At church we were asked to speak on reverence....mine was specifically on reverence for our country. Here's the talk. :-)
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Good morning! From the moment we gave our last talks in our
old ward, I knew we were headed for another opportunity to speak very
soon. Clearly, today’s the day. As is tradition, I’ll go ahead and briefly
introduce the Jacobsen family. I was
born and raised in the Pacific Northwest the 6th of 8 kids and Reed
was raised here in Las Vegas the 3rd of 5 kids. Through a series of life events we ended up
at the same Young Single Adult barbecue in Olympia, WA. That day I was crabby and just wanted to hang
out with my friends. But Reed’s brother
(who I knew already) came up to me and said I had to meet his brother. I declined…until I caught a glimpse of the
most handsome man I had ever seen kicking around a soccer ball across the field. It was Reed!
Well, I couldn’t get across the park fast enough! We had our first date on Valentine’s Day 2011
and were married on Cinco De Mayo in the Seattle Temple a little over a year
later. Since then we’ve been busy doing
school and work. I’m a surgical nurse
(poking people with my needles is kind of my thing) and Reed’s a computer
genius. We had pla ns to move away from
the dreary rain of the Pacific Northwest but kept getting told by Heavenly
Father that we couldn’t move yet. Late
last year we got the yucky news that Reed’s dad (who still lives in Vegas) has
pancreatic cancer. Knowing what we know
about that particular kind of cancer we realized what Heavenly Father had been
making us wait for and we got the official word to move here in order to spend
time with Reed’s dad. I was extremely
reluctant to move to Vegas because of the heat and it took quite a bit of
pushing from Heavenly Father…unfortunately I am one of His very stubborn
children. So I got a job, Reed finished
school, and we packed up our things to move.
I was very nervous about joining a new ward being that the last time I
was new in a ward was when I was 11 years old but I had nothing to be nervous
about…everybody has been so welcoming and friendly and we’re super happy to be
part of this ward.
Last weekend we
celebrated a defining moment in our country’s history….Independence Day. Reed and I enjoyed festivities that I’m sure
many other families can relate to. We
swam in the pool, ate more food than is good for us, ran around playing tag and
other yard games with family members, and sat in the cul-de-sac watching
fireworks go off around us. I took a
moment during the fireworks to think about the day and what it meant to
me. If it hadn’t been for the Founding
Fathers pushing through ridiculous amounts of adversity and having that vision
for this country’s future then we might not have been able to enjoy such simple
pleasures as family barbecues or such monumental things as being able to
worship freely and make our own decisions.
I listened to the pop of the fireworks and thought about the
Revolutionary War and the thousands of people that lost their lives fighting
for freedom and the miracles that it took for our poor, struggling country to
win that war. I watched the United
States play in the World Cup and saw these young men overwhelmed with emotion
as they stood in front of our flag and belted out the words to our National
Anthem…heads held high and tears filling their eyes. During that raucous 4th of July
evening I was filled with a sense of awe for my country’s history.
You can probably guess
by now that the topic of my talk today revolves around our country…in
particular reverence for our country and the flag that represents it. Maybe it’s just me but it can be easy to get
a little lackadaisical in our respect and reverence for our country. Perhaps we disagree with certain political
events. Perhaps we’ve let everyday tasks
and stresses get in the way of remembering things that tried the strength of
our nation and increased our unity. Perhaps
we hear people doubting the inspiration of our Founding Fathers. Perhaps we just take a wonderful thing for
granted. (I know I’m guilty of that one) Thankfully we do have the 4th of
July set aside as a day to remember again and renew our admiration for the
people who sacrificed to establish our country and the people who are
sacrificing today to defend our country.
One of my favorite
historical figures is George Washington.
When I was a little girl I saw a book on the shelf that was about the
Founding Fathers who came to President Wilford Woodruff and told him that they
needed their temple ordinances completed.
I thought that was the coolest thing ever….President Washington asked to
be baptized and receive his temple covenants.
Ever since then he’s been my favorite.
So when I started research for this talk I figured George Washington
would be a good place to start. So I
typed his name into lds.org and came up with so many interesting articles about
him and the early days of our country. Listen
to some of the wonderful and inspiring things that I read.
From
a 1976 issue of the Ensign. The
creation of such a government was a necessary prerequisite to the restoration
of the gospel. There would have been little point in the Lord’s establishing
his church among people who were not free to accept it. For a thousand years he
had carefully prepared the world for the restoration of the gospel, and the
American Constitutional Convention was one of the final events in that
preparation.
The
writing of the Constitution was a miracle. But the miracle was not that the
Lord found fifty-five men who understood so well the principles of a
representative government. It is unlikely that any one of those men could have
written the Constitution as it was in its finished form. The miracle lies in
how that great document was produced: The spirit of revelation is the spirit of
peace, and there was a prevailing spirit of peace among them. It was a miracle
that these men—who represented extremely diverse political philosophies and
who, in some instances, almost hated each other—sat during that sweltering
summer to talk and compromise until they had written a document which is an
expression of what the Lord called “just and holy principles.” They created a
government so well balanced that it prevented any one of its social or
geographical factions from getting dominance over the other, a government so
strong that it could protect the individual rights of all its citizens and yet
so weak that it could not invade their private lives or infringe upon the
exercise of their free agency.
From the Doctrine and
Covenants section 101 verses 77-80
77 According
to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be
established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all
flesh, according to just and holy principles;
78 That
every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according
to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be
accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.
80 And
for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands
of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by
the shedding of blood.
From
George Washington’s address at the end of the Revoluationary War. I now make it my
earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside,
in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to
cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a
brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the
United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the
field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all
to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity,
humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the
Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose
example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
President Woodruff
stated… “those men who laid the
foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of
Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of
the earth. They were choice spirits, not wicked men. General Washington and all
the men who labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord.
These words are
testaments to the sacred and divine destiny of this country. We are so privileged to be living in such a
place that has been chosen and prepared by Heavenly Father to be the only place
where the gospel could be restored and not be removed. It’s a place where we can practice our agency
while enjoying the safety and protection that the Constitution carefully spells
out. It is our right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. We need to
make it a priority to respect and revere this wonderful country in everything
that we do.
President Ezra Taft
Benson gave us counsel on how we can do this.
He says that there are four actions that we, as grateful Latter Day
Saints, should incorporate into our lives.
First, to have faith in God.
Second, strengthen home and family ties.
Third, to work, be thrifty and self-sustaining. And fourth, preserve the freedoms granted to
us by God. Let’s examine these four
actions.
First, to have faith in
God. President Washington stated that
“the success, which has hitherto attended our united efforts we owe to the
gracious interposition of Heaven”.
Additionally President Benson stated that “we, too, will need this same
faith in the critical days ahead”. The
nice thing about building faith is that it can be compared to building
muscle. Building muscle takes regular,
consistent work in order to become stronger and then it requires consistent
practice in order to maintain the muscle.
When I broke my arm as a teenager I had nice, strong muscles from farm
work. After six weeks of being in a
cast, I didn’t even recognize my arm…the muscle had wasted away and I could
barely use it. How can we build our
faith muscle and not let it become weak through lack of usage? We build our faith by praying to Heavenly
Father regularly and frequently. Your
personal relationship will grow and you will become reliant on the Lord. Maintaining our faith muscle is done by
keeping the commandments, staying true to our covenants with Heavenly Father,
and studying the scriptures. Even the
smallest effort will make a big difference in your growth and development of
faith.
Second, strengthen home
and family ties. President Benson tells
us that our forebears left a “posterity of legacy of something more enduring
than physical comforts. They left us a
hearthside where parents were close by their children, where daily devotions,
family prayer, scripture reading, and the singing of hymns was
commonplace. Families worked,
worshipped, played and prayed together.
Family home evening, now a once-a-week practice among the Saints, was to
our pioneer forebears almost a nightly occurrence. Can we not see in their examples the
solutions to problems threatening families today? Were we to pattern our homes accordingly,
family unity and solidarity, crowned with love and happiness, would
prevail”. I come from a large family
where we frequently had disagreements and problems. However, I know we had daily scripture study
and prayer as a family, we sang hymns in the car, we worked on the farm
together, etc. Through the efforts of my
parents to implement those simple family activities I feel like my siblings and
I have a sense of unity that we cherish now that we’re in adulthood. That’s not to say that we never act like
fighting five year olds at family reunions but the underlying feeling is that
we love and care for each other.
President Benson did not ask parents to do anything difficult or
expensive…merely to read scriptures, pray together, and work together.
Third, to work, be
thrifty, and self-sustaining. President Benson tells us that “man is commanded
of God to live by the sweat of his brow, not someone else’s”. Then he directs us to President Brigham
Young’s words. “To be slothful,
wasteful, lazy and indolent is unrighteous.
Learn to sustain yourselves, lay up grain and flour, and save it against
a day of scarcity. If you cannot obtain
all you wish for today, learn to do without.
Be prompt in everything, and especially to pay your debts”. These prophets spoke plainly about our
responsibility to work hard. I look at
my dad as an example of hard work. He
did his best every day and then would come home to eight kids and then he would
work through the evening helping us with our homework and directing family
matters. He’s never been greatly
rewarded monetarily for his efforts but Heavenly Father has always blessed him
and the family to have enough to cover our needs.
Fourth and finally,
preserve the freedoms granted to us by God.
President Benson tells us that our forebears “knew that the foundation
of this nation was spiritual, that the source of all our blessings was
God. They knew that this nation can only
prosper in an atmosphere of freedom.
Those intrepid forebears knew that their righteousness was the
indispensable ingredient to liberty, that this was the greatest legacy they
could pass on to future generations.
They would counsel us to preserve that liberty by alert
righteousness. Righteousness is always
measured by a nation or an individual keeping the commandments of God”. I like that phrase “alert righteousness”. When I think of being alert I think of my cat
who would sit straight up and become rigid and focused whenever I would open a
can of tuna fish. She never took her eyes of that tuna can and every fiber in
her body was focused on that can. She
was, of course, rewarded with a tuna treat.
That is how I envision alert righteousness….that we are so focused on
being righteous that we are blessed with the special treat of preserved liberty
in our country and homes.
Through those four
simple actions, we can develop and maintain a habit of reverence and respect
for our country and the symbols that represent it. That way, every time we see our flag or hear
our national anthem, we are able to stand straight and with warmth in our
hearts feel that we are truly showing gratitude for this great country we have
been blessed with.
I am grateful for
Heavenly Father and His great plan that allows us to practice agency and prove
ourselves to Him.
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