Independence is what we all want…until we have it.

Independent means self-governing, free from the control of others, SELF RELIANT.

Ask any teenager and they cannot WAIT to gain their independence.

Ask a starving college student about their independence, and they might wish to be back under the protective roof of childhood again. Some return home and remain in adolescent limbo, regardless of their chronological age. Give me the starving college student who quietly eats his/her Top Ramen and soldiers on. That is the one who has inherited the spirit of those brave men who put pen to paper on the document declaring their independence from King George’s tyranny on July 4, 1776.

We have glamorized the moment, but it was a sober and chilling thing to put your name on a document that would surely bring the might of the British Empire to bear on the foundling colonies, and to the doorstep of your own family in particular.

They were fully aware as they pledged their support to the declaration that it could cost them everything and for some, it did.

They realized that freedom is worth the labor and sacrifice and they personally stood up and courageously declared it.

Only the brave can be free.

It takes guts to say I will force myself to be self-governing – responsible for my actions.

It takes guts to say that I will not be controlled by others but I will take full responsibility for the choices that I make.

It takes guts to say I will force myself to be self-reliant – responsible for my poverty or wealth based on my own initiative and actions.

Look closely at the Declaration of Independence today.

Remind yourself what manhood looked like in 1776.

Then vow that you too will rise up, stand up, and put your name to the vow to independence as God intended.

Let’s get brave again…….. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Galatians 5:1, New International Version (NIV): “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”