Give me liberty, or give me death.
That's all I got.
Happy Independence Day, America! Thank God He's still blessing us, despite all we've done.
Respectfully,
J. Ryder
a.k.a. BoondockAngel
27.5.13
It's Time to "Earn This".
If you're a soldier, or a veteran reading this, I would like to begin by saying, thank you. From the bottom of my respectful heart.
To the rest of you, here we are, on Memorial Day. I would say "happy Memorial Day", but in light of the fact that today is a day of remembrance and, well, memorium; I have a difficult time putting "happy" anywhere in the sentence.
All across America, people are barbequing, splashing in rivers and pools, drinking beer and in general, having a good time. But some people have a hard time having fun on days like today--days when they remember the sorrow and pain that they first felt when they heard that their loved one had fallen in the sacred line of duty. Unfortunately, today's generation (meaning, mine) is quickly losing the sense of honor, duty, and patriotism that their grandparents and parents possessed.
The word "country" to them is just a place to live, to travel around, maybe. They glance at the occasional high-flying flag. They sing the national anthem at the basketball game (when they can remember the words). Some of the kids my age don't even know the Pledge of Allegiance, or worse, which hand to place over their heart.
When people take something like a national anthem for granted--they seem to completely forget the blood that was spilled--and is still being spilled--as a price we pay to have the freedom to sing OUR national anthem, and not someone else's, on our home soil.
I can't count the number of young men and women that join our armed forces simply because it's a free ride to college. It's four years that they can put off deciding what they really want to do with their lives. They're not joining because they want to dedicate their lives to ensuring that their children will have the same rights and benefits they did; not because they possess an innate sense of patriotism.
It's a cop-out, at best.
Now, in no way am I belittling the men and women who actually desire to protect our country, and fight for our continued freedom, uh-uh. I feel nothing but honor and respect for those soldiers. In fact, that's exactly why I'm writing this. The cop-outs are giving the patriots a bad name, and I don't think that's right.
Our forefathers didn't die so that we could take the freeway through life. They died so that their children, for generations to come, would be able to live in the greatest country in the world--America, the land of the free; the home of the brave. They died so that we could live in a country that was worthy of the honor, respect, and blessings that God and other countries would give us. True, we've lost thousands of soldiers to wars and skirmishes that weren't ours to get involved in. But this is neither the time or place to focus on that.
A quote comes to mind, from one of my favorite war movies; Saving Private Ryan. During the final scenes, Tom Hank's character--an Army Captain who lost many of his men just to bring one man, Private Ryan, home--was sitting in the middle of a muddy, bloody bridge. Private Ryan, is sitting with him, appreciative at the very least for everything that the Captain had done for him. On his dying breath, Hank's character, Captain Miller, leans in close to Private Ryan and says two simple words: "Earn this."
And Ryan spends his entire life trying to do just that. Trying his best to earn the life the he only has because of the lives others lost to save him.
I believe that if our forefathers could have given us a piece of advice that simple, they would have told us to "earn this." To earn the freedom that cost men their lives so that we could live ours without fear. We can sleep at night because there are men and women out there keeping watch over us and our homes.
So I have just one more thing to say to my generation:
Earn this.
And to those of you who know someone who made the ultimate sacrifice, I would like to share this:
"...I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln."
With that, I will finally close, and remind you that, despite our country's complete sense of apathy and at times, completely dishonorable conduct, that all in all, God's Still Blessing America...so please, take a few moments to thank Him for it.
--Respectfully,
J. Ryder
a.k.a. BoondockAngel
To the rest of you, here we are, on Memorial Day. I would say "happy Memorial Day", but in light of the fact that today is a day of remembrance and, well, memorium; I have a difficult time putting "happy" anywhere in the sentence.
All across America, people are barbequing, splashing in rivers and pools, drinking beer and in general, having a good time. But some people have a hard time having fun on days like today--days when they remember the sorrow and pain that they first felt when they heard that their loved one had fallen in the sacred line of duty. Unfortunately, today's generation (meaning, mine) is quickly losing the sense of honor, duty, and patriotism that their grandparents and parents possessed.
The word "country" to them is just a place to live, to travel around, maybe. They glance at the occasional high-flying flag. They sing the national anthem at the basketball game (when they can remember the words). Some of the kids my age don't even know the Pledge of Allegiance, or worse, which hand to place over their heart.
When people take something like a national anthem for granted--they seem to completely forget the blood that was spilled--and is still being spilled--as a price we pay to have the freedom to sing OUR national anthem, and not someone else's, on our home soil.
I can't count the number of young men and women that join our armed forces simply because it's a free ride to college. It's four years that they can put off deciding what they really want to do with their lives. They're not joining because they want to dedicate their lives to ensuring that their children will have the same rights and benefits they did; not because they possess an innate sense of patriotism.
It's a cop-out, at best.
Now, in no way am I belittling the men and women who actually desire to protect our country, and fight for our continued freedom, uh-uh. I feel nothing but honor and respect for those soldiers. In fact, that's exactly why I'm writing this. The cop-outs are giving the patriots a bad name, and I don't think that's right.
Our forefathers didn't die so that we could take the freeway through life. They died so that their children, for generations to come, would be able to live in the greatest country in the world--America, the land of the free; the home of the brave. They died so that we could live in a country that was worthy of the honor, respect, and blessings that God and other countries would give us. True, we've lost thousands of soldiers to wars and skirmishes that weren't ours to get involved in. But this is neither the time or place to focus on that.
A quote comes to mind, from one of my favorite war movies; Saving Private Ryan. During the final scenes, Tom Hank's character--an Army Captain who lost many of his men just to bring one man, Private Ryan, home--was sitting in the middle of a muddy, bloody bridge. Private Ryan, is sitting with him, appreciative at the very least for everything that the Captain had done for him. On his dying breath, Hank's character, Captain Miller, leans in close to Private Ryan and says two simple words: "Earn this."
And Ryan spends his entire life trying to do just that. Trying his best to earn the life the he only has because of the lives others lost to save him.
I believe that if our forefathers could have given us a piece of advice that simple, they would have told us to "earn this." To earn the freedom that cost men their lives so that we could live ours without fear. We can sleep at night because there are men and women out there keeping watch over us and our homes.
So I have just one more thing to say to my generation:
Earn this.
And to those of you who know someone who made the ultimate sacrifice, I would like to share this:
"...I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln."
With that, I will finally close, and remind you that, despite our country's complete sense of apathy and at times, completely dishonorable conduct, that all in all, God's Still Blessing America...so please, take a few moments to thank Him for it.
--Respectfully,
J. Ryder
a.k.a. BoondockAngel
10.4.13
Personal Possession of Firearms in America
God has seen fit to bless my little part of Texas with rain today. Naturally, I'm having a hard time finding things to do. Work, naturally; but I work online. It's easy to get distracted.
As of ten minutes ago I found myself sitting at the kitchen counter, pecking away at tiny little laptop keys while my eyes burn and my brain fries from toxic sting of the peppers my mother is broiling. It's gonna be one heckuva afternoon, I can tell that already.
So as a way to pass time, I stick one earbud in and search the net for interesting (hopefully), educational (yeah right) videos to listen to while I write.
My wandering fingers found an interesting video called "Firearms and the Zombie Apocalypse" by Adam Alasdair, a historian whose blog I have been checking into a few times recently.
While I don't personally believe we will have a zombie apocalypse, it is an intriguing topic to me at this current time.
In this video, Alasdair mentions that for people in some foreign countries (meaning, not the U.S.A.) firearms might be difficult to come across sometimes; whereas the U.S. is a "mecca for personal firearms". That got me to thinking--as many things usually do, thinking doesn't seem to be quite as dangerous for me as it is for some people--how truly horrible it would be to live in a country that didn't allow the personal possession of firearms.
Now, I realize that the purchase of particular firearms has recently been made very difficult, and the powers that be would rather we didn't have any at all--but for now, the Amendments are still in place--and as of this moment, it is still possible for American citizens to defend themselves.
Just another reason why I thank God He's still blessing America.
Respectfully,
BoondockAngel
As of ten minutes ago I found myself sitting at the kitchen counter, pecking away at tiny little laptop keys while my eyes burn and my brain fries from toxic sting of the peppers my mother is broiling. It's gonna be one heckuva afternoon, I can tell that already.
So as a way to pass time, I stick one earbud in and search the net for interesting (hopefully), educational (yeah right) videos to listen to while I write.
My wandering fingers found an interesting video called "Firearms and the Zombie Apocalypse" by Adam Alasdair, a historian whose blog I have been checking into a few times recently.
While I don't personally believe we will have a zombie apocalypse, it is an intriguing topic to me at this current time.
In this video, Alasdair mentions that for people in some foreign countries (meaning, not the U.S.A.) firearms might be difficult to come across sometimes; whereas the U.S. is a "mecca for personal firearms". That got me to thinking--as many things usually do, thinking doesn't seem to be quite as dangerous for me as it is for some people--how truly horrible it would be to live in a country that didn't allow the personal possession of firearms.
Now, I realize that the purchase of particular firearms has recently been made very difficult, and the powers that be would rather we didn't have any at all--but for now, the Amendments are still in place--and as of this moment, it is still possible for American citizens to defend themselves.
Just another reason why I thank God He's still blessing America.
Respectfully,
BoondockAngel
8.4.13
Popular Prayer Devotionals
It may seem strange that I'm writing about something like "popular prayer devotionals". As a matter of fact, I've been doing a lot of strange writing as of late--but this newest trend of awesome inspirational prayer devotionals is the most important to me, as I am trying to learn how to effectively and fervently pray.
James 5:16b says that the "effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". Now there's no saying I'm a righteous [wo]man, but I'd like to get closer to the point. Christians are supposed to aspire to be like Christ (hence the title "Christian") and one way of doing that is by learning to pray like Jesus did. Matthew 6:9, in this manner, therefore, pray...
Yup. Prayer. The thing that most people use their inability to do so as an excuse to not talk to God--but personally, I'm getting tired of talking to God and feeling like I'm not getting results--hence, I am researching the best awesome inspirational prayer devotionals.
You can read all about my best devotional prayer books list here:
http://www.squidoo.com/awesome-inspirational-prayer-devotionals
James 5:16b says that the "effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". Now there's no saying I'm a righteous [wo]man, but I'd like to get closer to the point. Christians are supposed to aspire to be like Christ (hence the title "Christian") and one way of doing that is by learning to pray like Jesus did. Matthew 6:9, in this manner, therefore, pray...
Yup. Prayer. The thing that most people use their inability to do so as an excuse to not talk to God--but personally, I'm getting tired of talking to God and feeling like I'm not getting results--hence, I am researching the best awesome inspirational prayer devotionals.
You can read all about my best devotional prayer books list here:
http://www.squidoo.com/awesome-inspirational-prayer-devotionals
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