The American Promise

An ancient Book of Mormon prophet name Ether had several good and important things to say about the land that is now called North America, including this following verse:

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written. -Ether 2:12

 As we in the United States celebrate our relative freedom, we should remember that it took a great blessing from God to make that freedom possible, and that we need to remember and thank Him, or we'll lose it. At its foundation, America was a Christian nation, and while it had (and, arguably, still has) a long way to go before living up to the ideal Christian standard, it is still a good nation, and to the extent that it is good, it will be blessed. It is my hope that America will maintain high moral standards and thus retain the blessings of the Lord. Of course, we have lots of room for improvement, and the trend doesn't always seem to be taking us in that direction, but one can always hope. And, no matter what anyone else is doing, one can always help. Others may not choose to live by high moral standards, but we can, and the more righteous people there are in a given nation, the more blessed that nation will be.

We can help defend the freedom God gave us by serving the God who gave us that freedom.