{"id":1430,"date":"2023-07-04T19:23:47","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T19:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/?p=1430"},"modified":"2023-07-04T19:35:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T19:35:58","slug":"celebrating-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/?p=1430","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we celebrate the beginnings of America, I feel blessed to live in a land where we aspire to certain truths. \u00a0The truths which we hold to be self-evident. \u00a0I know America has failed at times to live up to her own standards, but that does not change the actual fact that we are all created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among which are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. \u00a0We have to keep trying to live up to these truths.<\/p>\n

As we consider how to do this, it may be helpful to go to an old Jewish source, the book of Leviticus. \u00a0Leviticus 19:15 states,<\/p>\n

“Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor OR favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.”<\/p>\n

To judge your neighbor fairly is an honorable goal! \u00a0We should avoid showing favoritism to the great, the rich, the beautiful, the famous. \u00a0\u00a0 Avoiding partiality to the poor seems an odder statement and difficult to understand. \u00a0 But does showing unfair partiality to those who are poor, either in resources, talents, work ethic, or some other way really help them? \u00a0Does lowering a standard in an effort to make everyone feel good give a benefit to anyone in the long run? \u00a0 Are we not, in doing this, ignoring or holding back some of those who \u00a0struggle hard to achieve success?<\/p>\n

The standard should be the same for all. \u00a0We should not ignore the shortcomings of the great because we want to curry favor, and we should never ignore giving honor to those who struggle against fewer resources to achieve success.<\/p>\n

Perverting justice never really helps anyone……..it hurts us all.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of problems reflected in our American institutions and we can do better. \u00a0But we need to remember that these problems only reflect our own hearts. \u00a0That is where our real problems lie. \u00a0That is where we need change. \u00a0 Our trouble start with ourselves.<\/p>\n

So on this 4th of July, let us reflect on our great country and its challenges but then let us turn and look at our own hearts. \u00a0How do we sometimes pervert justice to those around us in our individual and personal lives?<\/p>\n

If we change, our country will change. \u00a0If individuals change, our institutions will change.<\/p>\n

May the Lord bless you this holiday and all the days ahead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we celebrate the beginnings of America, I feel blessed to live in a land where we aspire to certain truths. \u00a0The truths which we hold to be self-evident. \u00a0I know America has failed at times to live up to her own standards, but that does not change the actual fact that we are all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,57],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-freedom","tag-july-4th"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WySj-n4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}