I “love” Jackie’s chicken curry dinner.

I “love” pepperoni and Italian sausage pizza.

I “love” German chocolate cake . . . and sour cream raisin pie.

I “love” reading, and traveling, and heading off on exciting new adventures, and I love many thousands of other things . . .

Most everyone would probably say something similar.

But, WHAT IS “LOVE?”

A group of children was asked this question, “What is love?” . . . and the children responded with the most thoughtful and insightful answers, as only children can do.

Billy, age 4, said, “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”

Terri, age 4, offered that “Love is when you go out to eat, and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”

Chrissy, age 6, confided that “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a kid you hate.”

If I were to offer my own two cents, I would say this:

“Love is committing everything — giving away (“losing”) everything — for the benefit of those you hold most dear.”

Love is an active, ongoing commitment — a promise to keep with the Maker of All Things — to be always faithful (“semper fidelis“) until the moment of your own death, when you breathe your last breath, and feel your last heartbeat, and pass from this world of time into eternity. Soldiers in war do this all the time, often, amazingly, without the least hesitation at all.

Love is more than “being willing“ to commit everything.

Love is really committing everything — no turning back.

On July 4, 1776, fifty-six men signed their names to the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.

They stated, clearly and boldly in writing, “. . . with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Their commitment — of love — meant that if the British ever captured them, if their fight for independence did not succeed, they would be hanged as traitors to the Crown of England.

These 56 men absolutely committed their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor — no turning back — to the independence of a brand new country — the United States of America.

Now, so many years later, their message continues to live and resonate within me. I stand silently, smiling quietly to myself, honoring the 56. The air inside me stops. My Lord, look what You can do!

In every ordinary day, we are blessed to experience, and share with each other, the most loving commitments of our being — our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Moral victory requires choice. Choice requires freedom. Freedom that values moral choice is the greatest of all responsibilities.

Every ordinary day, we are called upon to start strong, to finish strong, to know for sure, all along the way, without any doubt, that the values we impart to our children will become their inner voice.

It is within our power to be brave, to be honorable, to be loving. Every instance of our power and will is sufficient to bring us to the point of our destiny, but no further. Ultimately, it is the Maker of All Things, Himself, who decides the ultimate destiny of all life.

Each of us is responsible for our own choices, not for the outcomes of our choices. The ultimate outcome of every human choice is in the hands of God. Through the favor of His grace alone is our ultimate salvation.

In every ordinary day, we are called upon to honor the Sovereign Lord of All Creation with the most profound respect, regarding Him with the most profound reverence. Some of us are meant to know this. Some of us are not.

So, this day, I speak for myself, and I ask my family, and my friends . . .

Who do you love? What do you fight for?

What are you willing to sacrifice for victory? What are you willing to lose in defeat?

On this 4th of July, as you consider, be blessed in everything you do, be blessed in everyone you know, be blessed in every heartbeat and breath that honors Him from whom all blessings flow. 

Happy Independence Day, America. 

All the best, always. — Don

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The Independence Day of the United States of America is celebrated on July 4, the day Congress approved the wording of the Declaration.

July 3, 2020 – The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of American Democracy. Could it contain hidden messages from our nation’s forefathers intended to be discovered years later? In Season 2, Episode 2, “Declaration of Independence.”