"Blessed Is The Nation"...July 4th, 2015.......

As we celebrate this 4th of July 2015 let us ever be mindful of the great country we live in, (if America is your home).  In this great country,  my family was given opportunities to live and thrive in freedom. I am ever grateful for the blessing I received when I was born in America to Italian-American parents. My grandparents came from Italy and they crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the hope they would have a better life for themselves and future generations and that has come to be. Thank You Lord!
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Ps. 33:12). Our nation is in need of blessings, so that we can continue to thrive and grow.  God has to remain part of the equation. The founding fathers of this great land always believed that God would greatly bless us and that too has come to be. But to forget God or ignore God's power, goodness and generosity would be opening ourselves to more problems than we need at this time in history or any time for that matter.
And so I pray on this Independence Day that we will continue to recognize the place God has in our democracy and to give God glory and praise for this great country of America and also remember the great Americans who have gone before us, who have helped maintain our freedom,  peace and greatness. God Bless America!
NJA

Abraham Lincoln  (16th President of the United States) ....
" We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."  ((1863)