brother.

More importantly, I'm grateful for the freedom that I have in Christ. Not only am I able to worship my God freely and openly, but I am free from the sin that separates me from my God. And someday because of that freedom, I'll be able to stand in God's presence and worship Him, and that will be so awesome. Thank you God for blessing me with such a great country to live in and with such great family and friends with which to celebrate. God bless America!!!