As we celebrate the 249^th birthday of our nation this Independence Day, the anniversary of the adoption of The Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, I thought I would share, in this column, the following words I had written on a couple of previous Independence Days, as well as words from today.

From 11 years ago, on July 4, 2014:

The signers of The Declaration of Independence did not take their words lightly, and they did not take lightly what their signatures meant. In the Declaration, they stated, “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” This was no ordinary document and no ordinary pledge, but these were no ordinary people. They knew that they might be sacrificing their fortunes and their lives, but they also knew that their honor was of greater significance. They had been patient, they wrote, in suffering “a long train of abuses and usurpations.” The king had a long “history of repeated injuries,” they wrote, and they stated a long list of offenses, including that his soldiers would commit crimes, even murder, and be protected by a mock trial; meanwhile, innocent people were “tried for pretended offences.” Citizens were also made to turn against their own fellow citizens, “to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.” The Declaration continued, “In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” They wrote these words, knowing that they would need “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” These forefathers had backbone; they were not spineless men. They were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to stand up for what is right, and to stand up for freedom. May we appreciate that sacrifice.

From nine years ago, on July 4, 2016:

This holiday is much more than a day off from work. Most of us Americans are patriotic, and we love our country, and the 4th of July is a time to celebrate our country’s independence and freedom, with food, fun, fireworks, and most definitely the Flag.

I love and respect our American Flag, and I place my right hand over my heart at all of the proper times, including when The Pledge of Allegiance is recited, and when The National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, is sung or played, and when “Taps” is played at a funeral, and when the Flag passes by in a procession or is raised or lowered — not because I have to, but because I want to, because I respect what that flag represents.

I appreciate the current members of our military as well as our veterans, those who served and returned home and those who died while serving, because our freedom does not exist without those men and women, and I do not take lightly their service and their sacrifice.

I love history, especially American history, and it excites me to go to historic sites across our nation, including those sites connected to the American Revolution and our nation’s fight for independence, but also all historic sites connected to all of our nation’s history.

I love our country: the South, where I was born and raised, and also the American West and the Midwest and the North. I love all of the mountains, and deserts, every river, every ocean, all of the scenic beauty across this great nation of ours, from the Grand Canyon to Niagara Falls and so much more. I love our national parks and state parks, and I love nature’s beauty and magnificence from coast to coast.

I love the American spirit, that spirit that says we will fight for what’s right and we will selflessly serve others and we will use our ingenuity to build and create and invent.

Most of all, I love our God and the Biblical principles upon which our nation was founded. Our nation was indeed founded as a Christian nation – our monuments and our memorials and our nation’s historic documents and the words of our nation’s forefathers attest to that fact. I want our nation to continue to be one nation under God.

The 4th of July, Independence Day, is one of my favorite holidays, and, when I watch fireworks, which I love, I recall the words to our National Anthem, from a poem written by Francis Scott Key originally entitled “Defense of Fort McHenry” and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”: “and the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there. O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Here’s to hoping that we keep alive that patriotic pride, and our love for God and country, and the American spirit, all of which will continue to keep us the land of the free and the home of the brave.