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My family is at the beach – a week we anticipate all year long!

My youngest daughter could only be here 2 days because of the children’s school. My son came a 4 days but had to get back to work. My eldest will leave tomorrow because she is training for a marathon and has to get back to do a “big” run. I’ll close the house up on Saturday and drive home.

And we will anticipate next year!

It is fun to be together. Lots of laughter and teasing. And time to talk – something we don’t often have in our busy schedules.

As is my practice, I get up each morning to walk the beach. I listen to praise music as I do. It’s thrilling to listen to Damaris Carbaugh sing In the Presence of Jehovah as the sun comes up on the horizon! Such glory! I do feel as if I am in His presence. (Of course I always am but at the beach listing to that song makes it so real.)

This year there aren’t many shells on the beach -I’m a big shell collector. Most this year are small, common and broken. Just like me! And I have noticed that at certain spots on the beach there are more shells. It must be some sort of Ocean Reef beyond the shore at that particular spot that spits them out.

Individually, they just sit in the sand alone. But when are washed up in an area where there are more shells – as a group – there is a beauty collectively as the water washes over them.

To me, that speaks of community. How we are much better in community than by ourselves. especially as the Holy Spirit washes over us! There is beauty when the family of God comes together. One day we will all gather on that distant shore and reflect Jehovah’s glory and presence.

But why wait ’til then. I want to reflect Him now where God has placed me in community.

My brother, Franklin, certainly stirred up a hornet’s nest! Let me tell you something – he’s been that was since he was a young boy – he could make all three of his older sisters cry at the same time and he’d be grinn’ like a Cheshire cat!

Be he asked for prayer for President Trump. The Bible says we are to pray for those in authority – that includes Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence, Mrs. Pelosi, Mr Schumer and Mr. McConnell. And any other leader you want to add. They could all use it.

We should be praying for Kim Jung Un, Isis and radical Islamists, too.

I have a sense that the weight of the Presidency is heavy on Mr. Trump. Perhaps he started out on a lark but it is much bigger than any man or his ego. It is a God-given authority and responsibility. I get the sense – not from anything I’ve heard or know – that it weighs heavy on him and getting heavier.

You may not like him but he’s the man God put in place for this time in our country.

The fact that he showed up at McClean Bible Church and wanted prayer, indicated that he is feeling that weight and he is looking in the right place. There were those that were critical of David Platt for praying for him. My goodness! When can a pastor not pray for someone that asks?

My father would have – and did many times for our presidents. Was he wrong for praying for G.H.W. Bush the night he declared war on Iraq? No. Mr Bush needed the comfort of and wisdom of prayer.

I do hope Mr. Trump seeks out Pastor Platt many times more. And let’s all rally around him. He carries a heavy load and we should be lifting him and all our leaders up in prayer. These are perilous times.

When was the last time you prayed for the President? Vice-President? Mrs. Pelosi? Mr. Schumer? Your Governor? Senator? Mayor?

Ruth will be the featured speaker for this annual July 3rd event in Staunton, VA.

STAUNTON, VA – Happy Birthday America is pleased to announce Ruth Graham will be the featured speaker at the Vespers Service on July 3 in Staunton’s Gypsy Hill Park.

“Transparent” is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham, founder and president of Ruth Graham Ministries. Daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham, she has family roots that run deep in Augusta County. Graham is the author of multiple books, including best-selling In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart (Zondervan 2004), in which she demonstrates her heart for those who face life’s difficult challenges. Her passion is to motivate people by God’s comfort and loving acceptance from a place of woundedness to a place of wholeness in Christ.

“For years my family and I have enjoyed the 4th of July celebrations at Gypsy Hill Park,” says Graham. “I appreciate the emphasis on our American values and traditions and the recognition that God is our foundation. In God we do trust and the Happy Birthday America events celebrate that fact.”

Wil and Langdon Reid of Wilson Fairchild were pleased to learn of Graham’s acceptance to appear at the Happy Birthday America event for 2019. “Ruth’s books and messages are always so relatable and inspiring,” says Langdon. “She has a wonderful gift in her speeches to motivate the positive in us and really shine for God. We are blessed to have her here on the 3rd.”

“We are honored and humbled that Ruth Graham accepted our invitation to speak at the Vesper service this year,” says Wil Reid. “She, like us, is carrying on a family tradition that has always represented the blessing of being an American.”

Graham is an experienced Bible teacher and conference speaker. She is a frequent interview subject in the news media having appeared on Good Morning America, Life Today, Fox and Friends, and The 700 Club.

Graham has three children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The free Happy Birthday America concert on July 4 will feature hometown headliners, Wilson Fairchild, (Langdon and Wil Reid) along with special guests The Malpass Brothers.

Happy Birthday America is a non-profit organization hosting the annual Independence Day festivities in Staunton’s Gypsy Hill Park. The event was created by The Statler Brothers in 1970 as a free, family-oriented, hometown celebration of July 4. Details may be found at www.happybirthdayamerica.org.