by Linda “iLham” Barto
“The believing men and believing women are protectors of one another. They enlist righteousness and forbid evil, pray regularly and practice charity, and obey Allah and His messenger. Allah will show mercy to them. Allah is truly the Almighty, the Perfectly Wise” (Surah 9: 71).
As a veteran of the United States Air Force and the North Carolina Air National Guard, I feel blessed to have been free and able to participate in service to the United States of America and in safeguarding the freedoms Americans enjoy. All American citizens must unite to keep the USA worthy of the sacrifices that service members have made and are making. We must enlist righteousness and forbid evil.
The American way of life is suitable only for a moral and just society; it is totally inadequate for a society in which citizens make selfish, corrupt, and irresponsible choices in their lives. Freedom without integrity enslaves us to a false freedom rampant in immorality and injustices. Integrity, ethics, and morality are key ingredients to success in American liberty. If we become slaves to sin, we live in bondage, and the freedom we enjoy is squandered. Freedom without integrity is not sustainable. If we use our freedom for self-indulgence, it is to the detriment of the entire society. We all must seek to use wisdom and honor in our daily lives.
Our liberties give us the freedom to make choices, many of which are not healthy or moral. You are free to smoke, drink, curse, view pornography, commit adultery, and engage in other unhealthy vices, but these things will enlist you into slavery. In fact, you are going to be a slave to something, but you have the freedom to choose your form of slavery. You must choose whether you are going to be a slave to sin or a slave to God. Slavery to sin keeps a person on a path to self-destruction and discontentment. Slavery to God and His commandments gives a person freedom from sin and the freedom to live in spiritual peace and harmony.
We can honor those who sacrificed for our freedoms by using freedoms and rights responsibly and by teaching our children the value of responsibility in freedom. God has given us standards by which to discern right from wrong. He has told us to enlist the right and forbid the wrong. We must obey God’s laws and develop healthy consciences in order to utilize our freedoms in a responsible manner. In order to develop a healthy conscience, one must be active in promoting positive energies around oneself. For example, you must use the best words in speech that is kind and respectful instead of speech that is filled with cursing and vulgarity. If you watch movies with no regard to the amount of profanity or immoral activities they espouse, you are actively sending negative energies into your environment, and negative energies are what will be returned to you. Your enslavement to sin is going to reap for you the evil consequences of those negative energies.
Let freedom ring in every good choice that we make whether it is in our personal lives or in our communal lives. Let freedom ring in our hearts and souls as we live lives in total submission and obedience to God. Great is His faithfulness! May the whole world know of His awesome deeds! May the whole world see that we celebrate our freedom as people in service to the One God to whom we must give all gratitude, honor, and glory for the blessings we enjoy in this great and wonderful nation. May we strive to be more deserving of His love and grace and mercy! Amen.