The United States of America. Land of the free, home of the brave. This is where I am blessed to live. I was born and raised on cattle and horse ranches. I lived a simple country life. It was a life learning to admire the beauty, grandeur, and awesome peacefulness of God’s creative hand.
We didn’t grow up admiring beautiful skyscrapers built by the hand of man. We grew up admiring majestic mountains created by the hand of God himself. We weren’t privileged to visit neighborhood museums where we could be awed by paintings of world renown artists. We were awed by the beauty of creeks, and rivers rushing over rocks, soothing us with stress relieving sounds more beautiful than any orchestra. We didn’t admire paintings of flowers, we were awed by wildflowers growing on a mountainside or prairie. We had the real thing. God said of flowers in the field, ” Even Solomon in all his glory, was not dressed like one of these!”
I was raised to love nature. I was raised to love the country, and the nation in which I lived. I was taught to admire our flag. It is not the physical flag itself that I honor, but what it stands for.
Old Glory, our flag; what does it stand for?
Old Glory
Thirteen stripes unfurl before me,
thirteen colonies for which they stand,
fought to give us independence
and thus founded this great land.
Red is for her valor,
white for hope and purity,
blue is for God’s heaven
justice, truth, sincerity.
The star, for aspirations,
one for each and every state,
join together as a union,
yet can govern their own fate.
Men have died to give me freedom.
Let me hold their memory high.
Let me feel their pride and honor
every time Old Glory flies!
Sheryl Craig Russell
backhomemt 
It’s a wonderful poem you’ve written, Sheryl, and I suspect more people than we might imagine agree with the sentiments you’ve expressed. Happy Independence Day — and happy celebrations!
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Thank you….and happy 4th to you as well!
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Amen-Amein!! ❤
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Reblogged this on backhomemt and commented:
Independence Day was yesterday. Because of Covid-19 many city sponsored fireworks celebrations were cancelled. Our country is at an unrest like I have never witnessed in my 69 years of life. There are violent protests across our nation and people burning our flag to supposedly make their point of view bring awareness to their cause.
But in my opinion they are making that divide wider, and stirring up anger in many hearts that were never there before. Our flag stands for sacrifice, courage, and bravery of all those who fought to bring our nation to what it is today; the home of the brave, land of the free..United States of America ! Although many public firework shows were canceled, our little town was aglow with every other house setting off their pride and respect for our Nation’s Independence Day Celebration! That is why I am resharing this blog post from a couple of years ago. There is love, respect, and meaning behind and for our flag. Don’t trample on, spit on, and burn Old Glory!
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