America is in trouble. I guess you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out by now.
How do we get out of debt America? Well, the most simplest way of doing that is to spend less and make more. Cut down on your expenses and increase your income. There! That was easy. What’s all the fuss about?
What? You say your husband just got laid off. Your wife just lost that part time job that she had to help, your already struggling income. Your daughter needs braces. The furnace just went out. I see what you mean. Just about everything that could go wrong usually does when we least need them too. That’s Murphy’s law.
If we only had a system that would do all the figuring out for us. Tell me what to pay and when to pay it. Make room for the adjustments that come in life, and keep me on the right track to financial freedom. Yes to becoming debt free. If only there was a system to do all that and more. I could get out of debt. America, could get out of debt.
Just think where you would be right now if you didn’t have a mortgage. Just think where America would be right now, if we all didn’t have a mortgage. I mean, no more mortgage payments! Am I dreaming?
Most people would say that you are dreaming. Never could that happen in my lifetime.
What if I could tell you that there is such a system. Yes, there is such a sytem that could pay your existing mortgage off in one third to one half the time, then what your doing right now. What if you could pay your mortgage off in ten years, and save 50,000 dollars in interest. 50,000 dollars that you could put into your savings account, not the banks. Would that be something that would interest you?
United First Financial has brought just such a system to the market. As a matter of fact, it has been here for about three years, and has won some very prestigious awards from the financial community.
First award;
Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, for 2008, for Financial services, for the Utah region.
Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine’s Editors Choice Award for 2008.
Success from Home magazine, February edition, the whole edition dedicated to the Money Merge Account system from United First Financial.
On the cover of Brooker Banker, Mortgage Planner, and True Wealth magazines.
Want to see more? Click on the picture below for a short video video.
These are all leading publications, where people look to find out the new and cutting edge to get the jump and lead the way for these industries, and what is happening is that a new way of leading people out of the debt trap has come to the surface. An award winning system, that many are trying to imitate, but can’t duplicate the results, that the Money Merge Accountsystem can. The experts in the financial community can see this, how about you?
Let us take a closer look at this Money Merge Account system, and see why did it get so many awards?
Do you have a GPS system on your car? It tells you how to get from point a, to point b, the fastest way. But, what if there is a road block ahead, or you make a wrong turn? Now what do you do? Well, it reroutes you. It calculates your information into the system and comes up with a new route that will get you to your destination. You got off course, and it put you right back on.
That is exactly what the Money Merge Account system does. It goes through about a hundred pages of math algorithms, every time you make a financial move. It guides you through the maze and brings you to your final destination, which is zero debt. You don’t have to decipher which way to go, it does it for you.
Can you do this?
With the Money Merge Account system, there is no need to refinance, and your payments don’t change. You pays your bills every month like you always do. There is very little to no change to your every day life.
Your financial map is right before your eyes, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Your furnace goes out, you want to buy that big screen TV, you want to take that dream vacation, it will show you what kind of impact, on your financial future, those decisions will have.
To find out if you qualify for the Money Merge Accountsystem, you have to have an analysis done. No social security number and no account numbers are necessary. Just a snap shot of your financial condition, that goes through the system, and comes out with a date when you will be debt free.
My wife and I are on the program, and we have 5.5 years left to pay on all our debts. 5.5 years and we will be debt free.
My most recent client had 28 years left on his mortgage. He will have that mortgage paid off in 5.2 years, and he will save over 120,000 dollars in interest, that he will never have to pay the bank. And if this client follows all the prompts of the Money Merge Account system and his mortgage is not paid off in 5.2 years, United First Financial will give him a full refund for the cost of the system. That’s guaranteed. It’s a NO BRAINIER! You have nothing to lose except your debt!
If you could name how much money you would need to live a comfortable life today, how much do you need? Would a half million dollars a year be enough? How about a million a year or a million a month, maybe that would be enough to give you a comfortable life to live. Really,… how much would you need?
I’m not talking about wishes and dreams, I am talking about just giving you a comfortable living. No frills, just comfortable. Nice car, not luxury. Nice house, no swimming pools. Vacations, yes, and hobbies are part of a healthy comfortable life. Comfortable, not luxury is what we are talking about. How much do you need?
Say you could live this comfortable life on about 50,000 dollars a year, but you made 100,000 a year. What would you do with the excess? Pay your mortgage off? You could do that with the Money Merge Account program from United First Financial. Pay that mortgage off in one third to one half the time, and do it without refinancing, and without changing your monthly payment. Or you could help out those poor guys at AIG, who have to give all their bonus’ back.
But, all kidding aside, what if you gave the rest of your money away? Gave the other 50,000 dollars to charities, or maybe to someone that you know is struggling financially, or you could find someone who is unemployed and can’t make their mortgage payment, and might loose their home. Make a couple of payments for them, buy some groceries, pay their utilities. If we, who are doing better than those others, all chipped in, we could make a difference. Just think of the tax deduction you could have, and the nice check you would probably get back at tax time.
This is what makes America great. This is what makes us different from the fat cats in Washington, or the ones on Wall Street, or in Hollywood. They don’t know nor can they remember where they came from. I heard it said, ” know where your going, and plan for the future, but never forget where you came from. It’s not all the big stuff, it’s the little stuff, bit by bit, one piece at a time, that you put all together, makes America great.
America is built and runs on the backs of the little guys at the bottom. The small businesses, the home based businesses, the little guys that are keeping the oil burning. Sure, we need someone at the top making the calls and getting the orders, but the chasm between you and me and them is so wide, we live in two totally different worlds.
I think it is time, for those who can, to reach back and give a helping hand to the one behind you. It doesn’t take a lot. Just a little bit can go a long way.
I heard the stories from my parents and grand parents about the days of the great depression. How everybody chipped in to do their part. People helping people. Don’t wait for the government to help you. They will take your wallet out from your back pocket, take that ten dollar bill you had in there, and give two dollars back.
There is some of this starting to happen now. There is an Apartment Lease Company that is offering, two months of rent free, to anyone who is laid off. Hoping this gives you time to get back on your feet and you stay with them, but if you don’t, you walk away with no obligation to pay anything back. It is their way of reaching out to help those who are hurting right now. This is a perfect example to what I am talking about. Helping those who we can help.
Jesus said;
Luk 6:38 ” give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Mat 25:45 ” Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Bizpack, from United First Financial, is the first of it’s kind, to put into one package, all the tools that any business from home needs to operate smooth and in order, like a finely tuned machine.
My Father-in-law passed away about six weeks ago. About eighteen months before that, my mother-in-law passed away. It has been a rough road that my wife has been on for the last two years.
The estate trust is still not completely settled yet, but my wife and her brother have come to one conclusion. He does not want the house, and my wife does. So my wife has been going through all of their belongings, sorting, cleaning, and that is no easy task. My mother-in-law was a pack rat. She saved everything, as most people from the depression era, did. You never know when someone will need what you are about to throw out. A little of that has rubbed off on my wife, and needless to say, we have accumulated are own arsenal of goods, that my wife insists has some sort of value, weather monetarily or practically. This is a project that could go on for years. I have tried to be as supportive as I can. My philosophy is, if you haven’t used it in the last year, throw it away or give it to someone who can make good use out of it. But that’s another whole blog post.
Bob and Janice, ( my father-in-law and mother-in-law ), have a cat. Boots was twenty years old. He was losing his eye sight. He was losing his hearing. He was struggling to walk. His one leg was so bad that he didn’t even sit down all the way on it, and he had a kidney infection also. He was hurting.
We talked to the veterinarian that they used and he said that he talked to Bob about putting Boots down awhile ago, but to Bob, that was Janice’s’ cat, and he was not going to put him away for nothing. He would keep him alive as long as he could, no matter what the cost.
Boots was treated like royalty. He was given distilled water, and he always had a hearty appetite. Special pillows and blankets that belonged just for his use were placed where he liked them. When ever he wanted to take a nap on the bed or the couch, he would stand by it till someone would come rushing over to lift him up on it, and then they have to cover him with his blankets and put his pillows in place.
Because of Boots age or kidneys or a combination of both, he would sometimes go and relieve himself in the corners of a couple of the rooms. Needless to say, ooooh that smell was awful. I was over there trying to power scrub and clean those corners, but Boots would just go back and do it again and again. No one would ever do anything about it and no one would ever dare make the suggestion that Boots was ready to go to kitty cat heaven.
The first thing that had to happen, was the carpet had to be removed. All of it, and we even thought about replacing all the sub flooring also. But we learned that this might not be necessary.
We tried to soak the stained sub flooring with a strong, 10 to 1 ratio of bleach and water. Ten parts bleach to one part water. I would suggest a mask to wear over your nose and mouth and lots of ventilation. If the cat smell didn’t kill you, the bleach would. It was very strong. We left it to dry for a couple of days.
It did work to some degree, but there still was a faint smell of urine in the air. We were also told that in the hot muggy days of summer, the smell might return. This was not going to work. Something else had to work.
Next, we got some advice from a builder friend of ours and a friend who buys rental properties. He has come across this problem before, and they both recommended a sealer primer called Kilz. Not the latex brand, but the oil based one. We applied this to all of the rooms, and we put on a very heavy two coats.
Again, I suggest a mask and lots of ventilation, as the Kilz has a very strong oder itself. Also you want to use a heavy nap roller so that you can get into all the cracks and crevasses with the sealer.
A couple of days drying and the smell was gone. We were amazed. We invited lots of friends in to test their noses…. and no smell.
We continued are remodeling with some fresh paint on the walls and some rooms got the ceiling done as well. The carpet was laid and we don’t have any smell. No hint that a cat was even there at all. Nothing but new paint and carpet.
The real test will come when we bring our cat over to the new home. He is about five years old and has never been anywhere but in out house. He has never seen another cat. He is a male, and I know that they are very territorial. We hope that the smell of Boots will not be present, but we know that he is going to smell him in that house somewhere. Boots lived there for all of the twenty years of his life. We aren’t going to be able to get rid of all of his presence. We just hope that our cat won’t care and just go back to doing what he does best. That’s sleeping.
Most of us have been raised to think that we will always be strapped with a mortgage. After all, that is the American dream, isn’t it? To have a home that you can call your own. Raise a family in your own home, on the corner, with the white picket fence. Dog running in the yard. Sounds beautiful doesn’t it? Close your eyes, and you can just picture that scene on a warm summers day. But in reality, you don’t own your home until you pay it off. Until then, the bank owns your home.
Unfortunately that is not the case in our society today. I don’t know if you have noticed but people are losing their homes at a very rapid rate. 2.3 million homes received foreclosure filings in 2008. That’s up a whopping 81% from 2007. More children are moving back with their parents. Grand parents are staying at home, so they can help raise their grand kids. It is not a very pleasant scene.
Seeing a lot more of these around.
What is happening to the American dream? Are we ever going to see that dream fulfilled? Can you ever own your home free and clear?Remember, you don’t own your home until it is paid off. Until then, the bank owns your home, and you pay them interest, and lots of it.
On a 200,000 dollar mortgage at a 6% interest rate, for thirty years, you will end up paying the bank more than two and a half times what that home is worth. That’s why it will take you thirty years to pay your mortgage off. The loan is set up, so that all the interest is paid up front, where the bank can take their money out first before you ever really start paying on the principal. As a matter of fact, on this particular loan, they won’t even get to the half way mark on their amortization schedule, until year twenty one. Think about this now. Twenty one years of your life, paying the bank more then 300,000 dollars, of your hard earned money, and it has taken you twenty one years to get to the halfway mark on your thirty year mortgage. You will still owe them 100,000 dollars. The original mortgage loan was for 200,000 dollars. Twenty one years of your life, and more then 300,000 dollars of your money, before you get to the halfway point on your mortgage. How does that make you feel? Cheated? Used? I can see those banks making some money, but twenty one years, and I’m still looking at a balance of just under 100,000 dollars, that you still owe the bank.
And think, they were the ones who got bailout money from the government! You and me should have got the bailout money. But don’t get me started on this one. That is a whole another story.
Are we polishing the handles of a sinking ship?
Titanic. They said it couldn't sink.
Bailout?
I know what you could do! Refinance, and start the whole process all over again. Say you could get out about 50,000 dollars in equity from your home. What could you do with that money?
But wait a minute! The bank is saying that your home isn’t worth what it was when you purchased it. But maybe you could get some money, and you could start that whole process all over again from ground zero. Start paying the bank all that interest, again! They will love you for it. They will be more than willing to write you up to another long thirty year mortgage. Paying them all that interest again. They just got some money from the government to help them do that.
Take a look at your own amortization schedule. You got one when you signed for that mortgage. Most people don’t know what it is and probably never even looked at it. That’s been my experience. Look at how much money, of your monthly payment, is going to interest.
Albert Einstein said, ” Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. Those who understand it, earn it. Those who don’t, pay it.” The banks certainly understand it, and they earn lots of it, every day.
Let interest work for you, not the bank
Money never stops working. It doesn’t take a vacation. It works twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and banks know this and use your money to their advantage all the time. Banks use what they call sweep accounts. They sweep all of the money in your account and mine, at the close of the day. Invest our money, maybe for only ten to twelve hours, and then put it back for the start of the next business day. They make lots of money by using your money that way. Let me ask you a question? Have they ever paid you a dime in interest for using your money? Yes they have. You get 2% on a saving account don’t you? You may even get something back on your checking account also. Come on now. Don’t get greedy. They do pay you, but what they pay you is a drop in the bucket for what they make off your money and mine. That’s what their in the business for anyway. To make money. And they know how to put your money to work for them.
Interest is apart of our every day life. We can either have it working for you or against you.
If only there was a program that could utilize the same processes that the bank uses to make money, and set it up for me, so that I could take advantage of those processes and pay my principal down quickly and thus eliminating all that interest.
Well, there is such a program. It is called the Money Merge Account program from United First Financial. There have been products that have come down through the years, that have drastically changed our lives forever. The Money Merge Account program is just such a program.
This is going way back, but the light bulb is one. Where would we be today without the light bulb.
Edison and the light bulb
How about cell phones. If you would have told me that I can use my cell phone for the Internet, listen to music, and watch TV, I would have said you are crazy. Look at what we can do now.
Last year, 2008, the Money Merge Account program won the Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the year award for financial services from the Utah region.
Entrepreneur of the Year Award
United First Financial has a special edition of “Success Magazine” in February’s issue, devoted just to them.
The Financial community is discovering this new product, that is paying people’s debt off in a fraction of the time. Just think,….where would America be today, if none of us had a mortgage payment? I know one thing. We wouldn’t have the financial crisis that we’re all going through right now.
Quit paying the bank and become the bank. See how you can use the same strategy’s that the banks have used since the dawn of time, but use them to your advantage. Let your money start working for you, not the bank.
Get a free analysis of your finances today. See how soon before you could actually be totally debt free. Money Merge Account program from United First Financial. What do you have to lose except a mortgage and some debt.
Ever wonder about all the variations of sneezing that there is in the world today? There are loud sneezes, quiet sneezes, long sneezes, short sneezes, wet sneezes…whoooooo. There are about as many different sneezes as there are different types of snow flakes.
actual snowflake on the seat of a snowmobile
My brother is a big guy, but when he starts to reel back, puts his hand to his nose, starts the sneeze chant; ahhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh….. Chooooooooooo! Only thing is that his chooooooo is more like a ch, without the, ooooooooo, at the end. In other words, it is a small and quiet sneeze. For a big man, he has a little sneeze.
There was a girl that I used to go to school with, that would honk like a goose when she sneezed. What a disruption that caused in the classroom when she would get into a sneezing fit. Everyone would laugh so hard, that the teacher would have to ask her to go out into the hallway until she was done. That was so funny.
There are also the number of times that a person will sneeze. I always sneeze just twice. Maybe once in awhile, three times. There are people who can sneeze up to eighteen times in a row. There was a sneezing girl, reported in The New York Times, Jan. 29, 1899, that sneezed sometimes a hundred times in an hour. She sneezed for forty days until the doctors discovered a growth in her throat. After it was removed, her sneezing stopped. True story.
First, what causes sneezing? We sneeze because of an irritant or a tickling inside the nasal passages. When that happens, our brain sends a message to the area and orders a sudden and forceful burst of air expelled from the nose and mouth. Particles expelled during sneezing can leave the body at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. (Wow, that is fast.) It is the body’s way of removing those irritating intruders from our system and keeps things clear and flowing.
Sneezing can also be triggered by a sudden exposure to a bright light, a slightly full stomach, and sudden changes in the climate or temperatures. This is something that I can relate too. How many of you are sneezing after eating? Whenever I get done eating, and I go outside to the bright sunlight, or to a room where there is exposure to some bright light, I will always sneeze.
Ever feel a sneeze coming on and it just won’t come out. (I hate when that happens) Try looking at a bright light and see if you won’t sneeze. It works every time for me.
Does your heart really stop when you sneeze? My mom used to always tell me that, and I walked around, scared to death, (literally) to sneeze. Don’t tell your kids that, because it is not true. Sometimes we may feel like our heart is going to stop, but it doesn’t. Because of the pressure that it is creating in the chest area when we sneeze or cough, it may feel like our heart is going to stop.
Are sneezes ever life threatening? Yes, when you are driving. DON’T SNEEZE! There is a protective measure that the body does automatically when we sneeze. We, for a split second, squeeze our eyes closed when we sneeze. Who hasn’t sneezed when we are driving? The car may swerve just a tad, and we have to explain to the police officer, that just pulled us over, “no officer, I did not have anything to drink. I just sneezed.”
Oh yes. One more thing to always remember to do when you sneeze. Never get caught sneezing without COVERING YOUR MOUTH! There are thousands and thousands of tiny saliva droplets, or molecules, that just came from your mouth and are dispersed into the air. They may float around in the air for an hour. You can’t see them, but they are there, and you are spreading your germs to others around you. Think of others when you sneeze, and put your hand over your mouth.
What do Ford Motor Company, Hershey Chocolate, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Apple Computer have in common? They all started out as home based businesses. Over half of all businesses in the US today are based out of an owners home. Starting a top home based business has many challenges, and many rewards.
Home based businesses and franchises are becoming more common today, but beware. Some, ” work from home “, opportunities can be schemes to get your money. You need to do your homework first. Check with your Better Business Bureau to see if a company is legit, and what kind of track record they have. Don’t always trust a Google search. You can always get unreliable information from people who post on Google. Look at your source of information. Can I trust it? Who are they? Good, honest companies won’t mind you nosing around for information on them or their products. In fact they will encourage you to do that. Check us out. We don’t have anything to hide. United First Financial, whom I am an agent for, does exactly that. They are happy to answer any questions, and invite people to do their due diligence, and examine them and their track record.
If I wanted to look for a new doctor, I don’t think that I would trust a Google search to find a physician that I would want to place my families medical needs too. I would go to people who have used, or can recommend a reliable doctor that they have some knowledge of. Would you want to be going into surgery with a doctor that you found on Google? The same is true of a home based business. Find some people who know about the company and have used it’s product. When someone has used, or is using the product, that is the best resource you can find.
The Better Business Bureau has been a reputable source of information for businesses for many years. They keep records of any complaints, and if those complaints were addressed and closed, and how long it took them to settle any issue a client may have had using their product.
What kind of interaction does a company have with it’s agents after they are operating and promoting their home based business? Does the company say, ” thanks for jumping on board. Your on your own now.” A good company will have checks and balances to help you get started on the right foot, and a good base for training and help with any problems that you may have. After all, you are representing them.
Many companies are choosing to franchise out into home based businesses, because it gives them a lower overhead. It’s cheaper for them and it allows them to give a little bit bigger piece of the pie to you.
Turn your home into your business
It helps you because you can set up your hours of work. For the mother who has children, she sends them off to school, then goes back to her home to work. She can make appointments with clients that will benefit her needs and work around her schedule, and also the clients needs as well.
For the young hard working single person, they can go at it all day and all night if they want. As much as you put in, will be as much as you take out. Want a little extra cash each month as a part time job, or work your heart out and build an empire that will yield a very handsome paycheck each month? It’s really up to you. A home based business gives you all these opportunities. With the world economy the way it is, I think home based business will comprise a very large portion of how we do business in the future. We are there now.
I urge you. If you are laid off. If you are out of work or need some extra income each month. Look into a home based business. Look at what your needs are. Check out and study what kind of businesses are out there. Make some calls and talk to people who will help you and guide you into something that can be very beneficial for you and your families needs.
Remember these
New iphone
Who would have thought, just ten years ago, that we would have cell phones that can take videos and use the internet? How about Mary Kay? With three children to raise, and a motto for her new company of God first, family second, and career third, she grew a home based business into a multi- billion dollar company. Read her story. It is amazing.
Mary Kay Ash
Apple computer. On April fool’s day, 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, both college drop outs, released the Apple one computer. Started building computers in their garage in 1976. In 1995 the company has sales in excess of 11.5 billion dollars.
Milton Hershey started out as an apprentice to a chocolate maker. He opened a factory in Hershey, Pa. Today 80 million Hershey Kisses are made every day, and the company has net sales of 4 billion dollars a year.
80 million Hershey Kisses are made each day.
Then there is Ford Motor company. A company that I worked at for thirty five years. Started in a small shop, the company is the third largest producers of automobiles in the world.
Henry Ford's first shop
The way companies do business is changing, and we need to change as well. The days of working nine to five jobs, might not be as plentiful as it once was.
Considering a home based business? Consider the Money Merge Account program from United First Financial. Get yourself back on the financial track. Get out of debt? Yes you can! In a fraction of the time it would take you, without refinancing, and without changing any of your payments. Discover what the Money Merge Acount program can do for you, and what a great home based business with a reputable company it is.
Good luck and I hope you find the right home based business that fits your needs, and helps you prosper financially.
Christmas is my time of year. Christmas thoughts of times past.
I love the winter months of November and December. I know, I know, that may seem weird to a lot of people. All I hear at this time of year from just about everybody is, “It’s so cold, I wish we were in Florida or California were it’s warm and sunny.”
I love winters in Michigan.
I think of ice skating in the open air rinks. Taking a rest inside a log cabin where there is a warm fire, sipping on a cup of hot chocolate, and listening to a guy playing his guitar and singing some Christmas carols.
I think of playing hockey with the guys at an outside rink, that we made.
Sledding down a hill and falling off the sled as you slide all the way down in the snow. Laughter and fun times with friends and family.
I think of trudging out to the woods and finding just the right tree. Cutting it down, dragging it back to the truck, taking it home and trimming it before we put it up in the living room window. Wow, I still remember how beautiful it looked after it was all decorated with lights and lots of old and homemade ornaments. And the wonderful smell of the fresh pine scent that filled the whole room.
Not being able to get to sleep on Christmas eve. Thoughts of Christmas presents under the tree as my brother and I, laying in our bunk beds, and talking for hours until we finally and slowly drifted off to sleep. And than killing ourselves as we rushed down the hallway to see what waited for us under the tree.
My wife and I watched the movie, ” The Grinch that stole Christmas”, the other night. The one part that stuck in my head from the movie was when after the Grinch had stolen all the presents, and all the things that represented what we all think today, means Christmas, he stopped and listened from the top of the snowy mountain that he called home, and instead of hearing kids crying and people wailing away from the loss of all the things that were stolen, he heard something very different. He heard singing, and people coming all together and even though they didn’t have their things, they were still celebrating Christmas. Holding hands and singing around the Christmas tree.
The Grinch stood there in amazement and silence. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing! As the snow continued to fall all around him, he thought, ” I guess I didn’t steal Christmas after all. Christmas isn’t in the things that we spend our money on, that we buy in stores. Christmas is in your heart. It comes from within. Than an amazing thing happened. The Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day.
That to me, was the best part of the whole movie. That was the theme of the movie. Our society puts so much on presents and getting things, that we really miss the true, and real meaning of what Christmas is about. We have lost that over time, and over years of rushing and going as fast as we can to achieve and preserve what we have worked for, and for what we want and for what we can get. We, we, we. I me my. That is what we have turned into.
It’s about giving not getting. It’s about letting someone else go first instead of me pushing my way to the front. It’s about not having to pay all of those after Christmas bills, with the help of United First Financial.
” For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. God loved, so He gave. What do you love? That’s what you will put first in your life. Whatever you love comes first. It’s human nature.
Well anyway, those are my thoughts about Christmas. What are yours? What thoughts scurry through your mind when you think about Christmas?
Give to someone. Help someone and see if your heart might not grow a couple of sizes too.
Let me know what you think. I really would like to know. I want to see how many thoughts from Christmas you all can accumulate and post.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields
and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so
extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil
war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to
invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has
been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly
contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth
and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not
arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our
settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded
even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding
the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country,
rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor
hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most
High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered
mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I
do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who
are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the
ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable
civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of
the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be
consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and
Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States
to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the
Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
