The 4th of July celebrates and honors the birth of the United States. It is the day we celebrate our freedoms as well as honoring all those in our history who have gone before us to ensure that freedom. It marks a unique day for celebrating a personal union and can make a great day to get married for the couple who embraces history or a patriotic theme.
I know a number of military families that married on or around July 4 because of the deep meaning it has. Patriotism has a very personal meaning for everyone and for our military forces it has a meaning beyond just honoring the red, white and blue and singing the Star Spangled Banner at a ball game. It is a personal oath to protect and defend the very freedoms celebrated on July 4th.
A More Perfect Union
The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are the bedrock documents that outline the free society our forefathers wanted to form in direct rebellion of the Monarchy of Great Britain that they felt ignored their needs and failed to allow them representation. What better documents to incorporate into forming a more perfect union between a husband and a wife?
While couples marrying are not declaring their freedom from tyranny, they are seeking to create a more perfect union that supports, defends and adds layers of meaning to their lives. A wedding on the 4th of July might incorporate the following readings taken as excerpts from the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as they celebrate their marriage:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Were you married or have you attended a wedding on the 4th of July?
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