As we approach America’s 250th birthday, I find myself wrestling with a question that keeps me awake: What kind of country will my children inherit?
Not the physical country, the buildings, highways, and amber waves of grain. I’m talking about something deeper. The idea of America. The soul of this nation that millions have died to preserve and that billions still dream about.
If you’re reading this, you probably feel it too. You love your country despite her flaws. You want your children to experience the freedom you’ve had, but something precious feels like it’s slipping away. You believe in Jesus Christ, or you’re at least curious about Him, because deep down, you know that without a spiritual foundation, all our freedoms are built on sand.
You’re right.
The Battle We’re Actually Fighting
Here’s a truth our culture desperately wants us to ignore: We are in a spiritual battle. Not a metaphor. Not hyperbole. This is the fundamental reality of human existence, darkness versus light, evil versus good, the accuser versus the advocate.
When a people’s culture is under attack, their character is under attack. When character is under attack, hearts are under attack. And when hearts change, everything changes.
American culture is under attack from within. Not by foreign armies, but by a slow erosion of the very ideas that made this nation a beacon of hope.
The remedy isn’t political. It begins with truth, the kind our public education system has largely abandoned when teaching American history.
What the Founders Knew That We’ve Forgotten
I’ve been spending time with the documents that shaped our republic: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, Common Sense, The Federalist Papers. And I’ve discovered something remarkable.
Our founders weren’t perfect. They had glaring blind spots and moral failures we must acknowledge. But they possessed something we desperately need: They were devoted students of history.
Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, writing as “Publius” in The Federalist Papers, reflected deeply on how governments had operated throughout centuries. They studied why societies flourished or collapsed into tyranny. They understood you cannot know yourself, much less govern yourself, without grasping the work that came before you.
How can we chart our future if we don’t understand how we got here?
Three Truths the Founders Understood
- History is our teacher. The Founders drew lessons from past cultures and governing systems across centuries. This wisdom enabled them to design a constitutional order resilient enough to safeguard liberty while enabling effective governance.
- Rights come from God, not government. This was revolutionary. For thousands of years, kings granted rights to subjects. The Founders flipped this entirely. Government doesn’t give us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God does. Government exists only to protect what God already gave. Yes, they applied this truth inconsistently. This moral failure haunts our history. But their struggle in the name of God-given rights set our nation on a course of expanding freedom that has blessed not just America but the entire world.
- Human nature is flawed, and that’s why freedom matters. The Founders understood what modern culture denies: Humans are fallen creatures capable of both nobility and depravity. In Federalist No. 10, Madison wrote that “liberty is to faction what air is to fire.” He knew freedom would inevitably lead to disagreement and division. But here’s the crucial insight: The solution to division isn’t removing freedom. Disagreement and dissent aren’t bugs in the American system. They’re features. They’re the natural result of free people exercising God-given rights.
Why This Matters for Your Family
If you’re a parent, this isn’t academic. This is about the world your children will inherit.
Your children are growing up in a culture that tells them America is fundamentally evil, that our history is only oppression, that the American experiment was a mistake. This isn’t just wrong. It’s spiritually dangerous. It feeds the darkness. It empowers the accuser.
There’s a story about two wolves battling within our minds. One represents evil, accusation, shame, and despair. The other represents good, advocacy, hope, and truth. The wolf that wins is the one you feed.
When we teach our children to see only America’s failures, we feed the wolf of accusation. We train them to look at themselves, their neighbors, and their nation with eyes of darkness. Evil travels. It spreads. Accuse yourself. Accuse your neighbor. Get your neighbor to accuse someone else, and the dominoes of darkness keep falling.
But when we teach the full truth, the failures and triumphs, the sins and redemption, the flaws and the unparalleled success of a government designed to let humans freely seek God’s will, we feed the wolf of advocacy. We train our children to see the best in themselves, their neighbors, and their nation. And good spreads too.
The advocate reminds us we are God’s creation, fundamentally lovable and good. And if we are lovable, so is our neighbor. This is the foundation of genuine neighborly love.
The Path Forward: Learn America’s Story
So how do we fight this spiritual battle for our children’s hearts and minds?
We become students of history again.
This year marks America’s 250th birthday. What better time to dive deep into the ideas, struggles, and victories that brought us here?
I’m not suggesting blind patriotism. I’m suggesting informed patriotism, the kind that holds truth and love in tension, that acknowledges America’s sins while celebrating her unparalleled success in creating a system where humans can freely seek God’s call.
One excellent place to start is Hillsdale College’s free online courses. They offer comprehensive courses on American history, the Constitution, the Founding principles, and the great texts that shaped our nation. These are serious academic courses taught by scholars who love both truth and America.
Explore their offerings at Hillsdale College Online Courses.
Imagine sitting with your children working through these courses together. Imagine dinner table conversations about federalism, natural rights, separation of powers. Imagine your kids understanding why America is different, why millions still risk everything to come here, why this experiment in ordered liberty has succeeded.
The Spiritual Foundation of Freedom
Here’s what I keep coming back to: None of this works without God.
The American experiment is built on the radical idea that our rights come from our Creator. Remove that foundation, and everything collapses. If government grants our rights, government can take them away.
But if our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come from God Himself, woven into the fabric of creation, then no government, no majority, no tyrant can legitimately take them away.
This is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is inseparable from the American story. This is why the spiritual battle matters. The enemy knows that if he can separate Americans from their spiritual roots, the entire tree will die.
Jesus said we would know the truth, and the truth would set us free. But you can’t be set free by truth you don’t know. You can’t defend freedom you don’t understand. You can’t pass on to your children an inheritance you’ve never claimed.
Your Sacred Responsibility
Learning American history is not just a civic duty. It’s a spiritual responsibility.
Your children are watching. They’re learning what you value by what you invest in. If you invest in understanding America’s story, your children will inherit more than knowledge. They’ll inherit a mission.
They’ll understand they’re part of something bigger, a grand experiment in human freedom that began 250 years ago and continues today. They’ll see themselves as links in a chain connecting us to our forebears and generations yet unborn.
Most importantly, they’ll understand that true freedom, the freedom to seek God’s will, to love their neighbor, to pursue happiness, is a precious gift that must be protected, nurtured, and passed on.
The Time Is Now
The hour is late, but it’s not too late.
We can still turn the tide. We can still fight the spiritual battle for truth. We can still raise a generation that understands and cherishes what America represents.
But it starts with you. It starts with choosing to feed the wolf of advocacy instead of accusation. It starts with becoming students of history. It starts with accepting that God is the source of our natural rights and government exists only to protect them.
This isn’t just about politics or policy. This is about the eternal battle between darkness and light, and recognizing we get to choose which side we’re on.
So, this year, on America’s 250th birthday, I challenge you: Learn her story. Teach your children. Engage with the ideas that made this nation possible. Understand what we’ve inherited so you can faithfully pass it on.
Our children deserve nothing less. Our country needs nothing more.
Let’s get to work.
Start your journey into American history today with Hillsdale College’s free online courses. Your children, and your country, will thank you.
MindWolves 