Happy Birthday America!

Happy Birthday America! It's the 4th of July and today is a day that as Americans we should celebrate our great country and remember how blessed we are to be here. Whether you are swimming in the pool, eating tasty hot dogs off the barbecue grill or watching the fireworks, remember there is more to this day this just fun activities with your family - it's about our freedom and the birth of our wonderful nation. Let's be thankful to our forefathers who fought for this great land.

In honor of the 4th of July, why not do something positive before heading out to that 4th of July family picnic. There are plenty of simple things that you can do that won't take much time, such as:

Send our troops a Camouflage Bible. Since our military troops are a large part of the reason we enjoy the freedom we have, let's pay them back by supplying them with a great gift of God's. A Bible will be a source of inspiration and will be a blessing to them. To donate, visit the International Bible Society Store.

Write a letter to our the President or other government official thanking them for the great job they do. Remember, even if you do not agree with all their decisions and policies, they are responsible for keeping our nation civilized and free. You can't argue that they are doing that and for that we should be thankful. For information on how to contact the White House, visit The White House's homepage.

Clean up this great land. Every where you go your see some form of trash sent out of car windows by a careless person. There doesn't have to be a formal program that you have to join to go out with a trash bag and pick up trash. Pick an area in your hometown like a park or busy street with a lot of debris and decide how much you are going to clean. Then get trash bags, gloves, and a large stick to help you pick up things without touching it. You'll be doing the land of America a great favor!

Have a blessed and safe 4th of July!

Wishing you "Blessings from Above,"

Denise

Top Nine Blessings to Be Thankful for as an American - Celebrating the Birth of Our Nation

Being that this week concludes with the Celebration of the birth of the United States of America or 4th of July for short, I'd like to dedicate all posts this week to this great land.

Today's focus is, "Top Nine Blessings to Be Thankful for as an American." Most of us take these things for granted not realizing that these conveniences and pleasures are not experienced by so many around the world. Don't take this as a criticism! This is meant to more of an eye opening post about the things we are so fortunate to have here in America.

Top Nine Blessings to Be Thankful for as an American:

• Hospitals filled with life saving equipment, medication, and educated people to help us, all within a short drive of our home. When I went to the British Virgin Islands I hoped that I wouldn't have a medical emergency (thankfully I didn't!) The hospital was small and antiquated looking not to mention it wasn't around the corner.
• Doctors with specialities of all types that ease our pain, resolve our medical issues, and help us to take preventative action for our health. Did you know in many countries who either don't have dentists or can't afford to go walk around without most of their teeth because they've rotted and fallen out? Not only does that look unattractive, but it makes it difficult to eat. You don't see that often in the USA because of our educated dentists.
• Prescriptions with easy access. If you don't have any medical problems, you don't give much thought to this, but if you do, you come to appreciate how the quality of life can be improved with the use of prescriptions (even with those pesky side effects!) In America, we have pharmacies on every corner, in our supermarkets, and available through the mail. And although we may complain about the co-pays, we'd hesitate if stopped to investigate the total cost which is picked up by insurance if we have it.
• Food everywhere. I wrote a post last week on how fortunate we are to have access to good food every where we turn. Check out my post on Eatin' Good.
• Little luxuries. I have a huge armoire filled with jewelry - costume and real gold. Between my husband and I, we have four cars, one of them being a Corvette (my favorite!) We have tons of clothes, nice home decor, TV's, computers, other technology gadgets, and on and on and on. My point? I am not trying to brag - I just want us to realize that at any given time, we can go to one of numerous stores and get what we want. That's no so for everyone in the world.
• Freedom. This is one of our most precious possession which we'll talk about later this week.
• Civil order. For the most part, we can walk the streets of our country without feeling too much concern. Mostly we have civil order on our streets thanks to the thousands of police officers that keep it that way. There are no bombers or non-stop shooting on our streets. Yes, you have the criminals who make waves for the rest of us, but for the most part we are a civil nation.
• Fancy homes. How fortunate we are to have the protection of our beautiful homes, filled with luxuries and modern conveniences like air conditioning, plumbing, and electricity. Even the most basic of homes are still much better than the living conditions for some around the world.
• Education. Our children get a great education these days, learning things I never learned or didn't learn until high school (and I am only 33!) and we're fortunate to have community colleges, colleges, universities, and trade schools to better ourselves and our careers.

What am I forgetting? There are so many more things big and small and we'll talk about them as we lead up to the 4th of July. Feel free to share your own thoughts on blessings we enjoy in the U.S.

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Wishing you "Blessings from Above,"

Denise