Happy 4th of July!!
Each night after dinner this week,
we've sat out on the porch (new porch swing!)
to run around the yard with the sparklers (and fireflies!)
to celebrate our beautiful country and the hot summer nights.
It reminds me of a favorite book I read as a child called "Summer".
The words described my life as a child and the life
my own children are enjoying:
"We like the things
that summer brings.
It brings us fireworks
late at night,
all red and yellow,
blue and white.
They go up high.
They are such fun!
Look! Look!
There goes another one.
When we go out on summer nights,
we see the fireflies with their lights.
We catch them.
They will give us light
to find our way back home at night."
Spiritual Enlightenment: Preserving Agency, Protecting Religious Freedom
"As we walk the path of spiritual liberty in these last days,
we must understand that the faithful use of our agency
depends upon our having religious freedom.
We already know that Satan does not want this freedom to be ours.
He attempted to destroy moral agency in heaven,
and now on earth he is fiercely undermining, opposing,
and spreading confusion about religious freedom—what it is
and why it is essential to our spiritual life and our very salvation.
Some are offended when we bring our religion into the public square,
yet the same people who insist that their viewpoints and actions
be tolerated in society are often very slow to give that same tolerance
to religious believers who also wish their viewpoints
and actions to be tolerated.
The general lack of respect for religious viewpoints
is quickly devolving into social and political
intolerance for religious people and institutions."
