There is no better day than the 4th of July to celebrate our independence. When we think about independence, we think about different things. We think about all of the things we are free to do. We are blessed to live in a country where we do have the freedom to worship in the way we choose, say what we want to say, and love whom we want to love. Our freedom and independence has been fought for for centuries, and many brave men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice to insure that we have the freedom to live the life that we choose to live.

Many of us have grown up in a world where our freedom has always existed, so we do not understand what it feels like not to be free. However, if we would all stop and think about it for a minute, we would realize that there have been times in our lives when we have not been free to live our lives the way we choose. We have all lost our independence at one time or another. We have fought to regain our independence and sometimes we have won and sometimes we have lost.

We can all have the kind of freedom and independence that will never fade away. True independence and freedom comes from surrendering to God and letting Him lead the way. We are all traveling down the path of life, and we all fight to stay on the path. The path is bumpy and often takes drastic and dangerous turns. We encounter obstacles along the way and often do not know which way to go. God wants to lead us down the path. He wants to be our guide, and He wants to lead us to the things that we are meant to find in this life. When we spend our lives fighting against God’s will and His perfect timing, we will never feel free. We will always be fighting a losing battle and we will not have peace in our lives.

We all need to work harder to submit to God’s will and allow Him to lead our steps and illuminate our path. He can and will do that for all of us. All we have to do is surrender to Him and simply follow Him. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? However, it is one of the hardest things that any of us will do. We often say that God is in control and that we want His will for our lives, but we spend much of our energy trying to figure out God’s plan for our lives, and we spend a lot of time trying to make things work out the way we think they should work out. If we all could just give in and let God do the navigating, we would not have to worry about anything.

God will never leave us or forsake us, and He will never lead us in the wrong direction. Surrendering to God means that we have faith that He will lead us to the things that we need in His perfect timing. He will not get us there too early, and He will not get us there too late. He will get us there at the perfect time when we need it the most.

Surrendering to God takes practice. We are all so accustomed to making our own way and to always being in control of what we do that it is hard for us to surrender to God. It is something that we will have to strive to do everyday. It will come when we communicate with God and do our best to discern His will for our lives. It will come when we are obedient to God, even when we do not understand why He is having us do a certain thing or leading us in a certain direction. When we truly surrender to God, we will have peace like we have never had before, and our lives will seem so much easier. I am not saying that our lives will be perfect, but much of the stress and worry that we carry around with us will be lessened when we truly surrender to Him.

So, let’s all work at surrendering to God and letting Him be in control. Let’s all communicate with God everyday and allow Him to reveal His plans for our lives in His timing. Let’s all enjoy the independence and freedom that we will feel by allowing God to take the reins, and let’s continue to follow Him where He leads. It will be difficult to submit to God’s will in everything in our lives, but once we do it, we will have more peace and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

We hope all of you have a peaceful 4th of July filled with fun, family, and good memories!

Dan, Jeff, Peyton, & Paycee