Happy 4th of July

Photos from July 1 to celebrate the Wallace Kids' summer birthdays including Judy Wallace and Josie Wallace!

I love America. I love America. I love America. I can't help it. I am stirred always by the flag. I am stirred by the lives of those precious soldiers in Iraq. Their bravery, their skill, their sacrifice. I am stirred by the fact that there is evil in this world and that our country almost stands alone against it. There are not words sometimes to express it. I am filled with despair over the ignorance of the average American who does not understand what is at stake.

On a lighter note, I've reflected on 4th of Julys of my childhood...

On 4th of Julys in the '50s, often there was a family BBQ with relatives on my Dad's side who lived nearby. My parents would make homemade ice cream and then we would load up the station wagon and head to Orcutt park for fireworks. Then we would come home and have sparklers and "snakes" and the boys would light off cherry bombs. They got a LOT more out of the 4th than we girls did. One year, the next door neighbor boy Gregory McGillicuddy (or something like that!) blew the end of his finger off with a cherry bomb. The story goes that his finger was so grimy and dirty that the hospital sewed the end of it back on BACKwards! I remember the horror of it all. One 4th I had the flu and couldn't go with the family to the park. I was so sad. But my sweet Daddy cared and promised me something special when I got well. He followed through on his promise and took me out on a real date with he and I alone. I will never forget it. We went to a restaurant on Reseda Blvd and I had my first lobster tail that night. I had that lobster's shell in my treasure box until I headed for college! He bought me a corsage and I remember holding his strong hand as we walked along the boulevard and how filled my heart was with love for my Daddy.

But today, on the 4th, I'm a little lonely for my grandchildren, but glad my husband is home with me today, and I'm preferring to write or watercolor than to work! But Chuck Colson had a wonderful post on Breakpoint today. In his reflections on patriotism and the Christian he said,

"But the only place for expressing that allegiance is in the concrete loyalties God calls us to here on earth -- including loyalty to country. We can't love mankind in the abstract; we can only really love people in the particular, concrete relationships God has placed us in -- our family, our church, our community, our nation."

I am so thankful for this kind of allegiance--allegiance to the flag and our nation that I feel so strongly today of all days, and the allegiance I have to my faith in Christ, and my love for my wonderful family.