Happy Independence Day!

We are interrupting your regularly scheduled programming for today's holiday post! If you're here to read the next installment of the Sharm El Sheikh adventure, please check back tomorrow!

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This is one of my favorite holidays! I love everything about it! The food, the fireworks, the day off from work, the fun festivities with loved ones! But most of all, I love the reminder of the blessing it is to have been born an American!

And nothing embodies American pride as well as our national anthem, in my humble opinion! So in honor of the day I've listed the lyrics below. I'm sure that the first verse is familiar (it's the one that we sing at every sporting event, after all), but please take the time to read the other three, they're really good!

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The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

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On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution!
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
lyrics source

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So, in between your fireworks and BBQ's, take the time to remember all of the things that made this country great! And if you're so inclined, please join me in praying - today and every day - that our country would return to these values of faith and courage and honor!

Have a great 4th and a wonderful weekend!

His,

P.S. ~ Be sure to check back in tomorrow for the next installment in the Sharm El Sheikh story!