"Awake; awake from a deep sleep, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound. . ."

The title of this post comes from a scripture in the Book of Mormon, II Nephi 1:13. Most LDS people will recognize it, but regardless of your religious persuasion, the sentiments are timely and critical. Americans have been complacent for too long, and now it is time to awaken.

If you know much about American history and the tumultuous birth of this nation, it's hard to deny the hand of the Lord was in it--that we survived the Revolution at all, and that a passel of minds, such as those of our Founding Fathers, came to be on America's stage at the same time with such unprecedented vision.

Our forefathers freely acknowledged God's hand in America's formation. Said George Washington, "The man must be bad indeed, who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf."Said Patrick Henry, "The American Revolution was the grand operation, which seemed to be assigned by the Deity to the men of this age in our country."

These words from the Book of Mormon chill me now. Speaking of America, it calls this land "a land of promise," and "that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord." And then the responsibility of this great blessing is spelled out. "Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom [the Lord]shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity."

This land was set apart to be a special land of freedom and hope, and we who are blessed to live here are supposed to be stewards over these freedoms. But most of us fell asleep at our posts, and we're in serious trouble. . . After years of lazy, selfish slumber, current events aroused our curiosity, and we awoke like angry bears to find that much had happened while we were in political hibernation. And now we don't know how to turn things around, or who to trust anymore.

I'm trying to kindle patriotism in my family like never before. I want my grandchildren to love America in the old-fashioned flag-waving way. Let's take our families to the places where freedom was won. Let's take time at the dinner table to talk about the men and women who sacrificed so much to give us the liberty to think, and worship, and speak freely. Let's pray for the president to hear and see the vision the Founders envisioned for America.

I pray for our military and I'm grateful for them every day, but while their monumental sacrifice holds our foreign enemies at bay, we have plenty of troubles here at home as well, and I think we need much bigger help to win these battles we're facing now.

It's time to stop, drop and pray for this country like we've never prayed before.

But even prayer won't be enough. We need to change our hearts--to be people willing and able to hear the answers when they come, and willing to become what He asks us to be. And we need to be civil. We need to be righteous. We need to be Christlike.

We won't need to fear what foreign enemies can do to us if we tear ourselves apart and divide us as we are doing. Congress seems to be running in fast forward, our courts appear to be approaching a dangerous precipice, our taxes will soon rise so high people will flee the land for $greener$ pastures, and what will be left of the promise that once characterized this land?

The problems are becoming too diverse for man's wisdom. We need God. We need to pray.